Two aspects of this story fascinate me:

1. The announced attendance was 10,121, but a photo from the game tells a very different story. Er, forget steroids for a moment; someone is cheating here, and it ain’t the players.
2. The Marlins are a great case study in the difficulties of promoting a team that has no identity. This is a franchise that came into existence in 1993 and has won two World Series. If you’re keeping score at home, they’ve won rings in 13.3% of their seasons. The Boston Americans/Red Sox have done so in 5.6% of their seasons, the Dodgers (and their various predecessors) in 4.8%, the Cubs in 1.6%. Heck, the Cubs haven’t won the World Series since 85 years before the Marlins came into existence. (Even Miami’s original team, the Class D Florida State League Hustlers, didn’t appear until two decades after the Cubs’ last World Series victory.) Anyway, the point is that apparently winning isn’t enough to sustain a franchise. There needs to be at least some kind of tradition, and it’s hard to build one when you’re busy slashing payroll all the time and alienating your potential fan base.

[Tip o' the Knuckle Curve cap to Baseball Musings, whose suggestion of a move to Havana, Cuba, intrigues me...]

Post from: Knuckle Curve

American League

• Mariners at Blue Jays, 4:07 p.m. PT — This is the only weekend series in the AL that features two winning teams. You’ve also got the whole “battle of ‘77 expansion teams” going in this one. Whatever happened to Leroy Stanton and Otto Velez, anyway?

National League

• Mets at Braves, 4:35 p.m. PT — The Mets just got swept in Philadelphia and now lead the Phillies by a mere 2 games. The Braves, for their part, are only 4 1/2 back in the NL East. If the Mets are going to win the division, it sure isn’t going to be easy. The opener in this weekend showdown features right-handers John Maine and Tim Hudson. Maine’s overall numbers (13-8, 3.68) obscure the fact that he’s been brutal (3-4, 5.94) since the All-Star break. He’s allowed six runs in three of his last five starts. Hudson, meanwhile, has enjoyed a terrific resurgence this year. The guy we saw from 2001 to 2003 most likely is gone forever, but even if he continues to perform at 2004-2005 levels, that’s pretty darned good.
• Dodgers at Padres, 7:05 p.m. PT — This divisional showdown features a truly dreadful pitching matchup, so what else is going on here? David Wells faces his former team for the first time since leaving, as does Milton Bradley on the other side. Bradley, in case you didn’t get the memo, has been terrorizing NL pitchers since coming to San Diego on July 7. He’s hitting .345/.441/.655 in 33 games with the Padres (compare with the more ballyhooed Mark Teixeira’s .327/.416/.664 in 27 games with Atlanta).

I’ll be keeping an eye on the Padres, of course. If you have no general rooting interest, though, and are looking for a potentially great game, go with the Mets and Braves.

Happy watching…

Post from: Knuckle Curve