Jeffrey Loria, a self-promoting international art dealer, was intensely disliked in Montreal when he owned the Expos. He used to complain to me about the cartoonish portrayals of him in the city’s newspapers that he said were anti-Semitic. They probably were.
There was, however, nothing anti-Semitic about the intense dislike for him when he sold the Marlins and left Miami in 2017 with the entire sale proceeds of $1.2 billion, claiming he had made no profits and therefore owed the city and the county nothing under terms of their contracts for the construction of the team’s new park.
I’m not a lawyer so I don’t know whether Loria owed any money for the stadium, but I don’t need a law degree to know a bad dude when I see one, and Loria was a bad dude. Baseball only gained when Loria and his equally disliked stepson David Samson (the team’s president) left baseball.
On the other Florida coast, meanwhile, a different scourge was undermining baseball. In 1984, Tampa and St. Petersburg, adjacent and jealous cities, were competing for a major league franchise. None was available, but the prospect was growing that Major League Baseball would soon expand.
Peter Ueberroth was the commissioner, and he publicly warned prospective sites not to get ahead of an M.L.B. decision and build a stadium. However, St. Petersburg officials, couldn’t restrain themselves. They ignored Ueberroth, built what is now known as Tropicana Field, and invited major league owners to make one of the worst mistakes they have ever made.
Faced with the reality of a new ballpark sitting empty in St. Petersburg, the owners awarded an expansion franchise to that eager city, and that’s why Commissioner Rob Manfred is now talking about creating the team that could be known as the ExRays.
With “Ex” for Expos and “Rays” for Rays, the name tells you what M.L.B.’s executive council had in mind when it gave Stuart Sternberg, the Rays’ principal owner, permission to pursue a solution to the team’s attendance problem by sharing the franchise. The team would play half its season in St. Petersburg and half in Montreal, which hasn’t had a team since the Expos left for Washington following the 2004 season.
Montreal was an expansion city in 1969 and was used in 2002 by then Commissioner Bud Selig to threaten contraction, along with Minnesota. But that threat turned out to be a ploy in labor negotiations with the players.
Based on comments from some St. Petersburg officials, they suspect the Montreal suggestion could be a ploy intended to induce those officials to relax their stand on their deal with the Rays, who are contractually tied to Tropicana Field through the 2027 season.
But owner Sternberg said in a statement, “My priority remains the same. I am committed to keeping baseball in Tampa Bay for generations to come. I believe this concept is worthy of serious exploration.”
But is half a team better than none? Under this new idea, which Manfred said is for exploratory purposes only, the Rays would play 40 or 41 games in St. Petersburg and 40 or 41 games in Montreal. In the earlier part of the season, they would play in the warmer, dryer climate of St. Pete, then play the other home games in Montreal.
However, the Tampa Bay Times quoted the mayor of St. Petersburg, Rick Kriseman, as saying: “The Rays cannot explore playing any Major League Baseball games in Montreal or anywhere else for that matter prior to 2028, without reaching a formal memorandum of understanding with the City of St. Petersburg. Ultimately, such a decision is up to me. And I have no intention of bringing this latest idea to our city council to consider. In fact, I believe this is getting a bit silly.”
I agree, but I think it has become more than a bit silly. How about a lot silly?
Manfred and the executive council are seeking the easiest and most expedient way of solving their problem. Their solution apparently doesn’t have to make sense. But they haven’t liked my solution either.
At least three times since 2001 I have addressed the matter of the Florida teams, both the Rays and the Marlins. Each time I have come to the same conclusion and suggestion. The only solution to the major leagues’ Florida problem is a drastic one but one that would end the problem forever.
Look at the attendance of the Rays and the Marlins, and it’s easy to see fans don’t want to see the Rays and the Marlins play baseball.
This season Tampa Bay and Miami rank 29th and 30th in major league attendance. That’s how they finished last season when the Marlins didn’t draw even 850,000 fans. It’s not much of a tribute to Derek Jeter, the Marlins’ young chief executive officer, who is in his second season operating the team for Bruce Sherman.
Life with the Marlins has not gone the way Sherman and Jeter thought it would. They paid Loria an astounding $1.2 billion because legal gambling was on its way to baseball, as well as the other sports, and everyone anticipated new sources of revenue. The new revenue, however, has not begun flowing.