Now that a new ownership group — led by future Hall of Famer Derek Jeter — is running things in Miami, the Marlins have changed things up quite a bit.
On the field, it started with a fire sale of epic proportions that included the trade of reigning NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton — by far the Marlins' most-popular player — to the New York Yankees.
Though, various reports have suggested that Jeter and Co. want to do away with this tacky home run sculpture at Marlins Park.
Courtesy of Steve Mitchell, USA Today Sports
There's now another potential hiccup for the Marlins' brass if they decided to remove the eye sore. That comes in the form of the artist, Red Grooms, who created it.
According to the Miami Herald, Grooms might ultimately have final say about whether it stays.
"Under the arrangement, Grooms could “disavow” the sculpture if it is ever moved. That’s more than a symbolic flourish — a disavowal from Grooms would force Miami-Dade to mark down the value of the county-owned sculpture to virtually nothing," the report read.The sculpture cost $2.5 million to erect and was part of the $400 million in public financing that headed to the Marlins back in 2009 from Miami-Dade.
Would the city be willing to take a massive $2.5 million hit? Is it possible for the Marlins to even remove it without Grooms go-ahead? Neither of those things are known at this point.
What we do know is that Grooms wants it to remain.
“What I would like is for it to stay there,” Grooms said. “I wish it would just stay there and be hit in the bean with baseballs.”A native New Yorker, this could very well be another case of the Big Apple messing with the Marlins. After all, Jeter's first order of business was to trade Stanton to his former Yankee team.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://snipdaily.com/2018/02/artist-could-force-marlins-to-keep-tacky-home-run-sculpture/