Just when you thought the Marlins had used up all their "creativity" on their new logo, they've gone out and stunned us again.
The "new mechanized sculpture that will activate when the team hits a home run" at the new ballpark according to a Miami-Dade Cultural Affairs website made its debut today.
And there really are no words to describe it. Stomach it if you can... (FYI, Click on the picture to see it in action. It will move and show you how it is supposed to work).
Marlins owner and art dealer Jeffrey Loria promised in 2009 the team’s new ballpark would be a work of art and unlike any other baseball stadium. It looks like that will be the case -- for better or worse. This "piece of art", budgeted at $2.5 million, is the work of renowned multimedia pop artist Red Grooms.
Grooms, who was born in Nashville, said in 2009 he gathered his concept for the home run celebration on his memories of visiting Daytona Beach as a teenager and how what it was like seeing the ocean for the first time.
Home runs are celebrated various ways at ballparks across the country.
At Miller Park in Milwaukee, following every Brewers home run, mascot Bernie Brewer makes a splash in the "Kalahari Splash Zone" area, which sends an explosion of water into the air and onto fans below.
At Minute Maid Park in Houston, a train moves along a track on top of the length of the exterior wall beyond left field. The engine's tender, traditionally used to carry coal, is filled with giant oranges in tribute to Minute Maid's most famous product, orange juice.
At Citi Field in New York, when a Mets player hits a home run, the giant apple, which has a Mets logo on the front that lights up, rises from its housing beyond the center field wall.
At Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati, two smokestacks in right field, reminiscent of the steamboats that were common on the Ohio River in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, flash lights, emit smoke and launch fireworks.
After a White Sox hit a home run at U.S. Cellualar Field, fireworks go off, the scoreboard lights up and a pin wheel spins.
And at Petco Park in San Diego, every time the Padres hit a home run, a foghorn is sounded and fireworks are shot off in center field. The foghorn is a recording of the horn of the Navy's USS Ronald Reagan, a nuclear aircraft carrier that is ported in San Diego.
GeorgeB,
Don't know whether you're kidding or not, but that really does sound better. Guess it depends on what color the cap is, too.
Posted by: laurelbowie | October 09, 2011 at 04:52 PM
not kidding..was told the cap will be black 1st because it sells the most ,then might see other color caps also, maybe orange or blue.
Posted by: GeorgeB | October 09, 2011 at 06:11 PM
GeorgeB,
Fingers crossed we go from your post to the heart of every Marlins fan, Please let even that subtle change be true. The logo is not the problem, it's the rainbow of colors. To offer a visual mockup to your post, Here it is with Black and Orange. What do you guys think?
http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i426/gj4canes/gj4marlins/mia-marlins-org-blk.gif
Posted by: Greg Jacobson | October 10, 2011 at 01:33 AM
looks pretty good...
Posted by: GeorgeB | October 10, 2011 at 02:56 AM
Greg Jacobson..Believe U Nailed It...that's a Logo that will sell like crazy and Marlin's fans can be proud of...
Posted by: GeorgeB | October 10, 2011 at 03:40 AM
Greg/George great job. It does look good. I still prefer the old one, but i think its because i got used to it.
Posted by: Flav C. | October 10, 2011 at 09:41 AM
Hi Flav C...met U at the Philly game on the 4th of July w/ur family... remember? gave U my card....have a good off-season and see U at the new Marlins Ballpark..
Posted by: GeorgeB | October 10, 2011 at 09:49 AM
Of course i do remember u!! I kindda thought "GeorgeB" it was really you, LOL. Let's schedule something for spring training season. Enjoy your off-season, George!
Posted by: Flav C. | October 10, 2011 at 09:54 AM
looking forward to it...maybe see U at FanFest at the new Marlins Ballpark in Feb ,right before springtraining kicks-off..
Posted by: GeorgeB | October 10, 2011 at 10:03 AM
This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. If this team isn't disappointing us on the field, they are disgusting us with decisions like this. Truly pathetic.
Posted by: Vincenthale | October 11, 2011 at 07:12 AM
This reminds me of some sort of Santa Maria get up!
They may as well create a picture of Fidel Castro and call the team "Cuban Revolution".
Posted by: Sanford | October 18, 2011 at 12:52 AM
Looks like a design from an old pinball machine. A very old and strange one. Hope it doesn't deter Stanton from hitting any dingers simply out of sheer embarrassment.
Posted by: rkskin | October 20, 2011 at 07:23 PM
The sudanhelp.com website will shortly begin a sponsor an orphan campaign where individuals can sponsor an orphan from Sudan from any national location. We are excited to help the needy in Sudan and invite everyone to participate.
Posted by: Clark | November 07, 2011 at 08:29 PM
That homerun celebration thing looks like a fish-filled birthday cake exploded. The uniforms and the logos are faggy as hell. I won't be buying any Marlin merchandise anymore, and I sure as hell won't be driving to games anymore. In two years or so people will not be able to deny the scam that was pulled on the city of Miami. Epic fail.
Posted by: Norden Rand | December 04, 2011 at 01:50 PM
OMG. That piece of $#%&^*&^ for $2.5 million? Daang!
Posted by: Jane Nielsen | December 06, 2011 at 05:30 AM
Saw it last night...IT'S HIDIOUS!!!!! Ruins the elegance of the stadium. I'm sure we have better local artists that could have done a much better job. I'd take it down...it was the main comment of everybody there!
Posted by: Anny | March 06, 2012 at 08:00 AM
Posted on The danger to America is not Barack Hussein Obama but a zrciteniy capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America . Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Barack Hussein Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.
Posted by: Bhupender | March 12, 2012 at 10:34 PM
The artist was not the problem, it's the people who picked the non-art tacky billboard. I'm living in LA and a Dodger fan and look back on my home town as stadium committee as a tasteless, tacky bunch of loosers.
Posted by: Raul | August 12, 2012 at 02:33 PM