Ultimate Baseball Road Trip (46 page)
Read Ultimate Baseball Road Trip Online
Authors: Josh Pahigian,Kevin O’Connell
The Marlins narrowly dodged the threat of contraction when an eleventh-hour work agreement was struck between the players and management in 2002. Then they went out and won another World Series in 2003. The Marlins were ten games under .500 in late May but led by 72-year-old manager Jack McKeon, who took over for Jeff Torborg at the season’s quarter-pole, they rebounded. The veteran skipper (who would stay at the Marlins helm for three years, then return to manage the Marlins at age 80 in 2011) put his faith in trusted vets like Ivan Rodriguez, Jeff Conine, and Mike Lowell, and newcomers Juan Pierre, Dontrelle Willis, and Josh Beckett. The Marlins went 75-49 over the final three-quarters of the season and captured the NL Wild Card.
Once again, the Marlins dispatched with the Giants in the NLDS, and then they squared off in an epic NL Championship Series with the Cubs. In a series that will forever be
associated with Cubs fan Steve Bartman, who interfered with the flight of a foul pop-up along the left-field line at Wrigley Field and unintentionally aided in an eight-run Marlins rally in the eighth inning of Game 6, the Marlins came back from a three-games-to-one deficit to win their second pennant. The Fish then moved on to their greatest test yet, an October Classic match against the storied New York Yankees. And they were ready for the challenge. They didn’t even need seven games to dispose of the Pinstripes. McKeon decided to pitch the twenty-three-year-old Beckett on short rest in Game 6 at Yankee Stadium and the brash righty rose to the occasion. Beckett tossed a five-hit shutout to close out the Yanks 2-0. Few moments in our lives have been as satisfying as watching George Steinbrenner fume in his luxury box as his Yankees, with their payroll of more than $184 million, lost to the Marlins, who had spent a mere $54 million on players that year. It was a victory for smaller market teams everywhere.
The “Grapefruit” League Gets its Name
Florida was baseball’s original Spring Training hub, of course, and although fully half of the MLB teams now train in Arizona, fifteen still work out in the Sunshine State each March. Unfortunately, the most famous spring site of all—Dodgertown, north of Miami in Vero Beach—lies dormant these days as the Dodgers train in Arizona. But “dem Bums” from Brooklyn sure left their mark on Florida’s spring circuit. In fact, they named it.
When they arrived at Daytona Beach to train in March 1915, the fun-loving boys from Brooklyn were commonly known as the “Robins,” owing to their colorful manager, Wilbert Robinson. The players liked to prank one another, and especially their skipper. And the laidback atmosphere of training camp afforded the perfect setting for their shenanigans.
In those days, airplanes were still a novelty and when one flew over the Robins’ practice field one day, twenty-four-year-old Brooklyn outfielder Casey Stengel bet Robinson that the manager couldn’t catch a ball dropped from a plane. And so, after practice, Stengel set out for the nearest airport to see if he could make the arrangements, while Robinson practiced catching pop-ups.
The next day, the hum of a plane could be heard within minutes of the start of Robins practice. Robinson hurriedly got ready in the center of the diamond. Then Stengel appeared to change his mind about the deal. He told his manager that it wasn’t too late to call off the bet and said he was worried that a ball plummeting from such height might rip a hole right through Robinson’s glove, and maybe even his hand.
“Hogwash,” the feisty manager said. But a seed of doubt, and maybe even fear, had been planted in his mind by the young Stengel, who was already quite a nuanced jokester.
Soon, a small plane was circling. And then, as Robinson looked toward the heavens, the pilot ejected a spherical object. The portly manager staggered, waited, staggered some more, and then … splat. He began screaming in horror when he realized that he was covered with what could only be the pulpy chunks of his own pulverized hand!
Then he realized he was only covered with the pulp of a juicy pink grapefruit.
According to some versions of the story, Stengel substituted the piece of fruit for the ball, fearing that he would kill his manager and cost himself a spot on the team. According to another version, aviator Ruth Law forgot to bring a ball and substituted an object from her lunch bag.
Whichever was the case, before long players throughout the game had heard the story and had begun calling the Florida circuit the “Grapefruit League.”
On the heels of their second world championship, the Marlins continued to field a contending—though not quite championship—team. They had winning seasons in 2004, 2005, 2008, and 2009, even as they failed to average twenty thousand fans per game. Nonetheless, there was considerable reason for optimism as the new ballpark was being constructed concurrent to the rise of bright young Marlins stars like Hanley Ramirez, Gaby Sanchez, and Mike Stanton. Now, with a gorgeous new park in place, Marlins fans will have no excuse if they don’t support the team. We expect that in the years ahead Miami, which has always been a hotbed for amateur baseball talent, will finally fulfill its promise as a bona fide baseball city that’s every bit as “big league” as the other thirty towns that house teams of their own. In other words, if the Marlins are still vying with the Tampa Bay Rays and Oakland A’s each year for the ignoble distinction of who will finish dead last in the game in terms of fans-through-the-gates, then Major League Baseball will have miscalculated badly in its decision to put a team in Miami and in sticking with the Marlins through some lean times. For the Marlins’ sake, and baseball’s sake, we hope the Miami fans rise to the occasion.
Trivia Timeout
Roe:
Which team plays at the smallest Spring Training ballpark?
Minnow:
In 1997 Livan Hernandez became the second rookie to win two World Series games. Who was the first rook to win twice in an October Classic?
Marlin:
Which former Tampa Bay Buccaneer delivered the first minor league pitch in Marlins history?
Look for the answers in the text.
Getting a ticket to the football field where the Marlins treaded water for nearly two decades was never a problem. And though tickets are harder to come by now, they’re still dirt cheap, compared to tickets in practically any other big league city.
The ballpark has three levels, but the second one—which is used primarily for luxury box and club seating—is exceedingly narrow. And the third one doesn’t even extend all the way to the foul poles on either side of the diamond. Nor does the upper deck rise very high. As a result, 32,300 of the park’s 37,000 seats are located either on the infield or along the foul lines, leaving only 4,700 in home run territory. The ballpark feels cozy. And the views are excellent thanks to a design that angles every section toward the infield.
The field level is known as the Promenade. Don’t ask us why. It just is.
Kevin:
Join Captain Stubing and Julie McCoy at 4 p.m. for shuffleboard on the Promenade Deck.
Josh:
Who’s Captain Stubing?
Kevin:
Never mind.
The 379 Diamond Club seats, located in the first eight rows behind home plate, sold out for the ballpark’s inaugural season more than a year before the Marlins opened the park. The Dugout Club and Clubhouse Box seats, which consist of the first eight rows along the first- and third-base lines, are similarly unlikely to be available from the Marlins for single-game purchase any time soon. But you might get lucky and score these seats on StubHub if a season-ticket holder wants to sit out a game. If you can, we highly recommend it. In New York City, face value to sit down low in a posh seat like this commands a face value of nearly $3,000 per game. In Miami, the Marlins price the Dugout Club seats at $150 each and the Clubhouse Box seats at a mere $70.
Once you get past the premium seats, the Promenade offers twenty-eight main sections that offer between twenty-six and thirty rows apiece. Section 1 is out in right field, Section 14 is directly behind the plate, and Section 28 is in deep left field. The best seats are the Home Plate Boxes, which wrap around the backstop. Section 9 is located at the midpoint of the visitors’ first base dugout, while Section 20 is midway down the Marlins dugout. The seats in the lower few rows cost the most, while the price decreases in ten dollar increments every few rows higher up you climb. We like this pricing model. It ensures that you get what you pay for. The sight lines are unobstructed but the top six rows (21–26 or 24–30, depending on the section) are beneath the overhang of the second deck, so if that’s apt to bother you, be sure to sit in a lower row.
Appearing right at first base (Sections 7 & 8) and third base (21 & 22) these four sections might well provide the best value for the money on the first level. We were shocked by how reasonably priced they were for quality infield seats. With all other considerations being equal, we recommend sitting on the first base side, where the window view of downtown Miami in left will be in your field of sight all game long.
If you want to save a few bucks over the cost of infield seats but still want to be as close to the action around the bases as possible, then aim for seats where the infield dirt meets the lip of the outfield grass in either Section 6, just beyond first base, or Section 23, just beyond third. Normally, we don’t recommend the deepest foul seats in outfield foul territory because at most parks the cheaper seats beyond the home run fence in fair territory offer better straight on views. At this park, however, we really liked the view from either Section 1 in deep right or Section 28 in deep left. Because the sections are so dramatically angled toward the infield and because there’s nothing in front of them to distract your view, we recommend them over most of the home run territory Bullpen Reserved seats, which place fans behind the bullpens and much farther from the field.
Seating Capacity:
37,000
Ticket Office:
http://florida.marlins.mlb.com/ticketing/singlegame.jsp?c_id=fla
Seating Chart:
http://florida.marlins.mlb.com/fla/ballpark/seat_selection_guide_32.jsp
Sections 29–32 run behind the Marlins bullpen in left-field home run territory. These sections have the window directly behind them and are not shadowed by the overhang of a looming second deck. The right-field Bullpen Reserved sections (34–40) are almost entirely overhung, however, by an upstairs Home Run Porch. Because the higher vantage point of the seats above gives them a superior view of the infield, we recommend the Porch seats over the right-field Bullpen Reserved ones. The only drawback to sitting upstairs is that you can’t see the action in the bullpen below or plays right against the outfield fence.
This narrow second level houses luxury suites behind the plate and Club seats down the lines. We found its naming curious.
Josh:
The Marlins haven’t been around long enough to have any franchise legends.
Kevin:
I suppose it’s been a while since Devon White laced ’em up for the teal and silver.
Josh:
A retiree should have to be in his sixties to be considered a legend, though.
Kevin:
Yeah, and he should have a career batting average north of .270.
Josh:
Excepting Reggie Jackson, of course.
There are only ten rows on the second level and they are tucked neatly between the two main seating decks. There are no Legends Boxes directly behind the plate because that’s where the rich and famous sit in luxury boxes. Boxes 201 to 211 run from the right-field foul pole to the first base side on-deck circle, and 219–228 run from the third-base on-deck circle to the left-field pole. You will lose some of the view of the right-field corner the closer you get to Box 201 in deep right, and will lose more and more of the left-field corner as you get closer to Box 228. We advise avoiding Boxes 211 and 219, so that you don’t have to sit against the concrete walls that rise up on either side of the luxury boxes. Boxes 207–210 and 220–223 are the pick of the litter on this deck.
We highly recommend these cheap outfield seats. They are low enough to keep fans engaged in the game, but high enough to provide a bird’s eye view. Tickets cost under $15.00 whether you’re sitting in Row 1 or Row 16, so aim for a seat as close to the field as possible. The right-field foul pole is not an obstruction, even for fans seated in Section 141, because it rises to the side of the Porch, rather than in front of it. We should mention that these seats are a bit narrower than the ones that appear elsewhere, so if you’re a wide-body, you may want to take this into consideration. The Home Run Porch seats measure eighteen inches across, while the Vista level seats measure nineteen to twenty inches, and the Diamond Club seats on the Promenade measure twenty-one to twenty-three inches.
Josh:
What sort of message does this send?
Kevin:
Easy, rich people have bigger behinds and thus need the extra space.
Josh:
Hence the term “fat cats.”
Kevin:
Precisely.
This upper deck offers a concourse that enables patrons to walk down some stairs to seats that overhang the Legends Level, or up some stairs to seats that overlook the entire park.