Opening Night 2013.

This organization makes me sad because this is a “professional” baseball team and they are struggling to put 500 people in the stands for a game. It’s sad to see this type of thing happening in baseball. I have been to one Marlins game in my life and it was at the old stadium (whatever it was named that particular week). Barry Bonds was chasing the home run record and you could hardly get a ticket to see the Giants that year. I remember there was probably about 7,000 people at the game in Miami against San Francisco. I thought it was so weird that nobody came to this game to see Barry try to chase the record. Also, it was 70′s night at the ballpark, so a lot of people missed out on an enjoyable night. The Marlins have pretty much given up, in all aspects of the word. It is sad that professional athletes are playing in front of nobody. As a baseball fan, it hurts to see this occurring. All jokes aside, I really feel bad for these players. Even if they are a bunch of AAA guys, this is probably not how they envisioned their major league careers.

This organization makes me mad for a lot of reasons. First of all, if I lived even remotely close to South Florida, I would be at most of the Marlins games. I’m such a baseball nerd that I don’t care if a team is bad or the owner has forgotten he owns the team, I just love watching baseball. It makes me mad that people in Miami don’t even want to watch the sport anymore. I’ve spent 20 years of my life in Colorado, so I know a thing or two about horrible baseball teams. The organization is actually giving away tickets now. The most recent deal at Marlins Ballpark is “4 free tickets for all FAU students.” Seriously? All you have to do is be in college and you get four tickets to a major league baseball game. I’m sold! The team has also been forced to close the upper deck of the stadium during weekday games. I can’t even think of a time when an entire upper deck was empty at a professional sporting event. It just makes me angry that this extravagant ballpark is going to waste because nobody, not even the owners want to buy into this organization.

Let’s be honest, the Marlins are probably one of the most embarrassing organizations in sports. I think Miami is actually worse than their 11-29 record says. We had a joke at the radio station I work at in Alabama and if anyone could name the Marlins starting lineup, you’d win a prize. Needless to say, nobody won the prize…I feel like Morris Buttermaker should be the manager of this team because everything just kind of seems like a joke. From the goofy fish statue in center, to the off-putting neon green surrounding the ballpark, nothing “works.” Also, the stadium is just too damn big. If the team wanted to get a couple more people in the seats, they should have made the fence 300 feet all the way around so the 48 people in attendance would at least get to see a high-scoring game. But instead, the fences are high and very far away, which doesn’t really appeal to the casual baseball fan.

Pick a seat, any seat.

Players, fans, and the front office have all seemingly given up. The next to go is the PR staff at the ballpark, and they are all hanging by a thread. I’m not really sure what steps can be taken to make this organization realize what they are doing to themselves, and the game of baseball. All I know is that if nothing changes, the fish will continue to be the punching bag of the league.

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The instant replay debate will probably never end. Get comfortable. Image: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

As a college baseball umpire, I have always supported the human element of the sport and I have never been on board with any form of instant replay. I’m still not. There is already too much grey area in the review process. Some things are reviewable, some aren’t. Where does it stop? Don’t get me wrong, I love Bob Brenly, but he is so anti-umpire sometimes that it makes me mad. Bert can’t even name the umpiring crew without getting some sort of groan from BB. Although Bob is tongue in cheek (I think) when he suggests robot umpires, some people actually support the idea. Missed calls are going to happen. That’s just the nature of the game. Players miss fly balls all the time, why can’t an umpire miss a safe/out call? Some people have said that Angel Hernandez did not overturn the call because he doesn’t support instant replay. Okay, but now he looks like an idiot, so that probably wasn’t the best way to handle it. Hernandez’ proverbial “screw you” to the league offices didn’t work too well. Eliminating any replay will also make umpires better at what they do. It has to.

While I realize that more instant replay will likely be added next year (maybe even this year), I think more problems will arise. Where do we draw the line of what can be reviewed? Going back to Bob Brenly, he suggested a review for the play last night that brought Goldy of the bag and umpire Vic Carapazza called Delmon Young safe. I actually think Carapazza made the right call on that play. Don’t tell Bob Brenly I said that, though. I think it is ridiculous to have replay of plays like that. Why even have an umpire in the first place? Let’s be honest, a lot of people don’t like umpires because they are never hitting walk off homers or throwing perfect games. It’s a fairly non-glamorous job that people are quickly losing respect for. The more instant replay we have, the less umpires are needed. How long until umpires become obsolete completely? This idea scares me because I support the profession of umpires and I take pride in what I do. I know that the MLB umpires feel the same way.

Finally, the instant replay idea is so difficult because it’s hard to draw a line in the sand and say these are the things that are reviewable, and these things aren’t. Pretty soon, replay will be available on bang-bang plays at first and who’s knows what else? To eliminate any grey area and discrepancies in replay, the best solution is no not have any at all. Let baseball play itself out and stop trying to eliminate the human element. The day a robot starts calling balls and strikes is the day I stop watching baseball.

Follow me on the Twitter @realcmoff18 or the entire team @venomstrikes

The Los Angeles Dodgers (13-18) have now lost its’ last five games. The most recent loss came last night from a beat-down at the hands of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Arizona has won 13 of its’ last 16 in Dodger Stadium. I guess it’s okay for L.A. because there were only about 70 people at the game last night to witness the loss. Over the last two weeks at Dodger Stadium, there has been an abundance of hits and home runs. This benefits the offensive-minded Snakes. It has been a rough stretch for Arizona as of late against division teams and it was imperative that they got off to a good start in Los Angeles. That was a fun game to watch last night. Also, if anyone knows if the home run that Cody Ross hit has landed yet, let me know.

As for the Dodgers, yikes. L.A. has been bit by the injury bug almost as bad as Arizona was this year. To make matters worse, the players that aren’t hurt are being fairly unproductive at this point. Matt Kemp has been almost non-existent this season. I’m pretty sure I could produce more offensive numbers than Kemp and I haven’t picked up a bat since my sophomore year of high school (not counting beer league softball). Carl Crawford had a pretty rough night but in his defense, he dropped that ball on the transfer. So I guess Arizona should have actually only won the game 8-2 since his error caused Didi Gregorius to be on base. Just think of any player for the Dodgers and chances are, they aren’t playing right now. The rotation hasn’t been anything special either. Zack Greinke is still out from when he tried to play linebacker in San Diego and Chad Billingsley is out for the year with Tommy John surgery.

On the bright side, at least Tommy Lasorda was really enjoying the game… Image: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

It’s weird to think, but Josh Beckett and his neck beard have been the only bright spot in the rotation and he still has yet to win a game. Beckett had his best start of the season against Arizona, but it was foiled by Goldy. Beckett will get the nod for the Dodgers tonight against Brandon McCarthy.

The Diamondbacks are the only team to have yet to be shut out this year. Neat! It will be another late night for me with an 8:10 first pitch this evening.

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