Throughout their history, the Florida Marlins have been an enigma. They somehow won two World Series – 1997 and 2003 – despite beginning life as an expansion team in 1993. But then they promptly decimated those teams rather than pay the price with increased payrolls. Two different owners – H. Wayne Huizenga and Jeffrey Loria – took turns shattering the hopes and dreams of their fans with their crass, cold-hearted acts of self-immolation and doing what they could to destroy fan interest in the team.
Two years less one month ago the Marlins, under Loria, suffered the ignominy of being the first team in Major League Baseball history to invite joint condemnation from M.L.B. and the Major League Baseball Players Association for cheating economically. When both management and the union agree on something like that, you know the Marlins were doing something bad.
It came as no surprise to baseball people because they knew the type of owner Loria was and the methods of operations he employed. This was not the most trustworthy and honorable businessman who ever owned a baseball team. But then Loria wasn’t exactly a businessman. He was a dealer in international art, and that business has known its questionable practitioners.
On Jan. 12, 2010, M.L.B. and its union issued a joint news release. It referred to the Marlins’ “compliance with revenue sharing provisions” of the labor agreement between the two sides. Baseball officials agreed to join in that statement rather than have the union file a grievance they knew they would lose. The guilty Marlins were forced to join in the announcement.
The statement began:
“The Basic Agreement,” the statement began, “requires that each Club use its revenue sharing receipts in an effort to improve its performance on the field. This requirement is of obvious importance to all players, Clubs and fans of the game. In recent years, the Union has had concerns that certain Clubs have not lived up to this requirement, and has consulted regularly with the Commissioner’s Office about those concerns. The Florida Marlins are one of a number of Clubs that have been discussed.
“After extensive discussions, the three parties are pleased to announce that they have reached an agreement regarding the Florida Marlins’ continued compliance” with the agreement.
Michael Weiner, the union’s executive director, said:
“In response to our concerns that revenue sharing proceeds have not been used as required, the Marlins have assured the Union and the Commissioner’s Office that they plan to use such proceeds to increase player payroll annually as they move toward the opening of their new ballpark. Today’s agreement, which covers the period 2010 through 2012, calls for ongoing communication among the Marlins, the Commissioner’s Office and the Union as the Marlins proceed with that plan.”
The statement also included a denial from David Samson, the Marlins’ president and son of Loria’s ex-wife, that the club had violated the revenue-sharing agreement, but what else would you expect him to say when he and Loria got their hands caught in the cookie jar, not taking money out but putting money in for their own use when it should have been spent on players’ salaries.
Wealthier clubs like the Yankees found it difficult enough to turn over their revenue to poorer clubs without the recipients pocketing the money instead of spending it to improve their teams. But that’s what the Marlins were doing as they perennially had one of the majors’ lowest payrolls.
In the five-year period 2006-2010, the Marlins ranked last in payrolls three times, next-to-last once and 28th once. Their No. 28 ranking came in the first year of their agreement with the union and M.L.B. Even this year they were still only 25th.
Suddenly, however a new edifice bloomed in Miami, and the Marlins were prepared to spend lavishly. They tried but failed to snatch Albert Pujols off the free-agent market but signed three other free agents – Jose Reyes (6 years, $106 million), Mark Buehrle (4 years, $58 million) and Heath Bell (3 years, $27 million). They might have snared Pujols, too, except their 10-year offer included too much deferred compensation without interest that put it well below the nothing-deferred $254 million the winning Angels offered.
Neither Loria nor Samson returned telephone calls in which I wanted to explore their rags-to-riches alteration, but their failure to respond was not surprising. They are among the most arrogant people in baseball, and when I was asking other officials earlier this year about Jeff Wilpon of the Mets, I learned that the only club official more disliked and less respected among their peers was Samson.
As impressive as the Marlins’ moves have been this winter, they have to make one more to extricate themselves from a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into the sale of nearly $500 million in bonds for their new park and campaign contributions the Marlins supposedly made to state and local officials.
State and local officials were instrumental in the approval of 80 percent of the construction costs for the new park and parking garages, which came after the Marlins struggled for years to induce county and city officials to vote for the funds.
The Marlins said they were cooperating with the SEC probe and, of course, denied any wrongdoing, just as they did in baseball’s revenue-sharing matter, in which they were clearly guilty of wrongdoing, no matter Samson’s denial.
Now that they have a new playground, though, the Marlins need to attract fans to demonstrate that it was their old antiquated park that kept fans away and not the fans’ disappointment in the owners’ disdain for them.
The Marlins have consistently attracted the smallest attendance in the National League and close to the smallest in the majors. Last season their 1,520,562 total was last in the National and 29th in the majors.
Teams always draw well in the first year of a new park because of the curiosity effect, then fall off in subsequent seasons if they don’t have a competitive team. With the Marlins, though, they have to prove they are a viable attraction even in the first season.
That’s why the Marlins pursued Pujols, Reye, Buehrle and Bell, figuring they would have a more attractive team and planning to pay them with increased revenue from increased attendance. It will take a hefty increase in attendance, though, to pay an additional $191 million over the next three to six years.
Despite those 1997 and 2003 World Series triumphs, the fans have been at the mercy of Marlins ownership. It is only fair now that the Marlins are at the mercy of their fans.