Baseball | Marlins' park plan gets boost

MIAMI — A key legal obstacle was removed Friday for a new downtown Florida Marlins stadium, and the team will now determine whether the ballpark can open for the 2011 season.

Marlins president David Samson said the months of delay caused by a lawsuit challenging the ballpark's financing package might push the completion date to 2012.

"We're evaluating the significance of that delay. I hope we will have an announcement here within a week," Samson said.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jeri Beth Cohen issued formal, final orders ending a lawsuit filed by auto dealer Norman Braman against the proposal. The $515 million stadium is a major piece of a $3 billion public works package that includes a tunnel for the Port of Miami, a museums park and a downtown trolley line.

Braman, a philanthropist, art collector and former owner of the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles, argued the project financing was an unconstitutional diversion of money intended to cure urban blight and should have been submitted to voters for approval.

The Marlins have played at Dolphin Stadium — home of the NFL's Miami Dolphins — since their inception in 1993 but have pushed for years for a baseball-only home, threatening at times to move to another city if one wasn't built. The Marlins regularly rank last in attendance among 30 major-league teams, averaging 16,688 this year, but won World Series titles in 1997 and 2003.

Piniella looks ahead

Lou Piniella hasn't spoken to any of the Chicago Cubs since the season came to a stunning finish seven weeks ago at Dodger Stadium.

But his silence has nothing to do with the loss or the way the Cubs looked during Los Angeles' three-game sweep in the NL Division Series. It's simply Piniella's way of giving back.

"I usually leave the players alone during the winter," he said with a laugh. "They see enough of me from spring training and the summer. When this thing was over in Los Angeles, I thanked them for a really, really nice season. Look, we won 97 ballgames and we played good baseball, and all of a sudden in the postseason, things didn't go real well.

"But I thanked them. It was a real nice season. We just didn't finish. That's over with, and now our focus is 2009, and basically we're going to have another good team and give ourselves another chance. I like the nucleus of the team. I like the chemistry of the team. [GM] Jim Hendry is working hard to try and improve it."

Notes

• Boston RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka is ready to help Japan defend its title at the 2009 World Baseball Classic.

"I'll accept the offer if I'm asked to play," said Matsuzaka, the MVP of the 2006 tournament. "I'll pick up the pace of my training in December so that I won't have to scramble at the last minute." The right-hander went 3-0 in the 2006 WBC with a 1.38 earned-run average.

• Ace pitcher Yadel Marti and star outfielder Yasser Gomez have been thrown off the Havana Industriales, Cuba's top league team, for "a grave act of indiscipline," likely ending their hopes of playing in the 2009 WBC. Two people close to the team said the action came after the pair was caught trying to defect to the United States.

• The Chicago White Sox have reached a tentative agreement with Cuban star Dayan Viciedo. The 19-year-old infielder/outfielder must pass a physical for the contract to be finalized, according to the player's agent. Viciedo had 36 homers and 162 RBI with a .287 average over four years in Cuba's top league while playing 327 games.

• Junichi Tazawa, 22, enhanced his prospects of playing in the U.S. by pitching a shutout in the quarterfinals of Japan's corporate league championships, with several major-league scouts in attendance.

Boston and Cleveland are among the teams that have expressed interest in Tazawa, who asked Japan's professional teams not to select him in this month's amateur draft so that he can pursue a career in the U.S.

The Chicago Tribune

contributed to this report.