For Second Time, Marlins Purge Championship Team

Once again, the Florida Marlins have made a mockery of whatever it is that Major League Baseball has allowed them to become.

They won the World Series in 1997, then immediately gutted the roster. Then won the Fall Classic again in 2003, and they have now systematically shed every single player who helped them achieve that in only four years.

With yesterday's trade of starting pitcher Dontrelle Willis and third baseman Miguel Cabrera to the Detroit for SIX players, the Marlins are essentially back where they were as an expansion team in 1993.

Columnist Dave Hyde in the Sun-Sentinel hits the nail on the head today.

"I can't even work up a good anger anymore. I can't type venom, or talk nasty or muster even an ounce of ugliness other than to ask in a weary tone: When does this ever end with the Marlins? Will they ever act like a major league franchise again?"

Not likely. The Marlins haven't done that yet.

Hyde continues:

"Look at Detroit now, too. Gary Sheffield. Pudge Rodriguez. Jim Leyland. Dave Dombrowski. Al Avila. Cabrera. Willis. They have more Marlins you want to watch than the Marlins. They have a bigger slice of this franchise's championship history than this franchise does.

You know how many Marlins players have a title ring from 2003? Zero. Cabrera and Willis were the last out the door. So they're all gone now, all the champs from four years ago. See ya. Even given the transitory world of pro sports, that's no way to create a bond with fans."

Yet, where is the Commissioner in all of this?

This is about money, nothing else.

The Marlins in 2007 received $30 million in revenue sharing, another reported $12 million in a local television deal and $18 million more from baseball's national television contract. That's against a $32 million payroll last year that could dwindle to about half that this year with the dumping of Willis and Cabrera.

And of course, sometime during the summer of 2008, owner Jeff Loria will cry poverty again. It will happen as the fans stay away in droves.