I had missed this because, let’s face it, it’s easy to miss stuff that happens with the Marlins, but apparently there is no longer an out-of-town scoreboard in whatever the hell the Marlins are calling their ballpark these days. No more starting lineups either. In their place: advertisements for the MLB Network and a picture of Billy the Marlin holding up a gloved fin and an ad for the Marlins Community Foundation.
Team president David Samson says the scoreboard and lineups aren’t needed: “every fan has a handheld device with Internet accessibility.’'
Every fan? Really? Because if you believe the people who know things about the market, only about one-in-five new phones sold these days are smartphones. Indeed, the vast majority of people don’t have handhelds with Internet accessibility, meaning that the vast majority of people who attend Marlins games would very much like to have an out-of-town scoreboard and the lineups handy.
Of course then Samson couldn’t get money for more ads and the Marlins wouldn’t be the most profitable team in baseball.
