29 Teams Own 24% Of World Champ Marlins

[Wolf Hopper]

From: http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/spo...372203,00.html

Unlike the Cubs, who haven't won a world championship since 1908, or the Red Sox, whose championship drought extends only to 1918, the Marlins certainly are not a fan favorite. And neither club owner Jeffrey Loria nor team president David Samson, Loria's stepson, has endeared himself to fellow club owners during their tenure running the Montreal and Florida franchises.

But the other 29 owners are businessmen. They can only hope the Marlins' on-field success this year finally will lead to political support for a new stadium in South Florida, the lack of which has been blamed by both previous Marlins owners for the difficulties they experienced in selling the team.

Baseball's other 29 teams have a vested financial interest in the Marlins.

In February 2002, Loria sold the Montreal Expos for $120 million to MLB, which, in turn, allowed him to buy the Florida Marlins from John Henry for $158.5 million, which, in turn, allowed Henry to head a group that purchased the Boston Red Sox. Here's the catch:

To buy the Marlins, Loria had to come up with only the $120 million he received for the Expos. The other $38.5 million was loaned to him by MLB. If the Marlins don't win approval for a new stadium, the loan will be forgiven.

Funny how some teams can't keep players for lack of funds but they can throw out $1.3 million each to fund the Marlins - with the good risk that they will never see that money again.

[SmedIndy]

Jesus, Mary and Joseph - What's next for these crooks? Well, I guess what's next for the crook from Milwaukee.

All these teams that cut payroll OWN the Expos AND loaned Loria money.

It's enough to make you want to watch an NBA regular season game.

[Skip]

Wow. Sticky. Icky. Unclean.

But I still won't watch regular season NBA.

[sweaver]

I don't even watch the NBA playoffs.

This is really starting to smack of 1890s syndicate ownership. Oddly, that was the last time contraction took place. It was followed by the creation of a new league which quickly became more popular than the established one.

[LeGrandOrange]

And who's rules are still reviled by purists...

I really want to write a snappy barb because of my extreme disgust for Jeffrey F. Loria, but my material is exhausted.

Although reading this pretty much ASSURES me to thinking that Steve Bartman worked for MLB during Game 6. I'm convinced that there is legitimate reason for MLB to sway the Series in Florida's favor. I mean, son of a pitch, what else is MLB doing for that little fat ass, are they cleaning his house weekly or something? They keeping his expensive sports car clean?

I swear, he has MLB in the palm of his hands and he can pretty much have it do anything he god damn wants from him. He's worse than Selig until Budrick opens his mouth, then it sways towards him.

I mean, hell, you can do all this for Florida...but why the hell can't MLB *bleep*ing doing this for Montreal? Swear to god, NOBODY prominent gives a shift about helping that organization. The helplessness involved is just damn ridiculous. I just wish for once that someone gave a damn about that franchise, and stopped giving baseball a Floridian stronghold...*primal scream!*

Okay, I got that out of my system...

[KCBOOMER]

Tough to put any kind of positive spin on this. I usually do this to show there can be and frequently is two sides to the same coin. Certainly subsidizing Loria seems like a despicable idea.

Obviously, MLB or Bud thought it was wise to have John Henry own the Red Sox rather than the Marlins. To do that someone had to buy the Marlins. This couldn't be done because of current stadium lease and no new stadium. So under the guise of "contraction" Loria is transferred to Miami along with a loan to bring the purchase price up to an acceptable level. Then when contraction flops the owners are stuck with having to own the Expos.

Man, I don't know. Maybe Loria has pictures from the last "Owners & Goats" festival.

[Wolf Hopper]

Originally Posted by KCBOOMER

Obviously, MLB or Bud thought it was wise to have John Henry own the Red Sox rather than the Marlins.

See: http://www.netshrine.com/vbulletin2/...ead.php?t=2041

[JamesI]

These guys are crooks, period...