The Weekend When Marlins Park Witnessed its Potential

(Originally Published on Florida Sports Report on March 26th, 2017)

The most understated news of the World Baseball Classic was the first round happenings in Miami. Now, most of the papers will describe the great attendance (Dominican Republic sold out two of the three games), the great games, and the fact that Marlins Park can actually fill up when the event is right. Here is one detail they are missing, one major detail:

Hispanics took over Marlins Park on that fateful weekend.

Marlins Park didn’t just fill up, it created a noise the ballpark had never experienced. American and Canadian fans and baseball players were victims of an uprising of noise, music, cheering, and culture they were most certainly not prepared for. Colombia and especially the Dominican Republic invaded Little Havana, invaded the highways, and ultimately conquered Marlins Park in a way Major League Baseball could not predict. And I can attest to this because, well, I was part of the noise.

Not even going to bring up the other matchups preceding the greatest example of this, we are going straight to the Dominican Republic/United States showdown. The loudest crowd in the history of Marlins Park occurred on March 11th. And it wasn’t just one moment, it was nearly the entire night. I will admit that the crowd noise was calming ever so slightly when the United States built the 5-0 lead. But before the lead was established, we had chants occurring outside the ballpark, parades bouncing left and right, entire percussion segments sparking deafening chants between the seats and concession stands. Airhorns are bouncing around, chairs are being hit, hands are relentlessly being clapped until they changed colors, flags are being waved, and for the night Miami became Santo Domingo.

This is before the game started.

And as the underachieving Dominican Republic baseball team continued to struggle to score runs when the opportunity was there, the Americans were pouncing on every opportunity. They knew they had to quiet the crowd and kill the momentum. Then the fans responded with chants of “ahora es,” which was our clamoring to convince our Dominicans that now is the time to strike and score runs. And as the runs started piling up on our side, the cheering got louder. Soon, nobody was sitting whenever the Dominicans came up to the plate with someone on base. Only first base? Who cares, that’s still a potential run and we were going to will them in with our prideful noise.

As a matter of fact, the noise by the 8th inning was so ridiculous, few of us even noticed that one of the best closers in all of baseball was brought in to try to stop the Dominican comeback. We didn’t see the dominant Andrew Miller, we saw a Dominican team inches away from completing the improbable and continue the winning streak that has stretched out to four years and began during our 2013 championship run. We didn’t want to lose. Not tonight. Not to the Americans, not to the country that has treated this tournament like an exhibition when the Caribbean freezes to fully focus on the Classic. We weren’t going to lose on what we transformed into our home turf. No way.

Of course, you should know what happened next.

.@ncboomstick23 put a team on his back and a country on its feet. #WBC2017 pic.twitter.com/c2tB3D0LOk

— WBC Baseball (@WBCBaseball) March 12, 2017

Marlins Park didn’t just explode in happiness. It was shaking, it was literally shaking.

The roof was open and I’m sure half of Miami could hear the ecstasy of completing the comeback, taking the lead, and being one inning away from pretty much guaranteeing an advancement to the second round. 37,000 sounded like 60,000, not even kidding. And after that final out, everyone bolted towards the exits but not to go home, but instead to continue the celebration elsewhere. Of course, the Calle Ocho Festival (one of the nine zillion events that yearly occur in Miami) was happening on the same weekend. Miami, already fluent in Spanish, became the only language of the entire Little Havana County as the 40,000 within the confides watching the game poured out into the festival. I eventually made my way to an awesome restaurant called Latin Café on the edges of the airport area after the game, and most of the eatery consisted of people that had gone to the game and had run out of words. There was this subdued happiness as the Dominican Republic won, and we had excellent Cuban food to finish off the night.

So with the World Baseball Classic having its scheduling issues thanks to Spring Training and Major League Baseball not budging in its moneymaking ways to enhance the fastest-growing sports tournament in the world, the Dominicans had to play a game merely 12 hours after the final out against USA. I struggled to make it to the game, since the night before absorbed all of my baseball energy. Nonetheless, I had to root for my Dominicans for proudly winning a game they had been losing most of the night. I didn’t expect a crowd, I expected a milder audience, and most of us hungover from the marathon of Saturday night.

But my Dominican fans impressed me, surprised me, and shocked me as to how much leftover energy they had to will the Dominicans through another extremely tough game. Colombia has put up a great fight against every team, and also managed to push D.R. to the limits. And the Colombian fans, a lot more combative yet cheerful than the American fans, also showed up to represent. Another Hispanic matchup, another Marlins Park sellout, and another boisterous crowd treated to a fantastic game with great plays, emotions of the highest level, a crazy game-saving play that tossed the game into extra innings——-I interrupt this article to bring you more visual proof—-

—alright, let’s continue—

and so much more chaos from the stands into the field. The potential of the Classic was being met and then with added interest the fourth time around. It is about a couple tournaments and a few necessary fixes away from being a Top 5 sporting event in the planet. I’m not even exaggerating.

Between the music, the emotions, the energy lies a problem Major League Baseball faces: how can we even match that type of intensity and fun throughout the season leading up to the always-vicious August/September playoff chase run? How can the regular season even consider bringing this level of entertainment? Truth is, unless the season becomes insanely shorter, it’s impossible. However, there is a lot learn and digest from that infamous weekend in Miami.

164,000 was the attendance in Marlins Park within the 6 games, for an average of 27,300 per game. Two sellouts, average attendance being 6,000 higher per game when compared to Marlins home games, and this is just opening round matchups. Imagine if Miami had gotten the semi-finals or even the finals. Not sure South Florida could survive that wave of energy. Yea, Los Angeles drew 50,000, but they definitely lucked out with the United States reaching the championship game. The buzz in Little Havana was the kind Miami doesn’t experience. Most importantly, it shows that the Hispanic market is indeed heavy enough to create a very fun atmosphere that the Marlins (Florida baseball in general) desperately needs.

But there are these hurdles that continuously get in the way. For starters, the Marlins doesn’t cater enough to the Hispanic market, which is very bizarre. During the season, the instruments, excessive noise, and intimidating energy is generally frowned upon. The league, and the team, still caters to a specific audience that likes to chill, relax, and enjoy a nice ballgame and watch the Boys of Summer compete. That is fine and all, but just one thing:

Miami now belongs to the Hispanics. The Marlins should follow suit.

This might sound prejudiced and might sound anti-American, but let’s just look at the numbers:

In the 1950s, 80% of Miami-Dade was White. Then a lot happened.

Miami-Dade County is 67% Hispanic. 63% of Miami-Dade citizens speak Spanish at home. 93% of the foreign-born citizens are from Latin America. 8 of the 10 largest groups of immigrants are from a Spanish country, with Cuba leading the way and we even see lesser-known countries like Honduras and Argentina making the list. If a person who has never been to America starts out their journey in Miami, they would be convinced that the United States has been conquered by Spanish, which stops being the case once you cross north of Disney World. But the South Florida region regardless of who is running the show and who makes the most money has the heaviest Latin flavor in all of USA. Miami-Dade is the largest county in the country with a dominant Hispanic population. And I haven’t even touched upon the nearly 40 million that visit Miami yearly nowadays. The Hispanics desire more representation, especially since the state government tends to overlook the area as they clash on global warming, arts, politics, and much more. The Marlins can become one of the representations of the uber-growing Hispanic base in Florida.

The Miami Marlins overall needs to be more Spanish, which is something I’ve argued before but after witnessing the Classic bring life to a beautiful ballpark devoid of a pulse throughout most of the regular season, is truer than ever. We need more events in the park, we need to allow the music, we need to allow the freedom to express ourselves (to an extent) and we need to have the permission to be permanently loud, not selectively loud. The United States partially lost because the 30,000 Dominican fans intimidated them to blowing the lead. Whether it was the music, the horns, everyone standing and chanting in pitch-perfect unison, the Dominican team needed wings and we provided them. We can do the same to the Marlins, we just need the permission to possess this power during each homestand. P.S. Playing a couple exhibition and regular season games in different areas of Central America and the Islands would be a nice extra touch to getting the support of the Caribbean throughout the year.

Of course, the main hurdle is the city itself. Miami is a sexy busy city with millions of things to do: moral, immoral, legal, illegal, exciting, questionable, delicious, delirious, and overall fun. It is hard for a sports team to compete with a city as busy as Miami, but its indeed possible if you can transform Marlins Park into a must-visit, transform it into yet another party zone for Hispanic America to enjoy and participate in. Marlins Park can see attendance boosts just by Español-theming their home games, whether it be a Merengue Night, a Bachata Night, a  Salsa night, a Calle Ocho Night, and other games dedicated to specific Hispanic countries. Imagine a three-game Havana Nights homestand complete with Cuban music from the PA as well as from the fans, extra stands selling Cuban food, special performances after the game, and exclusive Marlins-themed Cuban merchandise. Dipping your toes into the Hispanic market isn’t enough, dive right in and embrace the joy and fury of a Caribbean baseball environment.

But we also need a team that can feed off of this type of energy. I’m not saying create a team only of Hispanics, because even the American players during the USA/D.R. match were getting standing ovations from the crowd because of their affiliation to the Marlins (Gioncarlo Stanton being the top example). In order for this fresh new generation of baseball to work, you also need a team willing to embrace the energy. We can’t have any shy or hard-nosed players for the Marlins, the uncomfortable levels would be through the retractable roof.

Not saying we can unleash the record crowd and insanity of the World Baseball Classic all the time, but we can harness a good portion of energy that Marlins Park (and most ballparks in baseball for that matter, which is in part because of the unwritten rules of noise control in MLB) desperately needs. Even a fraction of the fun unleashed by Colombian, Venezuelan, Puerto Rican, and Dominican fans would be enough to make Marlins Park a marquee location, a must-visit venue, and another landmark in Miami’s nightlife as well as a good place for families to take their kids. By simply caving in to the Central American/Caribbean methods of fan interaction in baseball games would jack up the attendance to better numbers, because this kind of baseball viewing is addicting to attend, it’s fun for everyone, and the game itself becomes more entertaining no matter what the score reads. At 5-0 in the 6th inning, me and the Dominicans were still having a blast, and that’s with the potential idea that we were going to lose the game etched in the back of our minds.

The Hispanics have conquered Miami, this is something that must be accepted. Let them also conquer Marlins Park and watch the revenue, attendance, funfactor, likability, and overall engaging energy increase to satisfactory levels. The World Baseball Classic’s epic first round party in Little Havana is the defining piece of evidence. Even if we won’t quite reach the World Cup-like fury of the Classic, let the overly large flags wave, let the music play throughout the game, let the fans dictate the energy, and watch Marlins Park become one of the best venues in baseball. We have the population and collective culture to pull it off.

Open the floodgates of fun, and you’ll open a new era of Miami baseball. One you will love to be a part of.