Miami Marlins home run structure to stay put
By Jason Burke
After a long week of discussions revolving around structures and statues being taken down around the country, the least controversial of them is staying put, preserving the years long history of Marlins Park.
There has been some controversy over whether Derek Jeter and the new ownership group that is coming in to take over the Miami Marlins would take down one of the most talked about aspects of Marlins Park, the home run structure in left-center.
Well, it turns out that the ownership group doesn’t get an opinion on the matter, as the structure itself was commissioned by the County of Miami-Dade and therefore belongs to them. It also cost $2.5 million to make, so that would be like spending a bunch of money that includes three consecutive seasons of player options on Wei-Yin Chen then having his UCL tear after a year and a half. In other words, it’d be wasted money.
The structure (pictured above) has been very divisive among baseball fans for some reason. Personally, I like the thing. It gives the park some distinction, and if this is what the County came up with as a representation of Miami-Dade, then that’s awesome.
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I have never been over that way, so I cannot attest to the accuracy of the piece, but I know that when I do travel to Miami, that if I do not end up seeing marlins doing backflips with water spouting out around them, I may be sorely disappointed.
The Miami Herald lists the structure at 73 glorious feet tall, and with something that massive it would be hard to replace. I mean, they could have built another swimming pool, but that’s not original. They could have had another fish tank, but this park already has ’em. This home run structure may single-handedly be what brings people to Marlins games from out of town. It sure isn’t the product on the field most years.
While thoughts of a potential buy-out could be floated, with the new ownership group taking on the original cost of the piece, it doesn’t appear as though that will work in displacing this home run machine as it was commissioned as part of the County’s Art in Public Places program, which “requires construction of county buildings to include art as well.” It is also permanently installed. Permanent kinda means it’s not going anywhere.
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A lot of people like to have fun at the Marlins’ expense–heck, I’ve thrown a couple of light jabs in here–but with a new ownership group set to take over, it’ll be good to see another set of hands at the controls. Baseball is better when there are 30 dedicated owners that are trying to field a competitive team, or at least building towards doing so. The Marlins have plenty of ground to make up in order to start sniffing around the postseason, but with some savvy moves in the next few years, they could be well on their way–and the home run structure will be there to toll each and every long ball along the way.