Jeter and Bush are in to buy the Marlins

MIAMI, Fla.–In light of the recently released news, it appears a group has reached an agreement to purchase the Miami Marlins.  Among these group members are the former Florida Governor, Jeb Bush and recently retired and future Hall of Famer, Derek Jeter.  The Miami Herald reported that the current owner, Jeffrey Loria, has agreed to sell the team after the Jeter-Bush Group won the auction bid.  According to a source from ESPN the agreed bid is for $1.3 billion.

 

Of course this is just the preliminary stages of the deal, meaning right now, it is nothing more than a verbal agreement.  A written contract still needs to be drafted and then that contract would need to be approved by the MLB.  The MLB commissioner, Rob Manfred, has reportedly stated, “We have not accepted any bid yet for the Marlins.”

 

For Bush and Jeter, the notion of owning a Major League team has been a long time in the making.   Jeter has always talked about owning a MLB franchise after retirement and Bush watched as his older brother, President George W. Bush, successfully owned and operated the Texas Rangers, so acquiring a team of his own has always been one of his goals.  Although the deal has not been finalized, Marlin fans appear to be enthusiastic about the prospect and cannot help but wonder what kind of impact these two men could have on their franchise.

Fernandez statue to be displayed in Marlins Park

MIAMI, Fla.—Last week the Marlins announced that they will be installing a bronze statue of Jose Fernandez in the plaza of Marlins Park. According to team president, David Samson, the statue of the late Fernandez is expected to stand 9 feet tall.

Many people have taken the time to voice their opinions regarding the statue being erected.  A lot of people think it is a great way to show respect to a player that never got to demonstrate his true talent because he passed so young.  Others don’t think it is right to memorialize a player who only played in the MLB for four years, playing in only 76 games.  Another reason people are against the statue is because of the way Jose died.  No one can deny that he was drinking and driving in his speed boat, in the middle of the night, with cocaine in his system, and killed not only himself, but two other people too.

Typically when teams put up statues in memory of a player, it is a player that spent several years with the organization and was one of the best to ever play.  When I think of players with statues dedicated to their careers, I think of Michael Jordan, Shaq, and Jackie Robinson.  Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in professional baseball and dies 45 years before his statue was erected.  In 60 years, when a little kid is going to a Marlins game and they see the nine-foot statue a Fernandez, they are going to think that he had to be one of the best, when in reality, his career was short lived and although he had a promising future, he made choices that cut his life short.

The Marlins organization has never had a player that deserved statue recognition, so do they want their first one to be erected honoring a player who died in such a controversial fashion.

 

-Aidan Gould

Baseball is back in Miami

After a slow start out of the gate, the Marlins bounced back to win three of their last four.  Tonight, they have their Home Opener against the struggling Atlanta Braves; a win would definitely put momentum on their side.  Tonight’s game marks the first of a six game home stand, so hopefully they will be able to take advantage of the home field advantage and pick up a few wins.

Runs will be hard to come by tonight, as the Braves send out veteran ace Bartolo Colon, while the Marlins counter with Dan Straily.  Straily has had a rough start to the year, pitching in the Marlins loss to the Nationals.  In that loss, Straily only pitched 3.1 innings, allowing five runs. Hopefully Staily will be able to figure it out against the Braves and get the wins that the Marlins are going to need if the want to compete in the NL East this year, which looks to be wide open early on.

Marlins are on the move

WASHINGTON, D.C.-The Marlins got their first win of the year Thursday night.  After trailing 2-0 going into the eighth inning, the Marlins finally got a couple runs in when J.T. Realmuto hit a two run homer to center field bringing in Christian Yelich.  The Nationals answered right back in the bottom of the eighth when Ryan Zimmerman hit a homerun single to center field. The Marlins knew they weren’t out of it yet though, in the top of the ninth Tyler Moore hit a single to center, to have Adeiny Hechavarria score the game tying run.  The game would eventually go to extra innings, but it didn’t take long for the Marlin`s to get on the board, when Justin Bour hit a double deep into left, to have Realmuto score again in the top of the tenth. The Marlins would not let up any runs in the bottom of the tenth and would go on to win their first game of the year.

Tom Koehler had a pretty good first game of the year, letting up only one run through five innings, with four strike outs. The offense of the Marlins had a great game as well having 14 hits, but only being able to score on four of them. Realmuto was the star for the offense in this one, batting .583 with three RBI`s.  The entire Marlins team came together to get their first big pivotal win of the year.

 

-Aidan Gould

Giving remembrance with the first pitch in Miami

MIAMI, Fla.–With opening day inching closer and closer some people always wonder who is going be throwing out that ceremonial first pitch for their favorite team this year.

For the Marlins though is it hard to pick just one famous person that was born in Miami because they`re are so many of them.  So it would just be easier to pick someone that was once with in the Marlins organization.

When picking someone with in the organization you want to make sure that you pick someone that everyone there is going to know.  The Marlins have only been around sense 1993 so it does not leave them with an over whelming pool of past greats to chose from. Then I thought of something that had happened last September that had broke the hearts of so many people around the sports world.

That was the death of the Marlins star pitcher Jose Fernandez who had lost his life in a boating accident.  He was known and loved by all Marlins fans, many people in Miami thought that he was going to be a for sure hall of famer.  With his death he left behind his loving mother Maritza and wife Alejandra.  So if I was going to pick someone to throw out the opening day pitch for the Marlins I would pick them to do it.  Family meant a lot to Jose, his wife and him were very close to his mother.  So by letting Maritza and Alejandra throw out the opening day pitch for the Marlins it would not just be a way of honoring them but also honoring the Jose Fernandez.