January 2009
Ped Egg Park
As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, this week the Marlins released renderings of their proposed baseball-only stadium that is scheduled–pending a final vote on February 13th–to open in 2012.
The Countdown is On.
Horrified that they will soon have to scratch “your pathetic team doesn’t even have its own home” off their list of reasons to rail on Fish fans, sportswriters immediately scrambled to find fault with the proposed ballpark. The Marlins new home has since been dubbed big white spaceship, the latest scanner design from HP, bagel slicer, dark helmet, and the scrubbing bubble, among other things.
Now don’t get me wrong, I have my own thoughts on the unique design (pictured top left). But there is a stronger feeling in me than the desire to berate the Marlins for going in a slightly different direction than I would have, and that’s the overwhelming excitement that courses through me at the thought of strolling through any Marlins stadium turnstiles–not matter what shape or design– on opening day three years from now.
For the last several years I have been bracing myself for the Fish to leave South Florida. After years of repeated disappointment on the new stadium front, in my mind it has not been a matter of if as much as when. So call me crazy, but if the county and city sign off on the final agreement and Jeff Loria decides he wants to build a giant replica of a tin can in the middle of Little Havana, I will gleefully attend ball games at StarKist Stadium come 2012.
Sorry, but I sort of liken complaining about the stadium’s design to griping that somebody has just given you a Ferrari F70 in black rather than red. Are we really going to fuss about this? OK, we probably are, but at this point I don’t care what their new house looks like, so long as it keeps them in the neighborhood.
(Quite literally, at marlins.com.)
If you’ve been wondering why HLD&S left a Christmas greeting up on the blog until January 30th, it’s because we are striving to give equal celebratory opportunity to both international and US holidays, and therefore decided to wait until after the Chinese new year to stop celebrating Christmas. Or, it could be because we are the type of blog that leaves its Christmas lights up on the house all year due to nothing but pure laziness, only bothering to remove them when in mid-August an irate city code officer slaps a warning on our door, threatening us with a $300 ticket if said holiday luminaries are not removed within the week. I’ll leave it up to you to decide which.
As we prepare to bid goodbye to January, I am filled with chills of excitement at the fact that one of my favorite months of the year is about to begin. So much to celebrate in the great, strangely short month of February: Groundhog Day, Valentine’s Day, President’s Day, My Birthday (not quite a national holiday, but regional at the least), Fanfest, and most importantly, BASEBALL!!! In less than 48 hours I will be able to say, “SPRING TRAINING STARTS THIS MONTH.” Joy unspeakable.
Expect new and exciting things from your (65th-)favorite Marlins blog as the season draws nearer. Like maybe blog posts that are spaced a little closer together than once every six weeks.
marlinkelly
Recent Comments