From the entirely partisan perspective of someone whose favorite baseball team is 14-22 on the 14th of May, I’ll admit there’s some small consolation in the demolition plotting of Jeffrey Loria leaving the Miami Marlins in even worse shape. Taking a peak at the bigger picture, however, is the Miami Herald’s Armando Salguero, who accuses Loria — dubbed “the fire sale arsonist” — of doing even greater harm (“If rather than going to games or watching on TV or listening on radio, parents are teaching their kids to ignore the Marlins and baseball altogether, the damage Loria is doing to the sport won’t be contained to his team alone”).
The practice of baseball for the average fan is not conducted on a diamond but in the stands and the boxscore and the standings. And many people who have decided to ignore the Marlins because Loria has offended their sensibilities are no longer practicing at all.
some people down here probably aren’t aware that White Sox pitcher Chris Sale has won three of his past four outings and just threw a one-hitter. We’re too busy seething over a Marlins fire sale to notice Sale is on fire.
It means that perhaps the final season by the greatest reliever in major-league history is passing without our undivided attention.
The Rangers are winning without a big-time home run threat in their lineup. The Yankees are winning without four All-Stars in their lineup. The Indians are winning without a true ace on their pitching staff. (Zach McAllister? Justin Masterson? Really?)
Meanwhile, the Angels, Dodgers and Blue Jays are interesting because they promised so much and are delivering so little.
The scores of children growing up here now? If they invest in the game at all, they might just join that standing army of Yankees, Cubs and Red Sox fans.