Great post, <brotherfox>. Baseball has had a long time to get its legs under it in Florida, and it just hasn't happened. It seems to be one of those things that looks great on paper.

"Why, there are tons of PEOPLE in Florida. And a lot of them watch TV, and probably like baseball. It's just GOTTA work."

But it isn't working. Fans just don't care about the teams enough to support them.

contending Heat playing a meaningful game = it matters.

marlins soocking at home opener = a couple thousand fans chanting derision = not equal to the whole city Miami of sports fans

not all fans are bambi NW sports fans (unless your name is Figgins ...).

What's a "bambi NW sports fan?"

A brand-new ballpark, an upgraded roster with last year's NL batting champion and an added $191 million in payroll, a wide-open NL East, and Opening Day against the World Champions -- that doesn't matter as much as a regular-season Heat game where the story line is Durant's competition with LeBron for MVP.

You're right. It doesn't matter as much -- to the "fans" in Miami. In any real baseball town, it would crush the basketball game in importance.

Bambi NW sports fans .... gentle, always sweet and rah-rah supportive, critical maybe one day every three years, in all ways PG-rated and politically correct, the Disney channel ideal of what sports fans should be.

Game one of the baseball season, the result of which was not in doubt as of about the 5th inning .... doesn't completely trump Thunder versus Heat, two of the best NBA teams squaring off, possible NBA Finals preview.

If you like baseball and only baseball, maybe you'd have watched the Marlins to the bitter end. Most general sports fans would have switched over to watch the Heat-Thunder (I know I did).

Re: the Cards being defending WS champs ... no LaRussa, no Pujols, they are less interesting.

I'm not gonna judge a whole town based on a few nucks making noise for the tv cameras after the conclusion of the game. This report seems to indicate it was a pretty good night in Miami.

http://www.cnnsi.com/2012/baseball/mlb/04/04/marlins-opener/index.html?sct=mlb_t11_a5