South Florida Media Still Cynical

If someone was a manic-depressive, strung out on prescription drugs all the time, would you go hang out with them? Would you discuss the finer points of life with them? Heck, would you even go to a baseball game with them?

Is it any question then that the Marlin fan, ever anxious here in Miami, has been suffering from shell-shock while reading the papers for the last 15+ years? Just look at the coverage from yesterday.

Nothing of note to begin with and any coverage is tinged with negativity.

I know it is Le Batard's nature to pee on things. That is how he shows ownership. Instead of celebrating something, he has to bring it down to his level and pee on it. Get a whiff.

The Palm Beach Post, actually, is the best source to read on the Marlins and as usual, they are exemplary here. They at least note that it was a bad 4th inning that did in the Marlins yesterday instead of choosing to focus on negative ideas about how bad the season is supposedly going to be. No digs at the ownership, no attacks on the attempts at making the game more of an event for the fans, no slams on the players. Just good coverage.

I was surprised by the Sun Sentinel's Opening Day coverage for a change. They at least tried as hard as they could to put something more positive together. They wrote an article about Loria bringing in his old professor from Yale to watch the game, someone he greatly admires. Which is shocking because Mike "I hate the Marlins" Berardino wrote it. They also put together a snippet of photos from Opening Day and had a sound bite running with the photos. What emerged was a strong illustration of why Opening Day is important to this franchise and this community. Of course it ended with a Met fan bragging about being a Met fan in Miami and Dolphins Stadium is basically Shea with some Marlin fans. Of course, in typical NY mook mode, the guy refers to the Mets winning a "national championship". Well, they have the colors of the Florida Gators...but they are professionals. At least, last I checked.

So there was Opening Day. A day for Marlin fans to celebrate another season - something that hasn't been easily expected for about a decade now but can now become a fixed event in the minds of South Floridians. Who knows, maybe in a few years the games will actually have more Marlin fans than Mets. And maybe even better coverage of our franchise that has, after all, won two World Series titles.

Wouldn't that be something?