Amazin’ Avenue’s James Kannengieser rises to the defense:
Amazin’ Avenue: Defending The Marlins’ Home-Run Feature
The consensus seems to be that Marlins Ballpark's home run celebration machine is tacky, over-the-top, nonsensical and just plain awful. All of those adjectives are accurate, except for "awful", which should be replaced with "awesome."
--snip--
I want to hate all things Marlins -- especially considering the crony capitalism and theft of citizens' dollars which were integral for building Marlins Ballpark -- but I have to admire the home run celebration machine for the absurd spectacle that is is. Do I want every team erecting their own? Not necessarily, but some fresh architectural and attraction ideas in MLB would be welcome. I have lofty expectations for the Mercury Mets' stadium.
So here's hoping for further innovation in stadium design. And also an epic letdown of a season from a team managed by a guy who regularly tweets things like this.
Not necessarily every team? I think we have an early leader in the battle for Understatement of the Decade.
Seriously, I can see Kannengieser’s point. It is refreshing to see something unique in a new ballpark. And the Marlins’ home-run feature does seem of a piece with the more garish aspects of Miami’s heritage.
But I’ll say what I’ve (probably) said before: This thing is just too big, too garish. It’ll be a lot of fun -- for both the ironists and the regular people -- for a year or so, but will wear out its welcome relatively quickly. If the damned thing weren’t so expensive, I would give it a year, or two at most. But since the Marlins -- well, actually the region’s taxpayers -- have “invested” $2.5 million on the damned thing, it will probably last for at least as long as Jeffrey Loria remains the owner.
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