Monday, September 16, 2013

The WORST Owner in Sports

Jeffrey Harold Loria, the current owner of the Miami Marlins is the absolute worst owner I've ever seen and his treatment of his players is appalling. His behavior does not go with how an owner is supposed to behave. Most owners in sports usually shy away from controversy and media ire, but it seems like Mr. Loria thrives under such conditions. Loria is 100 times worst than Jerry Jones (owner/general manager of the football team the Dallas Cowboys). Loria oversteps his boundaries to the point where he's making calls as to who will be called up to the majors (which is usually the general managers job). Yes, the Marlins have two World Series championships, and yes Loria was the helm for the latest one in 2003, but the way he runs his organization is chaotic at best.

Loria's mistreatment of a sports franchise started when he was part owner of the now contracted Montreal Expos. Rumors had it that once Loria took over the Expos his plan was to move the Expos out of Montreal especially after he failed to capture a new stadium for the Expos, but how did Loria expect to get a new stadium when the stadium the Expos played in still hadn't been paid off yet? Once Loria found his way to get out from the Expos by selling the team to Major League Baseball he was able to buy the then Florida Marlins from John Henry who then bought the Boston Red Sox.

I can't imagine being a Florida/Miami Marlins fan. The ownership wins a World Series and the very next off season the team is stripped down with the general manager working at his owner's orders replaces the players that just won a championship with a bunch of rookies. And the fan based has to sit through more years of futility until the prospects that replaced the veterans can make a miracle run instead of building a potential dynasty.

But the last couple of years Loria has just dropped a heaving, filthy, disgusting deuce on the Marlins and their fans. First, the Marlins finally get their stadium in Miami that has a bunch public funds tied to it so the fans have put up or are going to put the money to maintain the stadium and have to pay to watch the lowly Marlins play way under .500 baseball. Then with their new stadium came a bunch of high priced moves signing veterans that have talent and most of them have a winning pedigree which Loria decides to hire Ozzie Guillen to manage. Anyone following baseball knows that Ozzie Guillen is not a manager for veterans he'd be better off managing rookies. After only one season, Loria decides to strip down the team AGAIN this time because "this isn't working. This team needs a new direction." Never gave the players (who he promised he wouldn't trade) that he signed a chance to perform and traded the majority of them to the Toronto Blue Jays.

This year the Miami Marlins had a Minor League hitting coach Tino Martinez, who Loria had hand picked for the job, got out of hand with several minor leaguers and Loria promised never to reveal who the players were in their internal investigation, but then "sources" revealed the names to the media anyways. One of the players who's been around several teams and was hoping to break through with the Marlins Chris Valaika spoke up against Tino Martinez and because he did Loria decided to overrule his general manager (which rarely happens) and leave Valaika in the minors and calling up another player instead as punishment for his testimony against Tino Martinez. The day Loria sells the Marlins there's going to be a parade and the day will be of celebration that he's gone.

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