I was very happy a few years ago when spring training baseball returned to South Florida. So I'm delighted that the two teams that share the facility in West Palm Beach - the Houston Astros and the Washington Nationals - are both in the World Series.
I generally don’t believe in curses, but I make an exception for Marlins Park.
The financial scam that contributed to its construction doomed the stadium from the start. Opening day in 2012 – when Tropicana dancers accompanied players onto the field for their introductions, and then-owner Jeffrey Loria appeared in a golf cart with an ailing Muhammad Ali – didn’t help the art-filled ballpark in Little Havana. Within weeks the manager, Ozzie Guillén, was quoted in a magazine speaking highly of Fidel Castro.
The team’s most promising and charismatic player, pitcher José Fernández, was killed in a boating accident at the end of the 2016 season. Other top players were lost in trades, even – especially – after Derek Jeter became a co-owner. Jeter messed not only with the roster but with the art, moving Homer, Red Grooms’ whimsical home run sculpture, outside the stadium, despite a letter of protest from the artist. (Granted, Jeter had already traded the team’s biggest home run hitters.)
Since moving to their new home, the Marlins have not had a winning season. Attendance this year, for the second year in a row, should come in well under a million. And that’s with new $5 tickets and “improved” food options.
This week one of the traded players, Christian Yelich, returned with his new team, the Milwaukee Brewers. He promptly fouled a ball off his leg, fracturing his kneecap and ending his season and his MVP chances. It was a wrenching moment, and it demonstrated that even players who leave the Marlins aren’t immune to the curse.
At Grand Slams, Serena and Rafa often are like hurricanes, gaining strength and intensity as they advance. But I’m still hoping Medvedev can get past Dimitrov and pull off the upset. He has now bowed down before the almighty New York crowds – unfortunately, in my view, as it was fun to see somebody take them on, even though I didn’t like the way he treated that ball kid. In appearance he’s the opposite of Rafa – clothes hanging on his thin frame, long strands of hair accentuating his receding hairline. (Nadal’s balding too, but more aggressively on the top.) His head is large, his face intelligent; instead of Center Court at the U.S. Open, he looks like he should be in a Chekhov play.
Nick Kyrgios is a throwback to the volatile male players of old, which is quite an achievement considering he’s playing in the age of Hawk-Eye.
The U.S. Open starts today in Flushing Meadows, NY. In 1991, former champion Jimmy Connors entered as a wild card and made it all the way to the semifinals, a feat that people found remarkable considering the fact that he was 39. This year one of the favorites is 38-year-old Roger Federer.
Yesterday evening a text message arrived from my friend Greg: "Surely we are at the precipice. On ESPN2 right now is the world sign spinning championship."