Miami Marlins fall on Opening Day, & slew of empty seats should send loud message to owner | Opinion

It Is special, Opening Day in baseball, the only sport whose startup merits the capital letters. Baseball for all its faults still lifts every year like an American flag at sunrise, full of the tradition of yesterday and the hope for tomorrow -- even as the old, slow game has lost its grip as our National Pastime and is so desperate to rally it has tweaked its rules to quicken the pace and win back our attention.

And they tried their best to dress it up and make it as special as an Opening Day in baseball is supposed to be Thursday as the Miami Marlins unfurled the 31st season in franchise history.

Players and staff from both teams stood along the baselines. Red, white and blue bunting decorated the place. The ceremonial first pitch -- Livan Hernandez to Jeff Conine -- conjured memories of the club’s ever-distant championship days. The real pitching matchup -- Marlins’ Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara vs. the New York Mets’ three-time Max Scherzer -- was as good as any in baseball.

So why did Opening Day in Miami feel (and look) so sad even before the first pitch was thrown?

The Marlins not only failed to sell out It’s-Still-Marlins Park-To-Me on Opening Day (again), it wasn’t even close. Entire sections of upper-deck, corner-outfield bleachers were empty expanses of dark blue. And that was despite a large turnout of New York fans whose “Let’s go Mets!” chants were the first and last to be heard. If you closed your eyes, you might have been in Queens.

The Marlins’ 5-3 loss was not the ace-on-ace duel expected. Brandon Nimmo’s two-run double in the seventh made a loser of Marlins reliever Tanner Scott. Miami wasted a two-run homer by Garrett Cooper and two hits and an RBI by Luis Aarrez in his Marlins debut.

Just days earlier this same ballpark was filled for the World Baseball Classic, with fans turning out to support the Dominican Republic team, and Venezuela and Puerto Rico.

But the hometown Marlins could not sell out Opening Day, the announced crowd of 31,397 more than 6,000 shy of full.

Sorry, planned to write a happy column; hope springs eternal and all that. But this was a bit embarrassing.

It rained hard a couple of hours before the game so they closed the roof. Blame that?

Always an excuse, always a reason, right?

How’s this: The Marlins unfurled overshadowed in their own backyard by an historic-for-us men’s Final Four that includes the Miami Hurricanes and FAU. As the Heat and Panthers jockey for the playoffs. As MLS soccer digs in here and Miami Open tennis nears its crescendo and the Florida Derby is on deck and South Florida has so many reasons, as always, to make the Marlins earn their slice of a jammed-full pie.

And they haven’t. They don’t.

Miami last had a winning record in a full (non-pandemic) season in 2009.

These Marlins should be much better than last season, though that’s a low bar to hop after a 69-93 record a year ago. The starting rotation could be dynamic. The offense is fortified. Miami is seen as around a .500 team with an outside shot at the playoffs.

Alcantara fronts a dynamic starting rotation. Offseason free-agent gets Arraez and Jean Segura top an improved batting lineup. And a full, healthy season of Jazz Chisholm Jr. is a delight worth wishing for.

Chisholm’s walkup music Thursday was a song called ... “Jazz Chisholm,” by rapper P Kaye, a fellow Bahamian. Gotta love it.

The ‘23 Fish are seen as good enough to maybe be favored in at least two other MLB divisions.

Unfortunately they are stuck in the mighty NL East, where the big-spending Atlanta Braves (No. 3), Mets (6) and Philadelphia Philllies (7) all are ranked among the best teams in baseball in ESPN’s latest rankings. (The Marlins are 23rd.)

Miami finishing better than fourth place in their division would be a surprise.

Winning the NL East would be getting into Al Michaels/miracle territory.

Al asked us if we believe in those. Do we?

I mean, every once in awhile sports and the fate that steers it see a script, laugh and rip it to shreds, right?

Giants can fall as the small stand tall. We see it too often to not believe. Cinderella can be real and magic can be, too.

The latest proof is all around us. UM and FAU in the Final Four has stunned and lifted South Florida. So is any of that gold dust left over and transferable to the local diamond?

The Marlins are in a long, deep rut and seemingly always needing a miracle, and the fundamental reason is no great mystery.

Spending. Former owner Jeffrey Loria did not, and now Bruce Sherman is not, either.

The Marlins are not keeping up with the Joneses. Or the Mets, Braves or Phillies.

In MLB 26-man Opening Day player payrolls, according to Spotrac, the Mets are first in spending at $270.5 million, the Phils are fourth at $181.7 million and the Braves are ninth at $164.5M.

The 30-team average is $122.1 million.

The Marlins rank 23rd in spending at $81.1 mill.

Spending does not guarantee winning, no, and there are outliers and exceptions. But a correlation between spending and winning (and winning and crowds) is the rule. Not for nothing is “You get what you pay for” a saying.

Two venture capital companies that are Marlins’ minority owners are investing in the startup of a sport called Slamball, which is a basketball/football mashup ... with trampolines. No, seriously.

While Marlins ownership is spending 30 percent of what the Mets are. It is not sustainable. Fans deserve better -- and they keep telling you so, Mr. Sherman, loudly, by their absence.

Spend too little. Be mediocre. Don’t draw. Rinse, repeat.

Spending enough in the real world -- competitive with what others in your division are doing -- is no guarantee, but it’s a start. It is the major step not yet taken.

The alternative? The wheel-spinning status quo. Keep doing what you’re doing. Keep trying to improve on a budget by just being smarter or luckier than everybody else.

And keep failing to sell out at home on Opening Day, even when half of the crowd is chanting, “Let’s go Mets!”