I’m a Marlins Fan and I’m Mad
Jeb! is lame and Jeter still sucks
Ever since yesterday morning the internet has been a blaze with the news that at long last, Jeffery Loria will be selling the Miami Marlins. Everyone from analysts, fans, and players have been celebrating non stop at the prospect of saying goodbye to the league's most embarrassing owner. Likewise the news of who will be replacing him, a team up of Derek Jeter and Jeb Bush, has been meet with widespread acclaim. As a long suffering fan of the franchise I have some doubts.
Jeb! Himself is not necessarily the issue. He’s lame, he’s embarrassing, he’s heavily associated with failure, but that’s just the kind of owner you expect when you’re a fan of professional sports.
The big complaint I have, and I know this is an unpopular one, is the presence of former Yankee Derek Jeter in the ownership group. Mainstream opinion of Jeter is that he is God’s gift to baseball, a leader, an offensive weapon, and a gold glove defender, essentially perfect in every way. The truth is he’s a pretty good hitter with a bad glove and a thoroughly boring personality. His popularity and ubiquitous presence around the baseball world has far more to do with playing for the Yankees, and a concentrated effort by the MLB, than it does with his talent. Take him off the Yankees and put him on the Minnesota Twins and his 71.8 fWAR still makes him a Hall of Famer, but a boring one, much closer to Craig Biggio than Cal Ripken.
So what does all of this Jeter hate have to do with anything? Not that much really. The basic point is that his name and face are already inescapable in national coverage, now the same will be true for my favorite baseball team. Every time the Marlins do something good we’ll hear about how Jeter was responsible. Every time they fail we’ll hear about how he’s sure to fix it. Add in the reports that he’ll be making many of the key baseball decisions, something that has an awful track record (think Phil Jackson and the Knicks), and you have a recipe for a nightmarish ownership group.
The perfect owner is a simple enough formula to imagine, billionaire in a coma that has a standing order to spend tons of money and never interferes. Jeb! and Jeter certainly aren’t that. They are better than Loria I guess, but Loria is selling and the only question is to whom, so that really isn’t relevant. The world can be as happy about the change as they like, this Marlins fan reserves the right to be miserable.
