The Marlins are a mess. We’ve been saying that for months, even though new ownership was supposed to be an opportunity for things to, you know, not be a mess, maybe. This week, though, saw the Marlins get even messier, by means of arguing their corporate citizenship.
The Marlins are somehow shadier than you thought
Wednesday’s Say Hey, Baseball tries to wrap its head around the Marlins.
Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
You see, the Marlins are being sued by the county they play in, thanks to the sale of the Marlins that had former owner Jeffrey Loria claimed a loss of $140 million despite a sale of $1.2 billion — claiming this loss allowed Loria to avoid paying his part in contractually negotiated profit-sharing, an agreement that helped Loria build the new taxpayer-funded ballpark that brought the value of the Marlins to healthily over $1 billion in the first place.
New ownership’s response to this lawsuit is to claim that local courts can’t handle this case, because the Marlins are actually a corporation residing in the British Virgin Islands ... because one member of ownership claims residence there. Therefore, this is an international case, to be handled internationally, for the very international Marlins will only receive a fair trial that way. Internationally, that is.
Let’s recap: the Miami Marlins, who are being sued by Miami-Dade County, for an agreement reached between the former owner and Miami-Dade County that helped finance a ballpark located in Miami for the team that plays its games in Miami, actually do their business from the British Virgin Islands. Someone call Rob Manfred, the game has already expanded to a third country!
And you thought Jeffrey Loria’s history of lawsuits while owner were something.
This is all ridiculous. If the Marlins are allowed to get away with this, it’s even more ridiculous. Will they get away with it? Well, the world is an unfair place that enriches people like Jeffrey Loria and new principal owner Bruce Sherman at the expense of everyone who comes into contact with them, so, stayed tuned!
- Hello baseball friends, did you see Grant Brisbee is injecting baseball right into your baseball hole every Monday morning? If you somehow didn’t notice, just click here. Just a little ole click, and you’ve got baseball.
- Grand slams are the theme of this week, apparently, so Whitney McIntosh collected them all in one place for you. That was pretty thoughtful of her, don’t you think?
- The Dodgers are reportedly set to host the 2020 MLB All-Star Game, and they didn’t even have to fleece local government and taxpayers to get a new stadium first.
- The Hardball Times would like to remind you there are other players like Shohei Ohtani and Babe Ruth besides Ohtani and Ruth.
- Russell A. Carleton, over at Baseball Prospectus, looks to see if there’s a method to whatever it is that Gabe Kapler is doing.
- Aaron Sanchez had himself a start on Tuesday night, and Bluebird Banter isolated the most impressive part.
- David Price is off to a great start for the Red Sox, and Over the Monster looked to see what’s driving it.
- Matt Kemp hit a homer for the Dodgers for the first time since the 2014 National League Division Series.
- The Mets sent down Brandon Nimmo, and Amazin’ Avenue thinks the team is making a mistake.
- Logan Morrison was signed to add more power to the Twins lineup, but that’s not how things have gone so far.
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