TBL: It’s Time To Kick Loria Out Of Baseball

by: Mauricio Rubio Jr.

email: mr@99sportsproblems.com
twitter: @MRubio52

“I’m hoping we can get this thing moving along. I’m hoping to re-energize (South Florida elected officials). We all have to get together to make this thing happen — everybody who wants to save baseball in South Florida.”

-Jeffery Loria

Jose Reyes, Emilio Bonafacio, Hanley Ramirez, Giancarlo Stanton, Logan Morrison, Gaby Sanchez, Omar Infante, John Buck, Josh Johnson. That was the 2012 Opening Day lineup for the Miami Marlins. The same Miami Marlins that went on a spending spree that winter, acquiring Heath Bell, Mark Buehrle, and Jose Reyes. Those Marlins fooled the city of Miami, Miami Dade County, and the state of Florida to invest in a brand new ballpark as a new era of competitive baseball in South Florida was about to begin.

At least that’s what Jeffery Loria told everybody who would listen. He was fucking lying.

Look, we shouldn’t be surprised. This is the same franchise that sold off their best players following a World Series win in 1997. This is the same piece of shit owner that played hard ball with the Expos, sold them to MLB under conspicuous terms, bought the Marlins in a sketchy deal right afterwards, and proceeded to build a World Series Winner…

…And then sold off the pieces again in 2005.

12/5/11: “The owner, Jeffrey Loria, he really wants to win,” [Heath] Bell said. “I heard great things about the ownership there.”

 -@joe_sheehan

 

In an ideal world the Marlins would be contracted. It’s pretty clear that Florida cannot support a Major League Baseball team. They’ve had several chances to enjoy a great Tampa Bay  franchise and they drag ass in the attendance standings. They don’t go to Marlins games. They don’t care about MLB baseball.

The Marlins are a mockery. Heading into the year they were riding high on hype. They sold the baseball viewing public on the acquisitions of high-priced talent and then starting selling that talent midstream. Hanley Ramirez is a Dodger. Mark Buehrle, Josh Johnson, and Jose Reyes are about to become Blue Jays. In return the Marlins will get cheap talent and try to sell Miami on a rebuilding plan that might pay off in a few years.

That’s what 508.8 MM will get you, Miami, a half-assed promise of being good in a few years only to watch the owner rinse and repeat.

There’s a strong possibility that it will too, but to what end? So that the talent that becomes great in 2016 gets traded in 2017? Usually a rebuilding plan has a model of sustainable success as it’s centerpiece. The Marlins plan usually ends in another fire sale, not an extended period of competition. I mean at this point MLB has more than enough teams. You can contract two and be perfectly fine.

That won’t happen though.

In a slightly less ideal world the Marlins would move out of Florida and into another market that at least has a chance at sustaining attendance numbers. Florida baseball doesn’t draw. It’s embarrassing. Maybe this would be a great opportunity to expand to San Juan Puerto Rico. Maybe you get crazy and go to New Orleans. I mean at this point so long as the Marlins are not in Florida I can live with it.

That won’t happen either.

All of what Loria has done, from the shady deals to extorting the city out of money, makes him a baseball villain. He is well on his way to surpassing Hal Chase as the biggest villain in baseball history. It is grounds for dismissal from baseball. He is a fucking joke. He is Rachel Phelps. It’s time to remove him as an owner because he’s embarrassing the brand.

Unfortunately, that probably won’t happen either.

[youtube http://youtu.be/fof40yqaW1U]