Fish Take BP at New Stadium For the First Time

[rmc523]

Is that big black screen in the video of Morrison hitting suppose to just mimic where the video screen will be?

No, that IS the video screen.

[MiamiHomer]

No, that IS the video screen.

Oh nice, kind of surprised it was installed that early.

[Todd]

I thought I read somewhere the screen would be the biggest in baseball(taking over the new Royals screen). Maybe I am misremembering?

[Party]

Nowhere near the biggest in baseball. It is the biggest asymmetrical screen in baseball.

[Party]

By David Villavicencio / Special to MLB.com

MIAMI -- Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria may not be an expert craftsman, but he and team president David Samson could not hold back their excitement as the club's new ballpark inched closer to completion.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Marlins' two top officials grabbed their tools and made section 19, row H, seat 12 the first seat installed at the club's new stadium, which is slated to open for the 2012 season. Thanks to a fan suggestion, the historic seat will be easily found by anyone who visits the ballpark.

"I got an e-mail from a season-ticket holder that he read an article on MLB.com that we were doing the seat installations," Samson said. "He said, 'I have an idea. You have all blue seats. Why not install a seat of a different color so that everyone will know that it was the first seat installed?' I immediately called Jeffrey and said, 'We need to do this,' and he agreed. Then I found out we could order one red seat, and that's what we did."

After Loria and Samson finished their handiwork, the pair watched several of the Marlins' biggest names take a memorable round of batting practice.

"The No. 1 most memorable thing was the first ground ball hit by Hanley [Ramirez]. It was the first swing of the bat in this ballpark. It was an absolute six to three, and it was great," Samson joked. "Then the next thing was when the first home run was hit. Hanley hit it, and you heard cheers. It was the construction workers, and I imagined 37,000 of those. That was the first cheer in this ballpark."

"That makes you feel good," Ramirez said of the cheers he and his teammates received. "For me, it was an honor to be the first player to hit in the new stadium. I want to thank the Marlins for that opportunity. It was unbelievable, and I'm never going to forget it."

Joining Ramirez for Tuesday's first batting practice were Chris Coghlan, Gaby Sanchez, John Buck, Logan Morrison and Mike Stanton.

"It was amazing," Sanchez said. "Just being able to hit down here and see how the ball is going to travel was great. They say that it's a pitcher-friendly park, but the balls traveled pretty good for us."

Each player received cheers from the construction workers shagging balls throughout the area where the outfield will eventually be. But no one received a louder ovation than Stanton, who hit a ball out of the stadium during his second round of swings. Despite flashing his prodigious power, he joked afterward about potentially making the park more hitter-friendly.

"It's a little better without the actual feet sign out there, so you don't know how far you're hitting it, but I was talking with Loria about how we should move the plate closer," Stanton joked.

Not to be outdone by his fellow outfielder, Morrison was quick to point out that he hit some impressive shots himself.

"I've seen it before, but it was pretty cool," Morrison said of Stanton's out-of-the-park homer. "I get it better on the right-field side, because I got to put some in the upper deck."

According to Samson, the new ballpark is about 60 percent complete, and the team expects to have the stadium's naming rights sold around Opening Day.

"We've got the place where the name is going to go. The steel is already up," Samson said. "We're negotiating. I really want that done by the end of this first quarter -- so done by April -- and that's still the goal."

The project is still on time and on budget, and an estimated date of completion has been tentatively set, but that could change if South Florida experiences an active hurricane season.

"We'd like it done for March 1, because we want soft openings with college baseball games and pro exhibition games leading up to Opening Day," Samson said. "We'll start putting dates on that as soon as this next hurricane season is over. There have been some events we've turned down for preseason, because we don't know for sure until we get through the next hurricane season when it will be done."

While Samson has been responsible for a lot of the new ballpark's ideas, the idea for Tuesday's memorable event came from vice president of baseball operations Larry Beinfest. He was in Seattle when they had Ken Griffey Jr., Jay Buhner and several other Mariners take batting practice a few months before Safeco Field officially opened.

"We took it just a step further," Samson said. "We wanted to do it this Spring Training as part of the Caravan, plus for the workers, it was such a great thing. We wanted to see balls hit in here. It felt like a baseball park today."

David Villavicencio is a contributor to MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

http://florida.marlins.mlb.com/news/...s_fla&c_id=fla

http://florida.marlins.mlb.com/fla/p...f16640248.html

Loria pitched BP.

[Miamarlin21]

So much for the fan helping.

[Party]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TKnKVQorXw&feature=player_embedded[/ame]
--------------------

Mike Berardino

Sun Sentinel Columnist

6:31 PM EST, February 15, 2011

advertisement

MIAMI – The man's name was Manny Fernandez.

Really.

Said so right there on the front of his white hardhat.

Same name as the former Miami Dolphins great who won championships on this same hallowed ground nearly four decades ago.

"No relation," the man said with a smile.

Modern-Day Manny never saw his defensive namesake or any of the old Dolphins play in the Orange Bowl. He's too young for that.

But as a construction foreman at the new Florida Marlins ballpark, which went through a sneak peek of sorts Tuesday morning, he is playing a key role in a controversial project chugging toward a March 1, 2012 completion goal.

"I think it's gorgeous," Fernandez said. "The architecture here is beautiful."

Why shouldn't it be? Not only is the state-of-the-art ballpark going to cost (at least) $515 million, but Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria is drawing on his art-dealer expertise to provide input on every nook and cranny.

"Has been from Day One," said former Marlins great Jeff Conine, now a special assistant in the front office. "All the color combos, the seats, everything you see, he's had a part in."

You still had to use your imagination on this milestone morning, but if you squinted hard enough through the dust and the rubble, you could see it floating there in the distance.

Ballpark beauty.

Wait until they fill the oversized swimming pool.

Wait until they fill not one but two giant salt-water aquariums.

Wait until they install the giant, $2.5 million, Red Grooms sculpture in deep left-center.

"Museum-quality," Marlins President David Samson said.

It's going to light up for each Marlins home run.

"And Marlins will dive and seagulls will fly and flamingos will flamingo," Samson said. "So that all happens there."

Which brings us back to Fernandez, one of about 700 construction workers who took a couple-hour break to enjoy free lunch and shag long fly balls from current Marlins such as Hanley Ramirez and Mike Stanton.

Fernandez came up with one of the dozens of baseballs that rocketed into the unfinished corners of the outfield. Autographs from a handful of Marlins covered the ball, and now Fernandez walked over to Samson to get his signature as well.

Samson pointed to a smudge on the ball.

"That's where they hit it," Samson said. "Pretty cool."

Long ago, Fernandez's uncle had a football signed by all of the Super Bowl-winning Dolphins from the early '70s.

"We started playing with it when we were kids and we messed it up," Fernandez said. "We didn't know any better."

He won't make the same mistake with this baseball.

"Going to put it in a little case and make it look good," he said.

Things are different now.

Matthew Fernandez, his first child, was born four weeks ago Tuesday, and already Manny Fernandez finds himself daydreaming about future trips to watch Major League Baseball in this jewel of a ballpark.

"Oh, man, it's going to be incredible," Fernandez said. "Can you imagine that? Bring my son down to the game. Say, 'Hey, look, Dad worked here. He helped finish the concrete. Made it look nice.' "

Modern-Day Manny shook his head and gulped just a bit.

Have to admit, I did the same.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/f...6,print.column

[rmc523]

Oh nice, kind of surprised it was installed that early.

Well, the place is 60% done (hard to believe!). Plus, to finish the sections under it, they had to install it (due to supports necessary to hold the whole structure up until it was properly secured).

They've put the ribbon boards down the first baseline already too.

[HUGG]

Loria pitched BP.

Becoming much easier to like this guy lately.

I already did, but he's been even cooler as of late.

[Junior]

That place already looks awesome.

[Swifty]

Yeah I'm with Hugg, he's bordering on lovable.

[Ramp]

a lovable carpetbagger

[Todd]

I am proactively giving Morrison the nickname Twinkletoes.

[The Hanram]

a lovable carpetbagger

a radical yankee.

[Party]

I stumbled across these...