Table of Content
- Report: Red Sox sign Justin Turner to two-year deal
- Left field options for the Yankees
- Marlins home run sculpture to be removed, making room for fans
- Image details
- Derek Jeter will reportedly get his way when it comes to the work of baseball art
- Marlins to remove home run sculpture
- The Marlins' Home Run Sculpture Is The Whirling, Flashing, Spouting Heart Of Baseball At Its Best
Eyesore or art, “Homer” will reside no longer inside Marlins Park after county officials granted Derek Jeter’s wish. Maybe it was a thirst for revenge even though Homer didn’t exist when the Marlins shocked the Yankees in 2003. Or maybe Jeter, who spent a career looking sleek and stately in Yankees pinstripes, loathed the psychedelic flair of Homer. It could be he was worried about one those seagulls flying off and crushing a visiting outfielder.
Gods of the exploding scoreboard, the bullpen car, the canned-trumpet “CHARGE! He can trade away players who hit lots of homers, but Homer seems here to stay. "We're not interested in trading public art," Spring said. Marlins reliever Brad Ziegler said his kids enjoy the sculpture, which springs into motion whenever the home team homers. It stands beyond the center field wall at Marlins Park, the towering legacy of former owner Jeffrey Loria, and nearly as unpopular. Which all makes the idea of needing to make standing-room space for fans in the outfield laughable.
Report: Red Sox sign Justin Turner to two-year deal
More fans on average attended LSU home baseball games than Marlins games last season. Sending the sculpture to another ballpark might appease Grooms, and Spring laughed at the idea of a trade. But he declined to endorse even a straight-up deal for, say, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis or the Mets' home run apple.
Eventually, the sculpture will be placed on the plaza outside the ballpark, where it will be visible to the public. Marlins CEO Derek Jeter and his lamentable inclinations have reportedly won a grim victory. Personal prints, cards and gifts, or reference for artists. Pre-pay for multiple images and download on demand.
Left field options for the Yankees
The same team that had won World Series titles in 1997 and 2003 was mired in mediocrity. From 2012 through 2018, the team never finished above .500 even as stars like Giancarlo Stanton, Christian Yelich, JT Realmuto, the late Jose Fernandez and an aging Ichiro Suzuki graced the field. From the start, it was pure Miami, the most on-brand thing about the South Florida baseball experience. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
"I wouldn't trade anybody for that. I wouldn't trade the cherry blossoms. And we wouldn't even know where to put it." Jeter's old team is out; it's impossible to envision the sculpture at Yankee Stadium, although Babe Ruth probably would have loved it. Fenway Park and Wrigley Field don't seem like good matches either. Yes, major league home run king Giancarlo Stanton is gone. So are Christian Yelich, Marcell Ozuna and even fourth outfielder Ichiro Suzuki. Season previews suggesting the Marlins have an entirely new look in the outfield aren't quite accurate.
Marlins home run sculpture to be removed, making room for fans
Less than two weeks ago, the Marlins were granted permission by Miami-Dade County commissioners to relocate the mechanically operated sculpture to outside the park. In its place, the Marlins will be adding a standing-room deck that is part of a series of stadium enhancements for 2019. Open your image file to the full size using image processing software. But Miami-Dade County’s Art in Public Places board voted unanimously to approve the Marlins’ plan. Not the pinched Puritan baseball deities worshipped by the likes of George Will and Ken Burns—those false, flinty idols, consecrated in Green Cathedrals where only organ music plays. No, the real gods, the gods of a game popularized by breweries to get people to sit around in the sunshine drinking beer and hollering.
The artwork, which has been located beyond the center field fence, will be replaced by a tiered standing room-only area for spectators. It seemed inevitable when Derek Jeter took over with the Miami Marlins that the super-fun-home-run-sculpture thing in the outfield would be removed. Jeter and the mayor had been scheming about the $2.5 million piece’s removal since January. Loria left town as a villain, having made a fortune while orchestrating a publicly funded stadium and fielding a team that hasn’t made the postseason since 2003. As for Homer’s fate, it appeared to be in limbo after being removed from the park.
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Because fans will be clamoring to stand in the outfield to watch a last-place team that has alienated its home city, presumably. Homer was widely panned by fans, government officials, and even players. But no one, apparently, despised Homer more than Jeter. MIAMI (CBSMiami/AP) -— The Miami Marlins won county permission Tuesday to move the kitschy, widely disliked Red Grooms sculpture out of Marlins Park to the plaza outside the ballpark.
New ownership, with Jeter as its face, has not fared much better with the public since taking over in 2017. The approval to move the county-owned sculpture came down Tuesday from Miami-Dade County officials at the behest of minority owner Derek Jeter, who has made clear since joining the team that he wanted “Homer” gone. Not the fans, not the players, not the critics. And that’s saying something when you consider the then-new stadium also boasted a fish tank with live fish behind home plate.
"It was pretty much highway robbery he got away with. So, I understand wanting to go a completely different business path from what he left behind," baseball fan Ross Padfield said. "We appreciate the support and collaboration for our proposal from the county and the Art in Public Places trust," the Marlins said in a statement. They added the new location "will allow the piece to be enjoyed year-round in a more public-facing manner." But Miami-Dade County's Art in Public Places board voted unanimously to approve the Marlins' plan.
Perhaps it was the Marlins’ 2003 World Series win over Derek Jeter and the New York Yankees that eventually sealed Homer’s fate. See, in 2017, maligned owner Jeffrey Loria sold the team to a group led by Jeter. A blaring fever dream that bridged the gap between reality and mimosa-and-mescaline-fueled weekends along the Miami Beach Boardwalk. It was loud, it was wonderfully absurd, it made no apologies for any of the fun and havoc it caused , and even the local wildlife loved it. Jeter and company might have to reimburse the county the $2.5 million cost of the structure if the move lessens its value as a piece of art. Loria, who sold the Marlins a year ago, commissioned the $2.5 million sculpture for the opening of Marlins Park in 2012.
Traditionalists like Jeter — a former New York Yankees shortstop — tended to dislike it, while supporters found the pop art very Miami. Back in the days of Bill Veeck, baseball used to do this better than anyone. That “PHOOOSH” of flying water is the echo of our lost national greatness.
"There are no plans to move it at the moment," Spring said. "Everyone would love for there to be more news, but it isn't at the top of our agenda." "There's not really much I want to trade out of DC," Nationals left-hander Gio Gonzalez said.
"I am a fan of it. I think it brings fans out, so I think they should keep the home run structure," another fan said. "Everybody is used to it and they are so accommodating with it. I do not think it is a good idea," baseball fan, Amelia Concepcion said.
Relocating the piece is better than destroying it, but this was a lot of effort — The Herald detailed the contentious process — for a change that had literally nothing to do with making the Marlins a better baseball team. I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t like the Marlins home-run thing when they first unveiled it. But it grew on me — it became part of the Marlins’ identity. It as weird and fun, and baseball needs more weird and fun.
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