Marlins visit US troops in Iraq, Kuwait
February 9, 2010
MIAMI (AP)—Aside from an encounter with a boastful Yankees fan, the FloridaMarlins enjoyed their tour of Iraq and Kuwait.
The team’s goodwill group visited U.S. troops, saw the Iran border and metKuwaiti Little Leaguers. The Marlins traveled by military helicopter and by boatin the Persian Gulf.
“It’s the real deal over there with real bullets,” Marlins president ofbaseball operations Larry Beinfest said Tuesday. “I wasn’t totally prepared forit.”
Beinfest said he never felt like the group was in danger. He joked that theonly unpleasant episode was the encounter with the Yankees fan.
“We’re doing a meet-and-greet. They set up a table and we’re signing,”Beinfest said. “This guy comes up with a `27 championships’ T-shirt. He’s anice guy, so we gave him a Marlins T-shirt. He said, `I’m not putting it on.Everything’s right with the world, the Yankees are on top.’
“This guy is in the middle of Iraq, and everything’s right with the world?But he was a nice guy.”
Also making the trip late last month were manager Fredi Gonzalez, NL Rookieof the Year Chris Coghlan(notes), catcher John Baker(notes) and several members of the team’sMermaids dance crew. The Marlins said the weeklong trip, sponsored by ArmedForces Entertainment, was the first of its kind for a major league club sincethe Iraq war began.
Beinfest said he was able to text-message Marlins officials back in Floridato keep up with offseason developments. Surprised to hear rumors the team wasinterested in signing reliever Kevin Gregg(notes), Beinfest frantically contactedgeneral manager Mike Hill.
“I’m going, `What’s going on? Are we doing something with Kevin Gregg? Whathappened? I’m on a military base and we’re doing all this stuff?”’ Beinfestsaid with a laugh.
Gregg instead agreed to a $2.75 million deal with Toronto.
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