Mets vs. Your-Name-Here Stadium

[Edgy MD]

It's nice to put Joe Robbie to bed with a winning record, but I'll always remember it as a stadium where a lot of deep drives died at the warning track, and a few seasons did as well. Lot of errors there also.

I'll guess the obvious for our all-time leaders there: Piazza for homers, Alfonzo for hits, Leiter for wins, Benitez for saves. I picture a lot of Mike Stanton at Joe Robbie, pitching every chance he got for both sides.

[Ceetar]

Dickey has never allowed an earned run here.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

It gets a bad rap, but I always enjoyed the games I've seen there. Some fun memories. Saw the first two games, 1997 World Series Game Six, an Opening Day with the Mets, Roberto Hernandez giving my son a ball. A FanFest when I was in town covering a trial. It has its own exit off the turnpike, so getting there was easy.

The Fish do need the retractable roof, but I think the fire sales did more to hurt the fan base.

[Ceetar]

I didn't hate the stadium. (but then, I didn't hate RFK either) I saw two games there, one fairly worthless regular season Marlins game, and one WBC game featuring the mercy rule. The second certainly suggested that there are baseball fans in Miami (or at least, fans willing to travel there?) because it was everything you'd expect from fans that love their team. It just so happened it wasn't MLB in this case.

[ashie62]

Wind blown tarp during the daily rain delays.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Good riddance to an ugly POS park with no fans. F Jeffrey Laurie too.

[seawolf17]

Is it odd that one of my memories of the place is Matt Wise making his Mets debut, losing, getting hurt, and never appearing in a game for the Mets again?

[G-Fafif]

Reflections on a few not altogether horrible Met moments at JRS here. Opted to leave out the horrible Met moments.

[TransMonk]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Good riddance to an ugly POS park with no fans. F Jeffrey Laurie too.

This. It was my least favorite NL stadium. They should re-name it Perpetual Rain Delay Stadium.

[metirish]

Hated that when football started the playing field for baseball looked like shit.

[Ceetar]

went back to look at my 2009 albums. Disappointed that I didn't have any real crowd shots to show what that place looked like when it was crowded and alive. This one's the RF outfield.



and by the RF bullpen.

[Frayed Knot]

I'll third that sentiment.

And while I don't think Miami is ever going to be a great pro sports town (recent Heat mania is LeBron/media driven and will be short-lived) a new stadium there is going to be a huge help.
I think it was a couple years ago where right around 20 (or 1/4) of Marlins home games were either: rained-out, had the start time rain-delayed, or had a game in-progress rain-interrupted.
IOW you're telling the fan-base that: the game tonight might actually happen, and if it does it might start on time, and if it does start it might end the same day it started, and if we do get all nine innings in the conclusion will be be somewhere between 9:30 and 2AM. But at least your seats will suck and face the wrong way most of the time.

Tough getting repeat customers under those conditions.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Howie and Wayne reported yesterday that the Marlins are changing their uniforms next year to go with the new stadium and the new name. (They'll finally be called the Miami Marlins, which is what they should have been from the beginning.) The uniforms are supposedly going to be rainbow colored. That doesn't sound like such a good thing. I caught a few innings of the game on TV yesterday, and the Marlins were advertising their new stadium, and the logo included a rainbow above the ballpark, which looks more like a spaceship.



(They got the color sequence wrong; the green should come between the blue. And it looks like their rainbow omits those pesky colors indigo and violet.)

[Frayed Knot]

"They'll finally be called the Miami Marlins, which is what they should have been from the beginning"

Supposedly the story behind that one is that when Miami/south Florida won the race against the Tampa/St-Pete area to have the first MLB team they chose 'Florida' as an in-your-face swipe and those uppity "northerners", as if to say; 'Y'know, even if you hicks eventually do get a team, WE will always be Florida's team on account of the fact that WE were here first. Look, it even says so right in our name'.

Now they agreed to put Miami into the name as a condition of getting all the Miami-Dade county money for the building.

[G-Fafif]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: (They'll finally be called the Miami Marlins, which is what they should have been from the beginning.)

Marketing-driven decision to be a so-called regional team never panned out. They sprung to life the same year the Florida Panthers did, when that sort of thing was in vogue. "South Florida" too unwieldy a place name, but that was their market: north of Miami up to Palm Beach County, with delusions of a wider following. Marlins were resented in Tampa Bay area for being chosen for expansion ahead of them, and the rest of the state could give a damn.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Oh, and the Colorado Rockies should have been the Denver Bears. And the Arizona Diamondbacks should have been the Phoenix Firebirds.

[HahnSolo]

Isn't this place the site for Eric Cammack's only career AB and hit, a triple?

[TransMonk]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Oh, and the Colorado Rockies should have been the Denver Bears. And the Arizona Diamondbacks should have been the Phoenix Firebirds.

At least we finally got the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

[Benjamin Grimm]

New Marlins logo?



Miami Marlins Logo Leaked

[TransMonk]

Wow.

That would jump straight to the top of MLB's ugliest logo list.

[Frayed Knot]

That looks like the sign that tells you where to catch the municipal bus.

[G-Fafif]

Frayed Knot wrote: That looks like the sign that tells you where to catch the municipal bus.

I can hear the retirees on Collins Avenue now...


Pardon me, young man, is this the bus to the Marlins' new stadium? If it is, could you drop me off at the next stop? Heavens, no, I didn't mean to go in that direction.

[ashie62]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Howie and Wayne reported yesterday that the Marlins are changing their uniforms next year to go with the new stadium and the new name. (They'll finally be called the Miami Marlins, which is what they should have been from the beginning.) The uniforms are supposedly going to be rainbow colored. That doesn't sound like such a good thing. I caught a few innings of the game on TV yesterday, and the Marlins were advertising their new stadium, and the logo included a rainbow above the ballpark, which looks more like a spaceship. (They got the color sequence wrong; the green should come between the blue. And it looks like their rainbow omits those pesky colors indigo and violet.)

Its the Tampa Bay Lightning!

[Benjamin Grimm]

This "animated sculpture" is going to be the Marlins' equivalent of the Mets home run apple.

The Miami Herald wrote: Artist rendering of Marlins� sculpture has fans in tizzy By Lomi Kriel Just about every baseball team celebrates a home run in their own unique way. The Mets have their apple. Houston has its train. Cincinnati has smokestacks that emits, yes, smoke, and fireworks. But, our Marlins home run celebration plans might top them all. The Miami Marlins will have a celebration sculpture that looks like a psychedelic roulette wheel of jumping marlins, diving seagulls and the wild colors have some fans in a tizzy. The 74-foot sculpture � designed by one of America�s most famous pop artist, Red Grooms - is under construction now and will cost $2.5-million, the county�s largest public sculpture. It will come alive anytime a player hits a home run. The sculpture apparently will help make good on a promise that Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria, made two years ago. An art dealer by trade, Loria said the new ballpark would be a work of art unlike any other. The animated artist rendering of the mechanical sculpture with water, birds, waving palms trees � even flipping dolphins � had the Internet abuzz Friday after it emerged on a local web site. Located in center field below the scoreboard of the new stadium, the sculpture is a boom for Miami, county arts officials said, calling it an �absolute home run� in itself. The stadium is the first sports arena to spotlight public art as a home-run feature, showcasing Miami�s emerging reputation for the arts. �People will be really delighted by the work once they see it,� said Michael Spring, director of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs. �It�s a monumental work by one of America�s greatest artists � we didn�t want some esoteric unappreciated art work. We wanted something people could have fun with.� Some people were having fun Friday � but a few of the reviews flooding in over the web were not exactly flattering. Late evening, 94 percent of respondents � or 118 voters on a Channel 10 poll called the sculpture �tacky,� compared to only 6 percent deeming it �tasteful.� �This HAS to be a joke,� wrote Drew Housman on the county department�s Facebook page, where the video initially posted. �Mike Stanton might start bunting so he does not have to hurt his eyes looking at this thing.� �Miami Vice,� wrote Alex Padron. �We will be the laughing stock if this goes up.� It didn�t stop. �This is what would happen if Vikings attacked a Gloria Estefan concert by catapulting flamingos and marlins into the pyrotechnics display,� wrote Grant Brisbee, an editor for SB Nation, one of the country�s largest online sports communities. County officials defended the work, saying the magnificence of the final piece can�t be fully conveyed in an artist rendering. �The piece has evolved since the proposal,� Spring said �It hasn�t changed significantly � but I would say the real thing is going to be bigger and better.� Red Grooms, born in Tennessee in 1937, has been compared to Marchel Duchamp and has his work included in the collections of 39 museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. In 2003, he was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the National Academy of Design. Judith E. Stein, a Philadelphia-based arts critic who curated a retrospective on his work, said the sculpture was �absolutely charming,� consistent with the work for which Grooms has been widely recognized. �It�s taking the instinctive whoop of delight that a fan would give and giving it a visual form,� Stein said. �This is an art work that�s just screaming with enthusiasm � using a visual vocabulary that�s specific to Miami.� �Art is in the eye of the beholder,� Spring acknowledged in response to the criticism. �So we accept any and all interpretations of the art work.�

[Edgy MD]

I approve.

Long as it's not my park.

[Frayed Knot]

* For a guy described as "one of America's most famous pop artists" ... I never heard of Red Grooms until just now.

* 74 feet !?!?

[metirish]

Make it 174 feet please, can't wait to see this awesomely awful looking sculpture.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I dunno.

Now, it probably is going to be a disaster, and that rendering doesn't look too handsome I'll admit but the coverage of this story (and the new logo) has gotten so goddamn snarky it's as though teams would be better off not bothering to try anything creative or new. They'd all be as dull as Citifield. Geez Louise, it's not as though the new stuff here is displacing any classic Marlin designs.

I say, let 'em crash!

[Edgy MD]

Exactly.

Anything that makes different teams more different is OK with me. Giant ugly fiberglass statue? Mountain in center field? Drunken out-of-work actors singing unrehearsed versions of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game"? I say go crazy.

Just as long as, should it work, the Mets don't try to copy it.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

I kinda like it. It's very Miami.