ShareThisHey South Florida baseball fans, have you checked the standings?
Have you noticed that the Florida Marlins, despite operating with the smallest payroll in the major leagues and no real crowd support, are back in the playoff chase? Have you gotten emotionally caught up in the wonderful way this gritty bunch keeps defying the odds, overcoming its shortcomings and playing better baseball than anyone has a right to expect? The numbers say you haven't.
The numbers say you don't care enough to give these feisty players the support they need, the backing they deserve, the passionate embrace that could push them to another championship.
And for a fun-to-watch team in playoff contention, the numbers -- a $37 million payroll and a National League-worst average attendance of 18,215 -- ought to be an embarrassment.
To Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria.
To those baseball fans all across South Florida.
Loria refuses to spend the money necessary to help his over-achieving team catch the frontrunners in the NL East and NL wild-card races. South Florida refuses to spend the money it costs to go to the ballpark and give their team something resembling a home-field advantage.
Instead, both the owner and the fan base treat the Marlins as nothing more than a profitable and entertaining reality TV show that draws strong ratings during the usually slow summer months.
And that's shameful.
Either the Marlins are a solid, big-market franchise -- and, most years, a legitimate playoff contender -- or they're not.
Either South Florida is a major league market or it isn't.
Either way, it's time to step up or walk away.
Fact is, the Marlins have been around since 1993. They've won two World Series. They've got an on-field history and championship pedigree that is the envy of owners and fans in more than a few other markets.
This season, they've got another exciting and intriguing collection of talented young players, including a bona fide superstar in shortstop Hanley Ramirez and blossoming pitching ace in Josh Johnson.
So why, then, does everyone -- and by "everyone" I mean Loria and the fans -- continue to think of the Marlins as a Cinderella-like, small-market expansion team that competes hard against its big-city, big-money rivals but really isn't expected to win? That's certainly not the way the Miami Dolphins owner and South Florida football fans think of the region's NFL team. The expectations are higher. The demands are greater. Anything less than a total commitment to winning is unacceptable.
And, yet, the Dolphins haven't been to the Super Bowl in 25 years, haven't won one since the 1973 season. Why are the expectations, demands and commitment so vastly different for the Marlins, who won the World Series in 1997 and 2003? Why are the two South Florida franchises perceived so differently? The stadium isn't the problem, and the new ballpark won't be the answer.
The owner must spend whatever it takes, annually, to field a playoff-caliber team. The fans must show up in numbers to make the owner's investment worthwhile.
Both need to act as if South Florida is a big-time, big-league baseball market.
Check the standings.
The Marlins belong.
(Ray McNulty is sports columnist for Scripps Treasure Coast (Fla.) Newspapers, The Stuart News, Fort Pierce Tribune and Vero Beach Press Journal. Contact him at ray.mcnulty(at)scripps.com or on the Web at www.tcpalm.com.)
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