Florida governor Ron DeSantis trolls Marlins fans over social distancing

Florida governor Ron DeSantis took a shot at Miami Marlins fans on the radio over the lack of in-person support for their team.

It’s not much of a secret that the Miami Marlins have had trouble drawing fans for a long time. The Marlins regularly rank at or near the bottom of the league in MLB attendance. They’ve only reached 2 million in attendance three times in their history: in 1993, their first season in the league; in 1997, a championship season; and 2012, when they opened the new Marlins Park.

Even in 2003, their other championship season, they only drew just over 1.3 million. The past two seasons have been especially bad, as they drew just over 800,000 fans in 2018 and 2019 despite the relatively new stadium.

Normally, teams can at least count on the support of local politicians. That didn’t necessarily happen when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was recently on the radio with Sean Hannity. From the “he just said what we’re all thinking” category, DeSantis trolled Marlins fans for their lack of support for the team:

Granted, Marlins fans have had little to cheer about in recent years. They haven’t made the playoffs since 2003 or even had a winning season since 2009, while they’ve engaged in multiple fire sales in their short history. They’ve even managed to alienate the famous Marlins Man, who gave up his tickets following a dispute with the team over ticket prices.

Still, it’s quite a statement when even your state’s governor openly laments the lack of the team’s support. It would be nice to think that the Marlins could attract more fans in the future if they were to build another winning team.

It’s interesting that DeSantis chose to mention the Marlins rather than the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays have also had all kinds of problems bringing in fans despite having more good teams than the Marlins in recent years. The desperate need for a new stadium has been mentioned among the reasons why the Rays have trouble drawing big crowds.

Still, after all these years, a lot of doubt remains about whether a Florida baseball team can ever attract a huge following. Apparently, we can count DeSantis as among those who are skeptical. Who knows, maybe we’ll all be proven wrong someday.