Marlins Park's home run structure will still light up for home runs, home wins and every day at 3:05pm ETGETTY IMAGES
The Marlins won permission from Miami-Dade County to move the center-field home run sculpture "out of Marlins Park to the plaza outside," according to Douglas Hanks of the MIAMI HERALD. Red Grooms, the sculptor of the $2.5M piece called "Homer," urged a county board this week to "reject" Marlins CEO Derek Jeter's plan to have it moved. Part of the deal approved yesterday "requires the Marlins to pay" Miami-Dade $2.5M if Grooms "exercises his option to disavow his work and render it close to worthless on the art market." The Marlins plan to "promptly dismantle 'Homer' and replace it with a new multi-level spectator area with no seats but room for about 400 people willing to buy cheap tickets and stand during the game." The Marlins see it as a way to "target a younger demographic more interested in mingling and exploring the stadium than sitting down to watch an entire game." For six seasons, the sculpture has been the "signature feature of the park, a kitschy, carnival-colored monument that was beloved by some fans and derided as hopelessly tacky by others." In its new location outside, "Homer" will still "turn on for home runs, as well as at the end of every home win" and every day at 3:05pm ET, an "homage to Miami’s original area code" (MIAMI HERALD, 10/17). In Ft. Lauderdale, Wells Dusenbury notes the sculpture is "one of the last visible pieces" from the era of former owner Jeffrey Loria (South Florida SUN SENTINEL, 10/17).
CHANGES KEEP COMING: Miami-based radio host Andy Slater cited sources as saying that the Marlins are getting a new logo that will feature a "different M and more blue." An actual marlin on the logo "remains, but has been adjusted." This change is "working in concert with other changes being made to the ballpark and the in-game experience." The new ownership group appears to be "trying to distance themselves" from the Loria era as "much as possible" (SLATERSCOOPS.com, 10/15).
NAVIGATING CHOPPY WATERS: In Boston, Nick Cafardo wrote the morale within the Marlins organization is at an "all-time low." Jeter has gotten off to a "poor start as the man running the show in Miami with a lot of strange decisions, including the firings of a lot of good people and the empowering" of VP/Player Development & Scouting Gary Denbo. Cafardo: "We understand, from a financial perspective, the trading of superstars they couldn’t afford, but the rest of it has made no sense" (BOSTON GLOBE, 10/14).
