Columnist Dean Juipe: History mixed for Marlins

While the breakup of the Florida Marlins is disturbing it isn't without historical precedent. On at least four previous occasions, baseball's world championship team has been disassembled and in two of the four instances the franchise rebounded to virtually repeat its earlier successes.

It may be little consolation to Marlins' fans, who have only two starters left from their 1997 world-championship team, but the cupboard can be restocked.

The best example is the Oakland Athletics of the 1970s. The A's won the world title in 1972, '73 and '74, plus a division title in '75 before owner Charlie Finley broke up the team in the spring of '76. Among his moves was trading Reggie Jackson to New York, selling Joe Rudi to Boston and attempting to sell Rollie Fingers and Vida Blue to the Yankees (although the latter deals were held up by then-commissioner Bowie Kuhn). Despite the carnage, the A's recovered to win the division title in 1981, the same year Finley sold the team.

Another team that successfully rebuilt -- albeit over a longer course of time -- was the Philadelphia A's, who won four pennants in five years from 1910-14 before the outlaw Federal League heisted their star players and owner Connie Mack sold the rest. By the late 1920s, however, the A's were loaded again and won world titles in 1929 and '30 before another series of purges -- such as selling Mickey Cochrane to Detroit for $100,000 and Rube Walberg to Boston for $125,000 -- decimated the franchise for decades.

But it's Example No. 4 that likely worries Marlins' fans. It's the Boston Red Sox, who won five world titles in the American League's first 19 years, including one in 1918, before owner Harry Frazee decided to sell off his baseball assets to bankroll his endeavors on Broadway. His chief offense: Selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees for the then-record sum of $125,000. As Florida fans already know, Boston hasn't won a world title since.

A renowned player from that same era, Shoeless Joe Jackson, may be Hall-of-Fame bound after all these years. He was banned from the game for knowing that his 1919 Chicago White Sox teammates threw the World Series, although he didn't participate in the fraud or receive any money for it. Last week Ted Williams and Bob Feller presented Major League Baseball with a 28-page document that argues on Jackson's behalf for his reinstatement and immediate enshrinement. ... A very modern baseball franchise, the first-year Arizona Diamondbacks, already has moronic fans wearing paper bags over their heads in protest of the team's losing ways. ... It could be argued that there's not one single boxing TV announcer who's consistently good. Not one. ... Perennial national contender Florida State will take the football field this fall with a starting quarterback who is 26 years old. Chris Weinke signed with FSU in 1989 but played minor-league baseball in the Toronto chain for six years before giving it up and returning to campus, and football. ... In the typical National Hockey League game, the referee will skate 8 1/2 miles. ... With all of Canada's teams already eliminated from the ongoing playoffs, a U.S.-based team will win the Stanley Cup for the fourth consecutive year. ... St. Louis Blues' fans have turned on Brett Hull and it's likely he'll take advantage of his free agency and leave the team this summer.

The Showboat Hotel, Casino and Bowling Center in Las Vegas will pay $1 million to any Pro Bowlers Tour member who notches a 300 game in the televised final of nine selected events this year. No winners to date but five of the events have yet to be held, including one that concludes Saturday on CBS. ... When Corky Ausborne quit the UNLV basketball team during the season and said he was going to concentrate on academics, many observers had an "oh-sure" reaction. But now congratulations seem in order as Ausborne graduated over the weekend. ... UNLV golf coach Dwaine Knight on playing for the national championship, as his team will do next week in Albuquerque: "We've won all over the country but it's got to be your week. So many things can go wrong at the end." The Rebels' No. 1 player, Jeremy Anderson, on the same subject: "It's four days and it's grueling. You have to be good and lucky." ... Christian Owen, a member of the University of Iowa's golf team, has had three hole in ones in the last three weeks, including two in one round a week ago at the Finkbine Golf Course in Iowa City. ... DanceSport was on TV Friday and it seemed like a good time to take a look, what with ballroom dancing about to become an Olympic sport. Ugh. Even linking this event with the Olympics seems blasphemous. ... Las Vegan Ron Merkerson, a linebacker who played at Colorado and recently was drafted in the fifth round by the New England Patriots, spent a day last week with his father, Alton, and a boxer his father trains, former cruiserweight champion Al Cole. Ron talked Cole into letting him spar and came away with this reaction: "He dug a good shot into my stomach. My mind said, 'You ain't going down' but my body quivered and my legs just went. Right then I saw how fighters can be knocked out."

archive