"It’s often mentioned the Marlins have the league’s lowest payroll.  What is not often mentioned?  They’re winning.  The Marlins won 87 games in 2009.  They won 84 games in 2008 with just a $21.8 million payroll.  If you want proof that spending money does not necessarily equal success, see the Cubs and Mets.

Florida games the system.  They fleece other teams of their best prospects, develop and use them while their cost is low and trade the subsequent stars for more prospects.  They field generally competitive teams on a low budget.  Maybe twice a decade they supplement with some veterans and make a World Series run.  They should be the example for small market franchises."

http://thebiglead.com/index.php/2010/01/13/why-is-baseball-forcing-the-florida-marlins-to-spend-theyre-successful/

That is our salvation. We game the system. There is no other way to compete in a world dominated by the Yankees and the Red Sox.

The Red Sox and the Yankees were behind all this. They were unhappy that Loria was eating caviar while the Yankees were funding the Marlins payroll.

But in lands of the  Mets, Phillies and Nationals, they are uncomfortable. If we gave them such a hard time with a 35 million payroll, what are we going to do with a 50 million dollar payroll. Beat their butts that's what:

Bad News for Mets: Marlins Ordered to Spend More Money

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/sports/Bad-News-for-Mets-Marlins-Ordered-to-Spend-More-Money-81314392.html

I came across similar articles from the Phillies and Nationals

The recent Sean West incident was of course unfortunate. But there are some aspects that should be considered IMO.

It was not a DUI. He was not driving. He didn't kill anyone. He was dead drunk. They should have just helped get him back to his hotel and left him with his hangover.

He was not pitching the next day. His season was essentially already over.

IMO these kinds of incidents should not even be reported. Mickey Mantle used to show up everyday vomiting with a hangover and that never got reported. (Just like that stupid Uglla/Hanley incident should never have made the media.)

I would bet that the chances of hitting the national media with something like this are less than 1 in a hundred. Sean West was unlucky.

Boys will be boys. Everybody complains about the Marlins low payroll, but Hillary Clinton would still call the lowest paid member of the Marlins rich. These guys make a lot of money and some don't know what to do with it. And temptation is everywhere.

The limo driver is a rat fink, pure and simple. (That's assuming he was the one that finked on Sean West). He's making good money, and he betrays his customer. I would hope that not only sports figures but all entertainers would figure out who the guy is and boycott him and his company. In fact his company ought to fire him.

I note that the Philadelphia writers took great glee in publicizing this ridiculous story. I would hope the South Florida writers would return the favor when some Phillies wander over to South Beach for a night of carousing.

Sean West is a good kid with a good attitude. He has a nice easy delivery which should help him last for years. He has a great change up and is very effective when he keeps his fast ball low. I think his future is good. I am sure he has learned his lesson here.

He's still family and we should stand by him.

That's easy. They changed his song from Superstar to that stupid music from stupid movie, Scarface.

What were they thinking? The guy is batting .366 and they change his song. In baseball and in life you don't mess with a good thing. You should stick with a winning combination.

Hanley had a great season, but it would have been nice if he had finished strong. I doubt if Freddi Gonzalez picks the music, so that is one thing you can't blame on Freddi.

Superstitious who me? But it is crazy that the day they changed his song, he started slumping.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtGj-P-0m9o

"It was a great weekend. A lot of people came because it was the Yankees," Samson said. "It's our hope that they will come back. We made a great effort to be inclusive of all fans. We want everyone to enjoy themselves."

Yeah those Yankee fans will be back. In 6 years. When the Yankees return.

What does Samson care? He's up in his air conditioned luxury box.What does he care? The Yankee fans  just paid for Dan Uggla's salary

Samson's  made his message crystal clear: He cares more about 40,000 Yankee fans than he does about 6,000 Marlins fans.

Why is it that Hook LIne and Sinker seems to be the only one who will say the truth. That it was not pretty. It was downright  ugly. It was like having your home filled with rude ugly  people you can't stand  making a lot of unpleasant noise. Like he says the empty stadium is much better. (Incidentally if you look at his picture, I'm one of those little black dots by the first base dugout)

It is totally humiliating and degrading to depend on Yankee fans to fill your stadium. The Marlins are a national laughing stock. Not the team's play but the lack of fan support.

As I was leaving the stadium. I saw one Marlin fan amid a few hundred Yankee fans. The Marlin fan was giving the Yankee fans a hard time. After all  the team with the largest payroll had just been beaten 2 out of 3  by the team with the smallest payroll in front of a large Yankee crowd.

And then the Yankee fan (young guy)  started yelling over and over "you're going to build a new stadium and you'll be lucky to have 10,000 people".  LIke it was the fault of the Marlins fan.

It is the fault of the Yankee fan. He is the one who is not supporting his home town team. You can't blame the few thousand Marlins fans. They were doing their best.

I gotta laugh whenever I hear people say why every city has people that support other teams including the Marlins

Like you can compare 3 guys in Marlins gear sitting in San Diego with 40,000 Yankee fans totally dominating Landshark Stadium.

After the second two games, I must say I am proud of both the Marlins and their few fans. On Saturday and Sunday, they both fought back. The team fought back against the "finest hitters money can buy" (Sean West). The Yankees payroll must be at least 6 times that of the Marlins. And the Marlins fans were outnumbered by maybe 10 to 1 by the Yankee fans.

This hook line sinker guy describes it perfectly:

"While you're protesting that, Joe, I'll be protesting the unfairness of trying to enjoy one of the best series of the season feeling like an unwanted guest in my own home. If the Marlins do have to play the end of the game over, HLD&S votes they do it in New York. 
The real one."

Great link

http://gamefish.mlblogs.com/archives/2009/06/happy_fathers_day_now_go_away.html#_login

It takes a gutsy fan to fight back. Look at this one sole Marlins fan and his girl against a cowardly fat deformed Yankee  monster surrounded by his buddies

http://deadspin.com/5299715/yankees+marlins-fan-brawl-reveals-truth-of-the-human-condition-with-punching?skyline=true&s=x

If that  wasn't theater enough, how about:

"I saw two separate fights in the stands during the eighth inning, and while I’ve certainly seen my share of those, one of them involved two women who were fighting like Wendi Richter and the Fabulous Moolah. These two women weren’t having a stereotypical slap fight - they were throwing haymakers, essentially shifting all eyes in the ballpark in their direction. I had definitely never seen that before."

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/yankees/2009/06/the-manager-doth-protest-too-m.html

Damn, too bad they didn't get the cat fight on You Tube

Who are these Yankee fans? Your friends and neighbors that's who.

Amazing how David Samson and the media were trying to paint lipsitck on a pig about how wonderful it is to have the stadium filled with Yankee (Mets, Cubs red Sox etc) fans. Shame on them

Order of popularity of baseball teams in Florida:

1)Yankees

2)Red Sox

3) Mets

4)Cubs

5) Tied for fifth: Cardinals and Marlins

That is the problem. Sucking up to the Yankee fans ain't going to solve it.

For me. If you live here and you support another team, you are not welcome in my house. I would never hire you or do business with you. You are pond scum, every one of you.

It does get a little frustrating hearing all these stupid effete  Tuesday Emailers who apparently never go to a game, but the Saturday and Sunday games made me proud of the Marlins and their fans (at least the ones that come to the stadium) They both fought back against overwhelming odds.

If the Marlins are going to survive, the stadium must be taken back into the hands of the Marlins fans. Do whatever it takes. Or at least try.

One slight bit of hope which probably doesn't mean a thing.

I often stop off at some joint or another after a game on the way home for a drink and a bite to eat, in Marlins gear of course.. Last year inevitably some clown bartender or waitress would come up and say "I'm a Braves fan" I'm a Mets fan. Etc etc " My great grandmother told me the whole family has to be Braves fans even tho I've lived here for 10 years."  Never once did a Marlins fan come up and talk.

This year without exception every single person who has waited on my table has been an enthusiastic Marlins fan. Grasping for straws but maybe there's hope.

.

The Marlins have set a definite al time world record for percentage of visiting team fans in a stadium at over 90%. It surely was greater than 90% Yankees fans at Landshark Stadium yesterday.

In what had the atmosphere of a Yankees game in the Bronx, Andy Pettitte's strong pitching led New York past Florida.

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/baseball/florida-marlins/story/1105989.html

the Marlins fans -- who were lightly scattered among the 35,027 in attendance --

http://florida.marlins.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090619&content_id=5420570&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=fla

And they are going to build a 600 million dollar stadium so that Yankee fans can see their team every 6 years?

The only other reason to build that stadium that I can think of is so that Red Sox fans can see their team every 6 years.

Marlins fans? They are a nearly extinct but not protected species.

After all they relied on two horrendous calls by the umpire to win the first and last game by a single run. Without the umpire's help they lose both games.

When the umpire's miss such obvious calls, you've got to wonder about their integrity. Particularly the call in the first game where Beltran obviously trapped a ball in shallow center. The umpire was right there. No way he could have missed that call.

Certainly baseball is better off economically when the Mets win. There must be well over 10 million Mets fans while Marlins fan support is almost non-existent in comparison. The ratings go down when the Marlins win. When the Marlins win, it costs them money so the economic incentives are obvious.

And nobody connected to the Marlins seems to care. Loria is being paid a lot of money by MLB to field a losing team. The TV announcers thought it was funny and cute when the umpires blew the calls.

I had thought the NL East was a strong division. Turns out It must be really weak. After all one of the leaders had to rely on the umpires twice to beat an inept team composed largely of minor leaguers like the Marlins by one run.

Of course the Marlins should never have left the game in the umpire's hands. Cantu twice had men at third base with one out in Sunday's game.