• RT @LoMoMarlins: Thank you Miami! @BuzzeronFOX.

    If you’re reading this, I have already been traded …

    Doesn’t have the same effect when it’s not Morgan Freeman reading it in your head and it’s not life and death. Either way, this is the most difficult thing I have ever had to write, but I owe it to myself and the fans to try.

    I have been a Marlin since they signed me in 2006. I’ve been going to the same back fields in Jupiter, Fla., since I was 18 years old! The people who’ve helped me become a man, both on and off the field, are employed mostly by the Marlins. I hope those people know who they are because otherwise this thank you will fall on deaf ears. I am forever in your debt!

    Contrary to public opinion, owner Jeffery Loria has been great and generous to my family in our greatest time of need. He let us use his plane to go to my father’s funeral in Kansas City. Then (president of baseball operations) Mike Hill, (general manager) Dan Jennings and (president) David Samson attended the funeral. Obviously, they didn’t have to do that. So, a special thank you to them as well.

    Now, for the men I had the absolute pleasure of competing with day in day out: from Dan Uggla and Cody Ross, who taught me how to play in the big league, to my closest friends Scott Cousins, Bryan Petersen, Giancarlo Stanton, Ricky Nolasco and Gregg Dobbs. There are many others who have helped me immensely along the way, but I would get carpal tunnel if I mentioned all of them. I named these guys because it adds weight to how much they mean to me.

    I feel sad, because I won’t be able to compete with Giancarlo (I still call him Mike in real life). I won’t get to talk to (Marlins special assistant to the president and MLB Hall of Famer) Andre Dawson in the clubhouse. I won’t be able to laugh and joke with David Samson before batting practice.

    Lastly, I want to mention the fans who stuck with me and the team through thick and thin.

    I will miss the M-O-R-R-I-S-O-N chant, the screaming for autographs as we leave the stadium, the people who open the doors for us in and out of the stadium and clubhouse, the PR people, community foundation and the clubhouse attendants who make it so easy for us to go out and play every day.

    I want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart. You have meant so much to this boy turned man.

    As I read back over this, I realize that I am pretty terrible at writing about serious stuff. Sorry for wasting your time!

  • LINK
  • News