THIS COLUMN HAS NO HEADLINE (NOR DOES IT HAVE ANY PICTURES)
BY John Doyle, sportswriter2b.com
My wife and I recently enjoyed a night at the (foot)ballyard, Miami's Pro Player Stadium, on Saturday, April 24, 2003.
The Marlins won, 7-4, and by virtue of the home team's twelve hits, every fan got a free dozen Krispy Kreme Donuts. It was the nineteenth different stadium I had seen a Major League Baseball game in (the others are Fenway, Yankee Stadium, Oakland Alameda County Coliseum, Cleveland Municipal Stadium, Tiger Stadium, Old Comiskey Park, Baltimore Memorial Stadium, Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Milwaukee County Stadium, Busch Stadium, Wrigley Field, New Comiskey Park, Coors Field, Edison International Field, Dodger Stadium, Montreal Olympic Stadium, Kauffman Stadium and Bank One Ballpark).
Those of you waiting for another diatribe by a stuck-up baseball fan from the Northeast, chomping at the bit to tear down baseball fans of South Florida with an all-too typical "we know baseball, everyone else doesn't" screed, sorry to disappoint. Let us just get this out of the way first: it ain't Fenway. Nothing is. It's a football stadium, for crying out loud. It was designed in the 80s by some yahoo who clearly ODed on Vitamin C. You cannot see a skyline or ocean view from your seat. It completely and totally lacks anything that resembles "charm." Don't worry, New Englanders, Fenway controls the market on "charm." All right?
That said, we had a great time. Right off the Florida Turnpike, we were able to drive right into the parking lot (for ten bucks), find a space, and walk directly to the stadium in about three minutes. The tickets were twelve bucks each. The seats were good. The baseball was good. The beer was cold (but the rest of the concessions were awful.) Marisol pointed out that the fans at Pro Player were noticeably less knowledgeable than a typical Fenway crowd, but they were having fun and enjoying the game. It is amazing what two World Championships in eleven seasons can do to a fan base, no?
The Florida Marlins came into the league the same year as the Colorado Rockies. Both teams started out playing in their respective cities' NFL stadiums. The Rockies built their own ballpark and moved their within two seasons. The Marlins have slugged it out for twelve seasons now at good ol' Pro Player (nee Joe Robbie) Stadium. Former Marlins owner Wayne Huizinga (whose house we saw from a tour boat in Fort Lauderdale--swoon!), who owns the stadium, has the Marlins by the b*lls in a lease that makes it virtually impossible for the franchise to field a team that can be competitive over the long term. Despite having won the World Series twice (in 1997 and last year), the Marlins, without their own stadium, are poster boys for what is wrong with the economics of Major League Baseball in the 21st century, while the Rockies, in shiny, (relatively) new Coors Field, continue to draw huge crowds and rake in far more revenue. This is in spite of the fact that the Rockies, who have never seriously contended for a title, are quickly becoming the Chicago Cubs of the West.
It's sad, really. While (again) I love Fenway's history and charm (and of course the team that plays there), you have to wonder if fans of the Marlins have it slightly better. Aside from that deal about fielding a competitive team that has, you know, actually won the whole ball of wax on not one but two occasions in the last seven seasons, go ahead and throw in reasonably priced tickets that are virtually always available and a stadium that is easily accessible and easy to find parking at. When it comes down to it, Fenway's an outdated dump of a ballpark that is always crowded, never comfortable and a pain in the *ss to get to. And, unlike in Florida, the Red Sox do not give away a dozen donuts to each fan if the home team gets twelve hits in the game (the Marlins did, and the donuts were delicious).
Such sacrilege!
*****The Sports Writer to Be (name to change soon) was featured in a national sports column today. No big whoop, but if you're interested,
here it is. It was in response to Dan Wetzel's column about the death of the NHL, which I linked to this blog last Saturday.
*****Coming soon: pictures of the "new" Sports Writer to Be . . . my yet-to-be-named (and yet-to-be-born) son! That's right, we found out we are having a boy (and WHAT a boy, catch my drift). More importantly, Marisol is doing great and the doctors like what they see so far. Did you expect anything else?
John Doyle is a sportswriter for Foster's Daily Democrat in Dover, New Hampshire.
