Professional sports can be a very weird world sometimes. There are teams such as the Lakers and Yankees that have a total of 43 championships between the two of them. That’s as many wins as the Cleveland Browns have earned (…or at least finished with) over the past 8 seasons. Thing is, the Browns weren’t always terrible. In fact, they’ve even won 8 championships as an organization; all of which were won prior to Barry Bonds and José Canseco even being born (I’m sorry, I know the rest of the world was hoping we would never speak of those names ever again); which is probably why no one remembers. The point is, some teams are terrible now, but have at one point or another shown flashes of brilliance. With that, I was trying to think of what organization is as guilty as any for accomplishing such a fall from grace and flat on their face. I had to double check and make sure they were still playing at the big league level because I had assumed they would have been dropped to high rookie ball by now, but yes ladies and gentleman, the Florida…I mean Miami Marlins…are still a professional ball club.
Once upon a time, the Marlins had won not one; but TWO World Series. To be fair though, the 2003 World Series was probably a greater win than the 1997 World Series because Wayne Huizenga didn’t buy that championship. Since then, the Fish have been little more than a flop. Personally, I don’t think it’s fair that an art dealer that grew up cheering for the Yankees had to be the one to go out and purchase the Marlins. He’s responsible for changing the name of the ball club, strapping nearly $2.4 billion in debt to Miami-Dade County, and worst of all, changing the Marlins logo to one of the most hideous logos in professional sports. Do you really think it’s a coincidence that José Reyes only spent one season playing in Miami? Of course these guys aren’t going to take as much pride in winning, I would be embarrassed to play in those jerseys day in and day out too. Back to my point though, it must be difficult and at times unfair to call yourself a fan of this club when year in and year out they build up talent and then hold a fire sale. You look around the league and see names like Josh Beckett, Hanley Ramirez, Aníbal Sánchez, Josh Johnson, and Dan Uggla (Juan Pierre came back while Luis Castillo and Carlos Delgado had to retire on me); only to be reminded what the Marlins once had in their possession. I know you could probably make the same type of comparison to any organization in professional sports. But the thing is, the only owner that has historically had less of an interest in winning than Marlins ownership over the past decade is that Donald Sterling guy in L.A. In the meantime, you have your Panthers…just kidding! But really, I meant the Dolphins (sorry, bad joke again). Seriously, the Miami Heat are your only opportunity to watch a professional franchise in South Florida with any real success lately. Hang in there Marlins fans, maybe one day you’ll take a page out of the Clippers 2012 playbook and be back to your winning ways. In the meantime, one thing you get to compete for with the Tampa Bay Rays year in and year out is the lowest attendance record in Major League Baseball. Congratulations, you have something to brag about.
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