On a couple of occasions this column has mentioned that David Samson, president of the Miami Marlins, is viewed in front-office hierarchies as the most disliked executive in Major League Baseball. Last week he revealed himself to be the dumbest, too.
In a speech to a Miami economic development agency, the Beacon Council, Samson made some remarks that in his warped view he might have thought were humorous but that insulted the politicians who were instrumental in enabling the Marlins to get a new park and the fans the team hopes will fill it.
Samson has denied making some of the remarks that have been attributed to him, and a videotape of the speech released by the Beacon Council showed that the reported comment for which Samson was most severely criticized was incomplete and misleading.
However, other remarks that Miami Today, a weekly business publication, quoted Samson as saying were not refuted by the videotape.
Given what he said or was quoted as saying, Samson seemed to fancy himself as baseball’s Don Rickles. He would more accurately be viewed as one of the Three Stooges.
Contrary to the original report, which quoted Samson as demeaning the intelligence of Miami residents, the videotape has him saying, “I don’t think anyone in this community has the ability to speak completely intellectually on every issue that confronts the local government. That’s not to say we are not the smartest in Miami.”
Of course, it would have helped if Samson had not used a double negative.
But he said plenty that was negative.
For example, he disclosed that the Marlins’ front office deliberately let the team “bottom out,” a tactic integral to the effort to get a new park.
“We let it bottom out,” he told his breakfast audience of about 75. “We pretended we were going to move. We didn’t want to move.”
Samson didn’t explain what he meant by bottoming out, but it sounds to me like he said the Marlins weren’t trying to win. That means they were cheating their fans, Major League Baseball and themselves, all in the selfish interest of duping local officials into approving funds for a new park.
It’s something Commissioner Bud Selig might want to look into. A team doing less than its best to win is not in the best interests of baseball. A couple of years ago the commissioner’s office and the union agreed that the Marlins were not properly spending their considerable revenue-sharing funds and induced them to agree to change their spending practices.
Adding to his bottomed-out admission, Samson said, “We wanted to be in Miami. Why did we want to be in Miami? Because we know for a fact we could make more money here than in San Antonio.”
That part of his comment might have been honest, but further revealed the Marlins’ self-interest actions. Instead of telling Marlins fans they were the reason the Marlins wanted to stay in south Florida, Samson was saying he was interested only in their money.
Samson also boasted of duping the cities of San Antonio and Las Vegas when he visited them several years ago in his pretense of looking for a new home for the Marlins.
He told of buying a huge cowboy hat and wearing it on television at a game in San Antonio in an effort to create rumors that the Marlins were considering a move to the Texas city.
Recalling his Las Vegas visit, Samson said he suggested that the city’s casinos buy out game tickets in advance so visitors to the gambling mecca, as well as local residents, could not be lured away from the casinos.
“We don’t care if nobody comes,” a smiling Samson said, again using a double negative. “We’ll play in front of nobody, and we’ll have all the money.”
Money, money, money. That seems to be a popular topic with Samson. But then, there’s a good reason for that. Samson and Jeffrey Loria, the Marlins’ owner, suffered a financial setback when they were told to spend their revenue-sharing proceeds on players and not themselves.
Under Loria’s 10-year ownership the Marlins have been among the teams with the tiniest payrolls. In 9 of those 10 years the Marlins have not been above 25th in the payroll standings. In 2005, two years after the Marlins won the World Series, they had a $60 million payroll, 18th highest, but in the half dozen seasons since, they have had the lowest payroll three times and were 29th and 28th in two other seasons.
And now Samson can talk only about making money. At the same time he talked about making money, though, he ridiculed Jose Reyes, the Marlins’ new shortstop, who signed a six-year contract for $106 million.
Upon signing, Reyes made comments that most free agents make. He talked about the Marlins’ great young players, said he liked Miami’s plan and “I think it’s a good opportunity to win.”
Reyes, according to Samson, told the Marlins, “I really want to play in Miami as long as you pay me $1 more than anyone else … I really want to make the most money I can.”
Instead of mocking Reyes, Samson could have spoken positively and told his listeners that the expenditure for Reyes was a signal that the Marlins planned to do what was necessary for them to be a contender, if indeed that is what they plan to try to be.
In his address, Samson also ridiculed politicians, even though the Marlins needed office-holding politicians to approve funds for their $634 million park.
Office seekers, he said, are “not the cream of the intellectual crop,” adding about state officials in Florida’s capital, “I went to Tallahassee. I don’t know what they do up there. There are so many special interests. You walk through the building, and they’re watching ‘Family Feud.’ You see people running around, working on legislation. All I know is that gavel goes down and nothing gets done.”
Samson might have little regard for politicians, but one of the most important for the Marlins paid a heavy price for spearheading the drive for ball park funds. Carlos Alvarez, the mayor of Miami-Dade County, was ousted in a recall election.
“I can talk about the recall in a minute,” Samson said, “because I’m finally free to talk about it. The ballpark is built. I don’t have to hold anything back. Not that I ever did.”
In his speech, Samson apparently didn’t mention Alvarez but criticized voters for staying away from the polls in the recall vote. He called the turnout pathetic, saying that recall votes negatively affect the political process by making public officials “shake in their shoes” instead of “making them do what’s good for the community.”
By getting the Beacon Council to release the videotape of the speech, the Marlins were able to squelch the erroneous quote about Miami residents not being smart. However, Samson made too many other observations that suggested that this particular Miami resident is not smart.