Does Florida want baseball?

You might find that as a funny question, since two-thirds of spring training games occur in Florida. Many retirees from up north are snowbirds who flock to the state for warmth in the winter, and that includes showing up at the spring training sites to root for their favorite teams.

The Marlins and Devil Rays are Florida's two teams, but they either are not well-received by the public, or they have been down-trodden from the word go.

The Marlins have given the idea of expansion teams a shot in the arm by being as successful as they've been, with two World Series titles. In between, however, they arm themselves with a Triple-A roster (save Dontrelle Willis), and play to a 25-percent-full stadium on many occasions. Furthermore, campaigns for a new stadium in Miami have fallen flat and discussions have been ongoing for years.

The roster they currently have is hard-working; I really liked the play of Dan Uggla last year (.282, 27-90) at second base. But do their fans appreciate these blue-collar efforts? Did they even spend the World Series years packing Joe Robbie Stadium during the regular season? Time has proven to be the judge, and the judgement doesn't look fulfilling for the average Marlins fan.

And then there's the Devil Rays. They spent last off-season in a front-office rebuilding mode. They let go of virtually everyone in the front office from the owner on down. They did Lou Piniella a favor by letting him go. They harked on about the fresh, new players on the field. What resulted was the same, tiresome, last-place finish. They don't even have a winning season in franchise history, so you can imagine how the Marlins' fans have been "spoiled", in comparison.

We laughed initially at the National Hockey League when they placed an expansion franchise in Florida, but they have done well statistically. That is literally more than can be said for Florida's two baseball franchises, which have a chance to do more and mean more to their fans than they have, but to this point, it's not really been the case.

Baseball fever in Florida doesn't have to end with the conclusion of March on the calendar. But what can the fans honestly point to as a rallying point to carry on past that date?