By Bob Markus



Florida Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria made his millions as an art dealer. I'm sure he can tell a Monet from a Manet and a Pollock from a Picasso. But as a baseball owner he apparently has no clue. Loria's the man who fired Joe Girardi as manager after only one season, a season in which Girardi was named National League Manager of the Year. Now come reports that Loria is considering firing Fredi Gonzalez and replacing him with Bobby Valentine. Gonzales was LAST year's N.L. Manager of the Year and this season led the Marlins to an 87-75 record and had them in playoff contention until the last week. All of this despite having the smallest payroll in major league baseball. I don't know Gonzalez, never met him, but I know his players play hard for him and in many cases overachieve.

Girardi's firing was personal. There are two versions of the reason and you can chose the one you like best. Either Girardi told Loria to shut up after the owner, seated in his box yelled at an umpire over a call or Loria chastized Girardi for not arguing the call, sparking an ongoing feud between employer and employee. If Gonzalez is fired it will be for an even dumber reason. Loria thought the Marlins should have made the playoffs. That's as unrealistic as expecting to buy Van Gogh's Starry Night for a hundred bucks. I know, I know. Early in the season, caught up in the hysteria of the Marlins' 11-1 start, I wrote that the Marlins were contenders. But that was not the prevailing opinion. Of course, they didn't make the playoffs, but the few fans who bothered to come out to support them got their money's worth. They got National league batting titlist Hanley Ramirez. They got rookie Chris Coghlan, who arrived late, but simply tore up National league pitching in the second half of the season. If Coghlan isn't N.L. Rookie of the Year it will be the biggest crime since Willie Sutton pawned his safe cracking tools. They got pitcher Josh Johnson, whose rebuilt arm provided a 15-5 record. But most of all they got a team that would not quit.

Loria appears to be one of the breed of owners who takes a hands on approach. Instead of hiring a baseball man and letting him make the decisions, they take matters into their own hands. That's not necessarily bad. Charley Finley did it and put together one of the all-time best teams in Oakland, although I never could understand how an insurance salesman could do it. George Steinbrenner did it even better, building the Yankeees' second dynasty (after the Ruth-Gehrig-DiMaggio-Mantle era winked off). In his early years, Steinbrenner changed managers as often as he changed his socks, but he knew talent when he saw it and was willing to pay for it. And when he finally found the right man, Joe Torre, he let Torre manage the team. Steinbrenner spent more money on Alex Rodriguez's contract than Loria did on the entire team he handed to Girardi. The Yankees had a general manager, but I can't remember who it was.

Baseball's not the only sport with mettlesome owners. All of them had the right to mettle, but only a few had the background. George Halas was player, coach and owner of the Chicago Bears from their inception in 1919 and remained coach for most of the period until his retirement in 1968. Even then he continued to be the puppetmaster until finally acknowledging that the game was passing him by. He had intended to pass the reins to his son Mugs, but when Mugsy died the leadership passed to Jim Finks, an established football man. The Halas family, through daughter Virginia McCaskey, still owns the Bears, but football men run the team.

Paul Brown not only was coach and part owner of the Cleveland Browns, but the team was named for him. When Brown, who built a post World War II powerhouse on the shores of Lake Erie, was fired as coach by majority owner Art Modell, he simply moved to the southern part of the state and started over with the Cincinnati Bengals.

Halas and Brown came close to overstaying their welcomes. Some men have the grace to know when it's time to go. Some men don't. Connie Mack was one such, although it hurts me to say it. Mack, after all, was baseball's Grand Old Man, managing the Philadelphia Athletics for 50 years before retiring at the age of 87. Mack holds the records for most managerial wins--3,731--and losses--3,948--and nobody else is even close. Although he was a player himself, once he went to the bench he dressed in civilian clothes. I remember as a teen-ager going to Comiskey Park by myself just to see Mack. And there he was, immaculate in suit and tie, waving his scorecard to position his players. But by that time the A's, who had won nine pennants and five world series under Mack, were a pathetic team. As Wayne Huizenga was to do with the Marlins many years later, Mack sold off many of his star players after his last World Series win in 1931. Starting in 1934, after selling off the contracts of the last of his super stars, slugger Jimmie Foxx and pitcher Lefty Grove, Mack watched his beloved A's finish in the American league's second division 14 years in a row and 16 of his final 17 seasons as manager. There is one big difference between Mack and Huizenga. Mack sold his stars because he needed money. Huizenga traded his because he wanted more money.

The Marlins have gone through two owners who have dismantled World Series winning teams for the want of money and if Loria wants to know why the Marlins were last in the majors in attendance he need only look in the mirror. Fans are afraid to commit to the Marlins because they fear the Marlins won't commit to them. And they're right. Even after getting the domed stadium they had been seeking for years, the Marlins have given no indication they are about to open the purse strings. There is even speculation that Johnson will be traded before arbitration can rear its budget-busting head. If that happens, the Marlins will lose even more of its fan base. Which is a shame, because the Marlins, under Fredi Gonzalez, really are fun to watch.

My advice to Loria: Keep Gonzalez. And in the words of Joe Girardi:"Shut up."