Several ballparks have "elaborate props" to celebrate home runs, but MLB "hasn't seen anything like the device that is scheduled to be tested soon" at Marlins Park, according to Joe Capozzi of the PALM BEACH POST. Rising 73 feet over center field at its highest point, the Marlins' home run celebration stars a marlin "jumping in and out of the 'water' on a metal track that runs along the border" of the mechanical sculpture created by multimedia artist Red Grooms. Another marlin "twirls and spins while seagulls fly over the sculpture in a colorful shower of laser lights." Grooms said that in designing the sculpture, he "focused immediately on the image of a marlin jumping out of water as the logical way to celebrate a Marlins home run." He "sprinkled in flamingos, birds and palm trees to represent South Florida," and arranged it all around "four rising arches meant to pay homage to the Art Deco architecture of Miami Beach." The event "lasts about 27 seconds, roughly the time it takes" to run the bases following a home run. Marlins Owner Jeffrey Loria said, "All I can tell you is it's going to be the most amusing home run feature in all of baseball. There's motion, there's light, there's sound, there's water, all under the cover of great humor and fun." However, Capozzi notes an "animated rendition of the sculpture has been generating critical humor on the internet." SI referred to the sculpture as a "mechanical monstrosity." Other web comments "range from 'an embarrassment' and 'tacky' to something better suited for Las Vegas." But Grooms and his designers said that the animation "was based on early sketches ... and it does not accurately portray what the final piece will look like." Minneapolis-based Uni-Systems Project Manager Chris Morgan, whose company built the statue's operating mechanisms, said the animation "just doesn't do it justice. It's hard to appreciate the presence of the thing until you see the structure in the stadium. When it goes in, it's going to be neat" (PALM BEACH POST, 2/9).
