Quietly, the Marlins have fallen out of contention in the NL East and are currently eight games behind the Mets in the division.  Nonetheless, the Marlins competed for most of the season and surprised everybody. 

For a team above .500, the Marlins have the worst home record in baseball at 38-34.  Perhaps the fans - or lack thereof - have something to do with it.

According to The Record, the Marlins only had 600 fans at the time of first pitch for Wednesday’s game against the Braves.  The Marlins won the game 5-3 and star Hanley Ramirez was 2-4 with a double and a HR. 

Should Marlins fans be ashamed for showing such a lack of support for a team that put up a fight for most of the year?  After all, although it was very hot outside, the Marlins are still an above .500 team and they were playing a division rival.  An attendance like that is certainly embarrassing for the team, when as the report describes, “the ballpark was so quiet that home-plate chatter could be heard.”

It’s not the price that is driving people away - according to the Boston Globe, the Marlins have the 7th lowest average ticket price in baseball.

On the other hand, why should Marlins fans go to a game? Even though they managed to win a World Series in 2003, fans have to see an under financed team that usually gets rid of its star players once they become moderately expensive and hit arbitration.  Why should these fans go out and give ownership money for a team that they aren’t really putting any money into?

The Marlins have a payroll of around $21 million, which is less than half of the payroll of any other team in MLB.  Alex Rodriguez himself gets paid more annually than the entire Marlins team.  The Marlins finally locked up some of their good talent long term, when they signed Hanley Ramirez to a six year $70 million deal.  But - Dan Uggla, Mike Jacobs, Kevin Gregg, Scott Olsen, Ricky Nolasco and Jorge Cantu are all due raises for next year as they hit arbitration, and will the Marlins fork over the money?  Or will they continue to ship off their moderately expensive pieces such as the way they did with Miguel Cabrera? We’ll see.

For now though, it’s tough to disagree with Marlins fans who refuse to give ownership money when ownership fails to put money into the team. 

Thanks to MLBTR for the link