Too Many Newsy Things

Bye bye Brian...Sanches signs with the Phillies.

The Marlins sign Robert Ray and Luke Montz.

John Baker thanks Marlins fans.

There's no money budgeted to add more mass transit to the new stadium than what's there now, which ain't enough.

Besides the taxes, the city of Miami took another look at the stadium agreement and discovered that they have to pay for stadium maintenance too.

And now more bickering will delay leasing out the garages' retail and restaurant areas.

Billy's new look promotes commentary.

So has the projected contraption to celebrate home runs, which may get assembled in time for the first pitches, but is planned not to be viewable during off-days, even though it's officially a public work of 'art'.

Some More Things Out There

Here's the Sporting News' Hot Stove Report on the Marlins.

You can help Bryan Petersen make a documentary.

Steve Cishek is doing the group-workout thing.

Ozzie loves his wife and his dog

Black Friday Bulletins

Fishstripes wants to know what was your favorite Marlins 'era'.

Samson says a stadium name is not imminent.

Aaron Senne may be ready by spring.

The Marlins dished out a lot of free Thanksgiving meals.

John Buck ate, too.

And Logan already has his place...uh...decorated?

Finally Some News

Bye Bye Bake...John Baker is traded away, to the only MLB town that doesn't need a domed stadium, for pitcher Wade LeBlanc. (Miamiherald)

The Marlins announce their spring training schedule. (Miamiherald)

And that sound you hear is the city of Miami screaming 'WTF!!' as they discover that the contract with the Marlins that they hastily agreed to a few years back not only obligated the city to build parking garages for the new (still unnanmed) stadium, but also forces the city to pay the property taxes on those same garages. (sun-sentinel)

The Miami Marlins, So Far

Much noise has been made. Dan Le Batard gives the whys.

Stanton, Hayes, Petersen, Billy and the Mermaids head out to the troops.

Steve Slowinski gives a preliminary guess on how the new ballpark will play.

Happy Changes Vs. Results

Since the start of the 162-game-per-season era in 1961, it seems there has been only one other MLB team that at the same time both officially changed its name and moved to a new ballpark while remaining in the same market. That was the team in Houston, who ended the 1964 season as the Colt 45's playing in Colt Stadium, and began 1965 as the Astros in the Astrodome.

So did those changes create some improvement in the Houston win-loss record from '64 to '65? No. In 1964 the Colt 45s finished the year at 66-96, while the next year the Astros almost matched the previous year with a record of 65-97. But in just the home games, Houston, playing in barn-like, mosquito-and-rattlesnake-infested Colt Stadium, was able still to eke out a 41-40 winning record in '64 - but in the brand-spanking new Astrodome the '65 team ended up slipping to a 36-45 home record. That could be attributed to the fact that for most of the year they had to play in "green-painted dirt and dead grass", though away teams would have suffered the same conditions.

Maybe the new changes will end up assisting the Marlins standings-wise, but as the past shows, that's not a given.

The Miami Marlins, Version Three

Tonight Mr. Loria proclaimed the Florida Marlins are now the Miami Marlins, and introduced to the world the logos and designs that were basically the ones floating all over the web for the past couple of weeks.

One unique feature of the new grey uni was demonstrated by Boni. As he raised his arms up in celebration, the first 'I' in the word MIAMI that was stenciled across his jersey slipped inside itself, revealing the word MAMI, which may at least delight some of our Latin fans (among others).

Pitbull ended the proceedings with a performance (I thought pitbulls were illegal in Miami).

EXTRA: For nostalgia's sake, Joe Frisaro wrote a fun article detailing the beginnings of the first Miami Marlins and the stadium they played in.

Bye Bye Florida

It was nice to attempt being a 'state-wide' team.
Didn't work, though.
Now it's the city's turn.

Back For Another Bit

I'm still on the road. Logged in long enough to find out about the changes at Fish Stripes and Marlin Maniac. And that the city renamed the streets around the new unnamed stadium.