When news broke about the shady details of the massive Marlins trade that owner Jeffery Loria signed off on, it understandably left the city fuming. But now even the mayor, Tomas Regalado, has come out admonishing the Marlins’ front office for this despicable trade, that would send all the team’s money makers (talent) to Toronto.
Regalado has come out and said:
I am writing a letter to the Major League asking them to intervene, to make them that the people of Miami had very high hopes and spent a lot of money to build this stadium, and they have to comply.
As of now the trade is still under review as per the words of Commissioner Bud Selig, so Regalado is totally within his right to address Major League Baseball in pleading the case of the city of Miami. MLB campaigned hard in Miami to get the stadium built, going so far as to say that the team would leave the city altogether if a new stadium was not build. The ‘switch and bait’ tactic has now played out like a script with Miami residents footing the bill for a dream they were sold on. This trade will leave the Marlins totally noncompetitive and almost unwatchable, so an argument could be made in whether or not Loria acted in the true best interests of the team and sport of baseball.
The letter by Regalado doesn’t exactly add leverage to the fans side, not even in the slightest. Let’s not forget that the same man the mayor wrote the letter to–Bud Selig, is the same man employed by owners like Jeffery Loria. So, all signs show that the deal will very much still go on as planned, unfortunately for the city of Miami. But the fact that more of the city has rallied around the team in a situation like this just indicates the frustrations and true flaws that the nations former pastime still has yet to work out.