Not long after the new ownership group bought the Miami Marlins, face of the franchise Derek Jeter made it clear that he wanted the home runs sculpture beyond the outfield fence gone. In October they announced that it would, in fact, be moving out to a plaza or the parking lot or someplace you’re unlikely to ever see it because who goes to Marlins games?
Today we got a tease of what the Marlins are doing with the space the sculpture is vacating:
The Marlins will use the space in CF from the recently departed "Homer" statue to build a new three-tier social space, called the Center Field Zone, as well as paint the outfield wall from bright green to blue, and redesign the batter's eye. More details to come in SBD. pic.twitter.com/ICt5JEIs8t
— Eric Fisher (@AEricFisher) November 13, 2018
It was only a matter of time before that green wall went away. There are a lot of things I like about the overall aesthetic of Marlins Park, but almost all of them are because of their novelty. Jeff Loria was bad for a lot of reasons, but one of the few good things he did was eschew nostalgia and traditionalism with the ballpark. Nostalgia and traditionalism, unfortunately, is the straw that stirs baseball’s drink, so any “weird” colors or flourishes were gonna be beat out of that place as the years went on. It was inevitable.
As for the “three-tier social space,” here’s hoping that tickets for it are cheap or the Marlins start winning ballgames soon, because the Marlins can’t really fill their existing spectator spaces now.
