Betrayed again

Florida Marlins managment has once again given the finger to the team's fans.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Dontrelle Willis was on vacation in Mexico when the blockbuster deal was completed, and Miguel Cabrera was home in Venezuela.

Their next stop is Detroit, where the busy Tigers are building an awfully powerful team.

The Tigers finalized their big trade with the Marlins on Wednesday, an eight-player swap that sent both coveted All-Stars from cash-strapped Florida to go-for-broke Detroit.

"I was caught off-guard," Willis said on a conference call. "When I heard where I was going, I was eager and excited."

The Marlins received a package of six players, including two highly rated prospects: left-hander Andrew Miller and outfielder Cameron Maybin. The teams reached a preliminary agreement Tuesday, with the deal subject to both sides being satisfied after exchanging medical records.

The Tigers also sent catcher Mike Rabelo and right-handers Burke Badenhop, Eulogio De La Cruz and Dallas Trahern to Florida in a huge trade that developed quickly and took the spotlight away from the Johan Santana sweepstakes at baseball's winter meetings.

The Marlins have conducted fire sales after winning the World Series in both 1997 and 2003. Cabrera and Willis were a big part of the 2003 squad and the last to still be playing for the Marlins.

What did Marlins' management and ownership say about this deal?

"We had a major meeting with ownership [after the season] and it was not a fun meeting," said Beinfest, the Marlins president of baseball operations. "You have to make some very difficult decisions. We've made them over the last few years. This is not a new thing for us. … Our ability to carry [Cabrera and Willis] through arbitration and into free agency is prohibitive in our current revenue structure."

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"This is not, 'Woe is the Marlins,'" he said. "We have really good players. … Our expectations have not changed. It's the same as always. We're going to go out there and try to win every day."

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"Although we cannot ignore the economic realities we face, which will change the moment we are in a new facility, our determination to win on the field remains as steadfast as ever," owner Jeffrey Loria said in a statement.

The same old broken record. We don't have money and you have to build a new stadium for the team. Why should South Florida support a team that regularly takes a wrecking ball to its business? Marlins management builds it up and then destroys it. Not once, but three times.

I'm not in favor of government handouts for any sports team. If Knucklehead Loria can't make do as is here in Florida, he should move somewhere else. Loria has threatened to do just that. Why hasn't he? I make a bet his record of blackmail tactics has something to do with it. They aren't going to persuade another city to throw away money on a franchise that has so little regard for the community they are a part of.

Linked to- Pirate's Cove, The World According to Carl, Yankee Sailor,