BY SCOTT MORGANROTH
A year ago, I spent July 4th at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium doing play-by play for the Connecticut School of Broadcasting as the Jupiter Hammerheads (Miami Marlins) took on The Palm Beach (St. Louis Cardinals.
Unfortunately that was the same day that long-time South Florida Media Icon, Hank Goldberg died.
Nevertheless, I really enjoyed that night doing something that I have a tremendous amount of passion doing, mentored by late Detroit Tigers Hall of Fame Broadcaster, Ernie Harwell.
A year later, there would be no play-by-play but another pleasant afternoon at the ballpark is located 75-minutes on I-75 South depending on traffic.
The night before, the Marlins had their Fireworks at the ballpark for the fans. I was unable to attend the Monday Night, July 3rd contest due to heavy work commitments.
But there was a different type of Fireworks that were on display at LoanDepot Park as the Marlins hosted their Spring Training neighbors, the St. Louis Cardinals.
There was the coming out party for former Detroit Tigers prospect Dane Meyers, who collected his first two hits of his career taking over for Jonathon Davis. Davis left the game with a knee injury diving for a fly ball. Meyers’s would amass two hits, scored a pair of runs and had an RBI.
Every position in the line-up including injury replacements and substitutions scored at least one run and I nearly had to carry over an inning on my scoresheet multiple times.
In this contest, it was hard to single out anybody because this game was a total team effort.
The Marlins crushed St. Louis 15-2 and had 19 hits and left 11 on base.
This game saw position players from both teams play.
For St. Louis, left-fielder Alec Burleson took the hill and he pitched .2 innings and didn’t yield a run. Burleson throws left-handed.
Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright started and got shelled as he went 3.1 innings and gave up seven runs on seven hits. His record dropped to 3-4.
For Miami, Jesus Luzardo pitched six scoreless innings and gave up five hits and struck out eight, before yielding to the bullpen. Luzardo improved to 7-5.
Miami led 15-0 going into the Cardinals ninth inning before Manager Skip Schumaker handed the ball to catcher Jacob Stallings, who gave up St. Louis’ pair of runs.
The game took three hours to complete and it drew 16,437 fans.
During the last couple of weeks, I’ve seen the Marlins crush the Oakland A’s 12-1, shutout the Toronto Blue Jays 11-0 and now this.
The following day, the Marlins would defeat the Cardinals 10-9 in walk off fashion.
It’s safe to say, these fireworks were set off by what we call, a wooden bat.
But for the second year in a row, it was great to see Baseball on one of the biggest holidays of the year, July 4th. There is no question the Baseball owns this holiday!
Scott Morganroth can be reached at southfloriudatribune@gmail.com and you can see his broadcasts by Subscribing to the South Florida Tribune You Tube Channel.
