"(H)ere's a fiscal reality of baseball: arbitration-eligible players, in the grand scheme, are eminently affordable commodities for any organization, including the Marlins. Parting with two so gifted especially Cabrera is mismanagement of the highest order. Loria is adept at manipulating this "chicken or egg" dilemma i.e., are people not showing up because our team is lousy, or is our team lousy because people aren't showing up? to suit his interests. In this case, as it was in Montreal, his interests are in rendering the Marlins not-viable in South Florida. Doing so gives him the political cover to move his team to a market that will pony up with the tax dollars. Or perhaps he'll sell to investors in such a market and, once again, pocket an obnoxious profit.
"It's true that Loria and the Marlins have an unfavorable lease at Dolphin Stadium, but that should be incentive for him to and here's a novel idea pay for his own damn ballpark. The San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals, among other teams, have succeeded in parks that, for the most part, are privately financed, and there's only one reason the Marlins can't join them. That reason, of course, is Loria's galling lack of commitment.
"If nothing else, critical mass is approaching. The Marlins' lease expires in 2010, and with the University of Miami football program headed for Dolphin Stadium, there simply may not be the room or infrastructure for the Marlins to remain as Wayne Huizenga's tenants. It's possible that the City would be willing to work with the Marlins on a ballpark built on the current site of the Orange Bowl, but Loria and MLB insist they want a downtown locale. It bears repeating: if that's what Loria wants, then he should foot the bill himself.
"The shame of it is that a baseball team, operated properly, could thrive in South Florida. The Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-Pompano Beach area is the seventh-largest media market in the country, and an owner willing to reinvest in the team could easily make the Marlins a top destination for free-agent talent. Certainly, it will take a new ballpark and a winning team for that to happen, but Loria is apparently unwilling to do business in a sensible manner unless he's lavished in corporate welfare." (FOXSports, hat tip to brickell)
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