By Derrick Goold, St. Louis Post-Dispatch –
MIAMI — The art world where Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria made his fortunes and the ballclub he bought with them collide colorfully in left center field.
There at glistening new Marlins Park, rising 71 feet above the wall, is pop artist Red Groom’s home run spectacle, an animatronic art deco carnival that has water spouts, spinning fish and preening flamingos. It’s a flamboyant cross between the colors of South Beach and a shooting gallery from Coney Island. Tonight, as Miami hosts the Cardinals for the ballpark’s grand opening, if a Marlin hits a home run it will spin into action for the first time.
“It’s definitely Miami. It’s very colorful. It’s very animated,” said Marlins left fielder Logan Morrison. “I think there’s no need to hold onto your bat and walk down the line when you hit a home run anymore. The stadium will (showboat) it for you. Just sprint around the bases and let that thing do it for you.”
And, yet, that $2.5 million jubilee symbolizes the Marlins’ revival and so many of their questions: Will the new ballpark draw fans, and will the players keep them coming back? Will the night club in left field always be rocking, or will it lose its rhythm if the team gets beat? If there’s a kaleidoscopic display of spinning fish for every homer, does it matter if no one is there to see it?
Style is nice. Substance sells.
“It’s like having a beautiful house and your marriage (stinks),” Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen said “We have got a beautiful house but if the people who live in the house are not good, then you’re going not going to have fun in the house. I don’t want people to come to this place and say let’s watch the ballpark. This is not a mall . . . not a tourist place. It’s not Disney World.”
The $634 million Marlins Park, which sits on the old site of the Orange Bowl, is the centerpiece of an extreme makeover. Tonight, in a nationally televised opening night, the Marlins will also debut their new look (orange, blue, yellow, black), their new name (Miami replaces Florida), a new manager (Guillen), and, most important to that manager, a new lineup.
Around such stars and budding stars as Hanley Ramirez, tonight’s starter Josh Johnson and slugger Giancarlo Stanton, the Marlins have added All-Stars. During a December spending spree, the Marlins landed closer Heath Bell, shortstop Jose Reyes and lefty Mark Buehrle for a total outlay of $191 million.
Bell surveyed the clubhouse in the final week of spring training and called the fresh catch of Marlins “a good mix of a bunch of yahoos.”
“They want to be a team here and they want to win,” Bell said. “I know a lot of people have said in the past that the Marlins weren’t this and the Marlins weren’t that. . . . This year we feel more like a team. We feel like we have a city. We have a stadium. We have people backing us. Maybe they never had before.”
The Marlins, an expansion team in 1993, have won two World Series titles, but both came while playing at a football stadium, home to the Dolphins. Emblems of the 1997 and 2003 titles will be part of a big unveiling tonight, but this is a franchise ready to leave those Marlins in its wake. The team has relocated from the county line, perhaps detaching from fan bases in Broward and Palm Beach counties, to a city address.
“I think the Marlins have always been perceived as second-class citizens here,” said Jeff Conine, a special assistant to the team president who played during the team’s teal days. “Even after we won the World Series I think everyone here just thought of us as a second-rate team mainly because of the stadium we played in. . . . It’s basically a brand new organization now. It’s almost like we erased last year as far as the stadium and the uniforms and started brand new.”
Other than a failed attempt to woo Albert Pujols to Miami, the Marlins were able to use their new park and new outlook and, yes, new spending to recruit and sign needed players. Buehrle brings a reliable quantity to a rotation that has had more promise than production. Johnson starts tonight after missing most of 2011 with a shoulder injury. He led the National League with a 2.30 ERA in 2010. Stanton, who went by Mike until this season, is a burgeoning beast with 34 homers last season.
Chatterbox Guillen added an instant ambassador for the club who also won a World Series as a manager. He said if this team wanted to be “like the Marlins of the past (and), OK, let’s play 162 (games) and go home, they got the wrong manager.”
And Ramirez . . .
A mercurial talent, Ramirez moved to third base this spring to accommodate Reyes, and in many ways the Marlins will go where he goes. He struggled to a .243 average with only 10 homers and 45 RBIs in 92 games last season. In 2009, he hit .342 with 106 RBIs and 101 runs, and it was supposed to be his breakout season, not his peak year. An engaged Ramirez is often a productive Ramirez.
“I’ve been here for six years, and this is the year that everybody has been looking for and waiting for,” Ramirez said Tuesday. “There are big expectations for us this year. Now we’ve got something that we can call our house, a home.”
It all comes back to the ballpark.
They like their flash in Miami. They like their fashion.
They can also see right through it.
“You think of Miami, you think of South Beach, you think of the heat, you think there’s a lot of glitz and glamour,” Conine said. “There are lots of lights, lots of vibe. It’s an event town. They want to see an event. When you’re in first place, it’s an event. When you’re in third place, it’s not an event. This market likes a winner.”
