White House Petition

Ok you guys want a good laugh? Go ahead and read this. Go ahead, I’ll wait right here….*Whistle* *Whistle* Oh you’re back. How funny is that! Excuse me Mr. President, do we want you to fix the fiscal cliff? Nope get rid of Loria! Should you find alternative fuel sources? Nope we want Loria out of Miami! What about health care? No we want you to force Loria to sell the Marlins! So should you create more jobs? No, what part of we want new owners for the Miami Marlins don’t you understand?! With the all the problems going on in the United States, this petition to have the White House force Mr. Loria to sell the Marlins is what some people want. I cannot stop laughing!

Ok all jokes aside, I’m not laughing at the person who wrote the petition or the 30 people who signed it, I’m laughing about that this was actually on the White House website for awhile. Now let’s get serious for a second. I’m happy that someone took the time and made this petition, and that some people signed it. Not because I want Mr. Loria out of Miami, but because it shows that 1. people are using their 1st Amendment right (if it wasn’t for that amendment I probably wouldn’t be writing this right now); and 2. this shows that people care that much about baseball in Miami that they want the White House to step in.  Now, would I sign this petition if it was still up? No!

Oct. 2, 2012; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria is seen during batting practice against the New York Mets at Marlins Park. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Before everyone starts flooding my Twitter (@latinoloco4rwf), leaving me angry comments at the bottom of this article, or starts emailing me about “how can you not want Mr. Loria out of Miami” let me explain. I really don’t care if Mr. Loria stay or goes. I’m a Marlins fan. I’m a fan of the team not any one player. Now don’t get me wrong, when I build a connection to a certain player and he leaves I do get a little upset, but this is baseball. Players leave all the time, some due to free agency, some are traded away, they retire, or they get sent back down to the minors; so as a fan I just continue to root for my team. Look, this isn’t the first owner we’ve had that the fans haven’t liked. Wayne Huizenga sold off the 1997 team. John Henry could care less about our market while he was our owner and this past year he went and sold off half the Red Sox. So owners Miami fans don’t like is nothing new to us. We just have to keep cheering the team.

When I played in my younger day and into coaching little league there was a saying I always heard— “You play for the name in the front, not the back.” This is one of my favorite baseball sayings, and for the Marlins I will change it just a bit: “You cheer for the name in the front.” Look, I love the Marlins and former Marlins players. I’ll cheer for any former Marlin player as long as he’s not playing the Marlins (if he is, then I hope he strikes out, or in a pitcher’s case I hope he gets lit up). Look at it from my angle, rooting for the Marlins has gotten me what in my lifetime? 2 World Series championships. Now take any other fan my same age or younger; the only other team which has won more World Series in that time span is the Yankees. Also, only four other teams in that span have won 2, Blue Jays, Red Sox, Cardinals, and Giants. The rest of the league has only won one or none at all.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t be mad at some of the moves baseball teams make. By all means go ahead voice your opinion, it’s your right to do so. I’m proud of the Marlin fan who wrote that petition, and of the 30 fans who signed it. This is our team and we can react and say what we want about it; but always remember it’s a team and there is no I in team. So when baseball season starts, cheer for YOUR Miami Marlins! Let’s go Fish!