Bill Madden of the New York Daily Newsput together a Thanksgiving themed “Top 10 Baseball Turkeys” of 2009. If you really care, he names former Mets VP of player development Tony Bernazard as the top turkey, however the most interesting passage was about Marlins president David Samson, who finished sixth on his list:
The Florida Marlins president obviously has no shame. After finally succeeding in securing a new taxpayer-funded stadium for the Marlins in downtown Miami - supposedly enabling the Marlins to have the financial means to keep their star players - Samson demonstrated he has no intention of doing that when he refused to give his best pitcher, Josh Johnson, a four-year extension. Now it also looks as if Hanley Ramirez won’t ever see that new stadium in a Marlins uniform as the Red Sox, who let incumbent Alex Gonzalez go, are reportedly engaged in talks with Florida about reacquiring the All-Star shortstop.
Reportedly can mean a lot of things. It can mean he read it in his own newspaper. Or perhaps another newspaper. It could mean he read it on someone’s blog. Or perhaps in the comments’ section of said blog. Or it could mean he made it up. The fact is that Ramirez is signed through 2014 at a very reasonable cost, even for Florida. He’s not going anywhere. Update: And another silly Hot Stove rumor bites the dust.