June 2018

MALE MATTERS
Deplorable Loria and
some good guys and gals
by Elliot Goldenberg
Leave it to
Jeffrey Loria to
stick a knife in
the backs of
South Florida
baseball fans
before twisting
it one last time.
With baseball
once again in
full swing, if
you already couldn’t stomach the former
Miami Marlins owner, here is a reason
to dislike him even more. Remember
the fire-sale after last season, when
by the Palmer new ownership Peters group, headed by
Bruce Sherman and ex-Yankee icon
Derek Jeter, disposed of the team’s most
expensive assets including the National
League’s Most Valuable Player, Giancarlo
Stanton?
Well, it didn’t have to happen. Loria gets
a big thumbs-down because he could
have sold the team to the billionaire Mas
brothers who had far deeper pockets
than the Jeter group. Why didn’t he? I’m
sure Loria would simply echo the words
of Roberto Duran, the second time he
fought Sugar Ray Leonard, when Mr.
“Hands of Stone” quit in the ring: “No
mas.” Loria would have shrugged while
explaining why he went with Jeter and
Sherman.
That being said, as Miami Herald sports
reporter Barry Jackson noted in his
column, “Miami businessman Jorge Mas
conveyed to me that if his Marlins offer
had been accepted, he (Mas) would have
retained Giancarlo Stanton, and hired a
new general manager.”
Simply put, Mas bid only slightly less
for the team than Jeter and Sherman,
while Jeter and Sherman had to beg,
borrow, and steal just to play with the big
boys. You see, unlike the filthy rich Mas
brothers, Jeter and Sherman didn’t have
Steven Ross or Wayne Huizenga money.
Meanwhile, as for Loria, who as you recall
fleeced Dade County for a new stadium,
you know he had to be absolutely gleeful
to once again rub it in the noses of the
team’s oft-abused fans.
Fortunately, there are far
more good guys and gals
to go around than there are
Jeffrey Lorias. As I exercise
my cranium, here are but a
few.
My first thumbs-up must go to those
who run the tiny nation of Guatemala.
Back in December, when President
Trump declared that the U.S. would
move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv
to Jerusalem – a move that was soundly
criticized all over the world – the first
country to agree to follow Washington’s
lead was Guatemala. Even U.S. allies
like England, France, and Germany
– perhaps worried about terrorists
— refused to move their embassies.
Guatemala, however, was the little
“mouse that roared.”
Speaking of mice, America’s ambassador
to the United Nation’s, Nikki Haley,
is hardly a mouse: she’s more like a
lion. Whenever she has spoken, her
message has been forceful, concise, and
clear. Outside of the controversial John
Bolton, she’s our most articulate U.N.
ambassador since Adlai Stevenson, the
egghead with the holes in his shoes who
confronted the Soviets during the Cuban
missile crisis. And she’s far better to look
at than Adlai.
On the international stage, however,
perhaps no one deserves a thumbs-up
more than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu. “Bibi” has been the face and
conscience of Israel for decades. He is
arguably Israel’s Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Back to the mundane world of sports,
kudos must go also to the Miami Heat
brain trust. Unlike Jeffrey Loria, most
would agree that Pat Riley and company
have been class personified. The same
can be said for Dolphins owner Steven
Ross. Although the ‘Fins have struggled
on the field, Ross has gone the extra
nine yards – pardon the pun – to have a
competitive team that will one day reward
its fans with a Super Bowl.
As for the deplorable Loria, who stepped
in you-know-what, if there is such a thing
as karma he will learn about it firsthand,
when, like all of us, he finally gets to that
big ballpark in the sky. P
58
JUNE 2018