May 22,
2006. Almost 13 years to the date.. It’s a day that goes unnoticed in Marlins
History, but one that began a turnaround for one of the greatest comebacks in modern
day baseball...
You want it? We got it!
How many
times have the Marlins held a quote on quote “Fire Sale”? Before you laugh at that question, think for a sec. No, I don't mean being sellers at the trading deadline. Or shedding off a player, or 2, or 3 🙈🙈🙈 because their contract was getting a little ($) hefty... I mean a full blown 'Fire🔥Sale' that turns a Team's Roster upside down ⬆⬇?! True answer is 4....
Punk-ass Christian Yelich requested a trade from Miami which was granted in February of last year.
The most recent of those 4 came under the Bruce Sherman/Derek Jeter Ownership group, when Giancarlo Stanton,
Christian Yelich, Marcell Ozuna, and Dee Gordon were traded during the
ownership’s first off-season at the helm.
This particular Fire Sale (which was labeled not a 're-build' by the Marlins, but just a "Build" 😉) was very Justified (The Club Underachieved MIGHTILY, did not gel together, and had particularly Zero Pitching)! Optically however, it may have not looked all that great coming from an Ownership who had just purchased the Franchise for 1.2 Billion Dollars 😬.
Jose Reyes signed a Six Year-$106 Million Dollar deal with Miami in December of 2011, but did not last 1 calendar year with the Marlins, nor did he live up to the contract in Toronto.
Speaking of 'Optics', the Fire Sale in 2012 (which was labeled a "Reset" 😉) came in the months of July & November, and featured Anibal Sanchez, Omar Infante, Hanley Ramirez, (and in one big trade) Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle, Josh Johnson, Emilio Bonifacio, and John Buck.
Though again making sense on the baseball side for a Team not living up to expectations, Optically it was a crushing blow to the Organization. See, the Marlins had just moved into their new stadium (Where things were said to be "different" 😉) 3 and 1/2 months before deciding to push that quote on quote "Reset" button🙉.
Could it really have hurt Jeffrey Loria & Co. that much to let it play out even 1 Season? Just 1??? Sheeez 😅! I don't think the paint of the new stadium had even completely dried.
Trading Champions
The late Darren Daulton (far left) with (from left to right) Gary Sheffield, Charles Johnson, and Bobby Bonilla receiving their Championship rings in 1998. Shef, C.J , and Bobby-Bo were part of the Mike Piazza trade to L.A. that summer.
Where I think the baseball community here gets a little confused is that there's a difference between 'Fire Sales'.. The ladder two were dismantlings of Losing Teams.. The 1st Two were something completely different...
1998 (and you can make an argument 2012-2013 as well) did more damage for baseball in Florida than one could of possibly have imagined at the time. In 1993 (Year 1 of Major League play in the Sunshine State) the Marlins drew over 3 Million Fans!!! Then the strike of '94 hit (One that was felt throughout baseball) in year 2 of the Franchise. But before the game in general would make quite the comeback with the Home Run-chase between Mark McGwire & Sammy Sosa in '98, The Marlins were World Series Champions in 1997 after a thrilling Postseason that saw them draw over half a million fans in only 9 Playoff Games (Including over 67,000 in a couple World Series affairs).
Baseball however would not be able to complete the comeback in South Florida. The first of an astounding 12 trades (that included 16 World Champion Players) happened only 12 days after the World Series ended in 1997 and carried through into the trading-deadline the following summer.
The Marlins claimed they had lost money in '97, and they very well may have after investing quite a bit of mula on the Roster beginning in '96. But they didn't give the post-Championship-fever a chance to continue, coupled with how hot the game of baseball got the following summer. One could only have imagined the Florida crowds during the summer of '98 if the Roster of the Defending Champs remained for the most part intact (Attendance spiked to over 2 Million in '97, now put a crown over that). When it was known that the late Wayne Huizenga wouldn't get his baseball only facility following the Title right then and now, welp!
In turn after 1998 was over, the Marlins had lost a club record 108 games, while the damage may have been felt a lot further than the standings. You can say '98 wounded a fan base so deep, it has yet to fully recover itself more then 20 years later.
Mike Lowell & Josh Beckett who were traded to Boston together where they would win a 2nd World Series.
The post 2005 Marlins at least waited a whole 2 years before dismantling their 2nd World Championship Team 😉. In 2002, 10 years after the Fish drew over 3,000,000 fans during their inaugural season, they drew slightly over 800,000 😬.. Hey, nothing like becoming World Champs again to help spike your attendance 😉.
The Marlins won it all for the 2nd time in 2003, and the turnstiles began to turn again, especially in the Postseason where the Marlins had an average attendance of 65,101 over 8 sizzling Playoff games! It continued to climb (not as much as it should of, sure) the following 2 Seasons, as the Fish fielded back to back winning Teams following the Title, but missed out on the Playoffs. That's when Fire-Sale number 2 happened, the quote on quote "Market Correction", as the Fish said they no longer had the funds to keep the Club together, as attendance was still one of the worst in the league.
Gone that Off-Season was Josh Beckett, Mike Lowell, Juan Pierre, and Luis Castillo via trade. 'Mr. Marlin' Jeff Conine, A.J Burnett, Juan Encarnacion, and Alex Gonzalez left via Free-Agency..
You take those (9) '03 Champs and couple them with Veteran Stars traded in the forms of Carlos Delgado, Paul Lo Duca, and Guillermo Mota following '05, and you can make an argument that the 2006 Florida Marlins were left worse off then the '98 Fish 🤔.
That's were our 'Orginal 😉 Story' begins (Only it will have "to be continued" as part 1 ran a little long) 🙉🙈😉.
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