Ben McGrath has a fun story about the Miami Marlins in this week’s New Yorker (subscription required), which, as its primary function, introduces uptown types to Ozzie (and Oney) Guillen. But Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria is present too. In fact, he condescends to you through print. He makes you feel like you will be underdressed at a Marlins game if you show up in an outfit that does not include opera gloves.
Listen to him describe the new stadium, which the taxpayers of Miami paid for (certainly against their best interest and perhaps against their wishes), as though it’s his private yacht:
The stadium wasn’t just any old luxury-box conduit he’d succeeded in building; it was a lasting work of architecture, a contribution to the skyline of a major American city, “in the spirit of Richard Meier,” he said. “Lots of glass, lots of steel, beautiful white surfaces everywhere, curves, things that delight the eye.”
Oh, but there’s plenty of all-purpose snobbery, too:
In Jupiter, Loria stopped to lean against a chain-link fence near one of the practice fields. He greeted people coming and going, corrected their grammar (“You haven’t ‘run’ that fast, not ‘ran’”), and used a towel to swat at a persistent insect.
He was wearing a black cap with the team’s new logo—a rainbow-colored “M,” with a flourish resembling a marlin’s dorsal fin and bill—and explained that the uniform redesign, in which he played an active role, had been two years in the making. “The colors did not just come arbitrarily,” he said. “The red-orange is for those incredible sunsets. The yellow is the sunlight that you see during the day. The blue is the water that surrounds the community.” Goodbye, teal. The colorscape at the new Marlins Park, meanwhile, was “sort of an homage to Miró‘s palette,” Loria explained. “The outfield is all green—Miró‘s green.”
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1. thetailor Posted: April 03, 2012 at 06:08 PM (#4096055)I'm not one to defend Deadspin but this is the kind of story that people who don't know much about Loria would find interesting but those of us who do and hate him would find uninteresting because we've seen it all before.
Though I did find his comments on the colors and outfield contraption to be hilarious.
Hey, you too? Class of '96 here.
I have to admit for the best high school in the country it has produced what to me is a surprising dearth of really famous people (i.e. not just famous in their field). Who's the most famous Stuy alum to the general public? Tim Robbins? David Axelrod? No presidents, no really famous writers, no famous tycoons. Lots of scientists including 4 Nobels but those guys aren't really famous.
Jealous?
Has Hunter burned down?
isn't famous.
um, I am too (class of '96 that is), but damn if those 4 years weren't the 4 worst years of my life.
Hell on Earth for the most part.
I knew a girl who went to Hunter. First girl I ever kissed, actually, and also probably the smartest person I've ever met. Aced the SATs, waltzed into Yale, captained their debate team, etc. #### Hunter.
This is where I should say "CCHS for life" but #### that school too, really. I love my (two) remaining friends from there - and there were some great teachers and a few great administrators - but man did high school suck.
I think the only famous person to graduate from my high school is Craig Bierko. And he isn't that famous.
That snob! Every red blooded American knows you used a rolled up issue of The USA Today.
Jim Carrey, Anson Carter, Brad Park and some CFL guys. (and wikipedia tells me the founder of Pizza Pizza!)
* Dustin Lance Black Screenwriter 2008 Academy Award Milk
* Alvin Harrison twin of Calvin 1996 Gold Medal Olympic 4x400 relay, 2000 Silver medal 400 metres, 4x400 later disqualified due to Drug violation by a teammate
now competing for Dominican Republic
* Calvin Harrison twin of Alvin National High School Record 400m
2000 Gold Medal 4x400 later disqualified due to Drug violation by a teammate
* Del Rodgers San Francisco 49ers Super Bowl Champions
* Carl Nicks New Orleans Saints Pro Bowl guard and Super Bowl XLIV champion.
* Ramiro Corrales Major League Soccer.
Harold Ballard makes a strong case as well.
Willie Wilson baby! Top that!
I still think Loria is an #######, but yeah, what's the problem with appreciating good architecture and knowing who Joan Miró is? I've always loved distinctive architecture and its probably the only career that I've been drawn to for more than a couple years at a time. I've never pursued it, other than with my own house.
Matt Stairs went to my high school, as well as Joe Medjuck (producer of Stripes, Ghostbusters, Twins, Old School, Up in the Air, and many others) and Measha Brueggergosman (opera singer and judge on "Canada's Got Talent).
Translated: I disagree with his politics, therefor his notable accomplishments mean nothing. NOTHING!
Well buddy, Willie Wilson is a much better example of an AS CF than Holder is of an US AG. And that's even if you allow for the blow.
Willie just gave drug dealers money. Holder gave them f*cking AK's!
Zing!
Touché!
These are my HS alumni. Never heard of anyone below Laura Branigan.
Heard of most of them, know about 3 or 4 of the lesser lights, and Wiki tells me there are a bunch more.
Never knew Ron Howard lived in the area. Must be in Bedford.
You're a Hilltopper?
You went to Byram Hills? We used to play you guys, and you'd look down on us for living on the river (or at least that's what the football coach told our guys to fire them up).
Biggest names that I'm aware of from our school: Evan Handler (the bald actor). Less famous is Cynthia Wade, who won an Academy Award for a short film (and was a super nice girl).
What school? What years?
I'm a '89 grad. Only ever played baseball, and we sucked. The football team was really good when I was there, but I didn't really care.
Hen Hud. Class of 1985. We were in the same league as you during my freshman-junior years, but Section 1 switched things up after that so you might never not have played us. I played basketball and baseball, though neither particularly well or often.
Might have played you. No real recollection.
Hey, I played high school soccer (and other sports at the JV level) against Byram Hills! Pretty sure I also ran track meets at Henry Hudson. But I was about a decade after you geezers.
With that kind of talk, you've got to show up at next softball game and back it up :-)
I think I know this girl. If she graduated from Hunter in 1999.
I graduated in 2001. Amazing how and where you find fellow Stuyvesant kids.
The lack of academically/politically famous alumni was sort of a joke around the Stuyvesant community in the years I was there and thereafter -- we do alright in terms of acting, etc. but the roster of alumni is remarkably light for a school with such academic chops. Bronx Science kicks our butt in terms of Nobel Prize Winners and Laureates.
IIRC, Stuyvesant was not always the premier high school in the city -- part of it coincided with the new building -- so the cohort of scientists/academics who might better represent Stuyvesant are just getting to the age now where their career accomplishments may be getting recognized (current Stuy laureates graduated between 1944-1963).
But absolutely, Paul Reiser, Tim Robbins, Lucy Liu, Eric Holder, David Axelrod, and many others make for an impressive list. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Stuyvesant_High_School_people. In fact, I think we have four or five current City Council members (one of whom I interned for) which by itself is quite cool.
And Loria. Ugh.
She did not. It seems perhaps Hunter has graduated more than one Yale debate captain.
This is Deadspin, so knowing about art and architecture is probably considered gay or something.
This thread has devolved into a discussion of whose high school has the most prestigious alumni/a/us/ae. Sufficed to say, this isn't the target audience Deadspin had in mind to join in on their pissing on Loria.
And Snapper, Sean Maher played Simon Tam on "Firefly," the awesome Joss Whedon sci-fi western. Even if he never has another acting gig, that alone makes him an HOFer.
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