Florida C Matt Treanor tells the Palm Beach Post’s Joe Capozzi, “”People in South Florida should be ashamed of themselves,”…and this has nothing to do with The Eat’s “Communist Radio”.
The overachieving Marlins inched closer to a winning record Saturday night by winning their sixth straight game in front of 30,017, their fourth-largest crowd of the year at Dolphin Stadium.
“I want to see people out here hooting and hollering, especially if they’re rooting for you instead of the Mets or Phillies or whoever is in town,” Treanor complained. “That kind of irks me, too, (when) people come to root for the (visiting) team. They got their team right there This is the ‘Fish.’ We’re from Miami. Let’s go.”
Still, with the Marlins creeping to within four games of .500 and four games of the wild-card lead, Treanor said he and his teammates are concentrating on the field, not on the stands.
“I just want to win,” he said.
“If they come, they come. If not, I wouldn’t mind being in the post-season with 2,000 people in the stands.”
ESPN’s Buster Olney is quick to take exception.
Fans are not obligated to buy tickets; teams are not entitled to have thousands of people laying out hundreds of dollars to watch them play. You come up with a product that people want to see, and they’ll pay. The reasons for fans not showing up at Marlins games began compiling long before Treanor became part of the organization.
Treanor has had a good year, but his words may rank among the most ill-chosen of the season. What a way to win over hearts and minds.
Fish Stripes, always standing in stark contrast to Miami fan apathy, provides a photograph of the D-Train’s mom. There’s no truth to the rumor the Red Sox would like her to pitch middle relief.
My copy of Joe Maddon ’07 finally turned up in the mail, and apparently there’s a special feature where you can build your own players from scratch…and send them to Durham (where they end up in jail). It’s kind of Strat-o-Matic meets “Grand Theft Auto”, only far less exciting than either.