FanHouse WayneHuizenga

The Daily Jolt is a dose of baseball reality every weekday morning.

Like it or not, Major League Baseball in Miami is here to stay. That is the ultimate consequence of the decision by the Miami-Dade County Commission to publicly finance a baseball-only facility, a decision sealed by a 9-4 vote Monday evening.

There is plenty that doesn't feel right about this. Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria has been demanding a new stadium almost since the day he purchased a 35 percent stake in the Montreal Expos in 1999. In the process, he has done plenty to kill fan interest in both Montreal and South Florida by way of relocation threats and a religious devotion to paring down payroll that comes with a complete refusal to hold onto star players (at least until Hanley Ramirez re-signed last year).

For as much flack as the Yankees take for spending ridiculous amounts of money in free agency, there's never been a more egregious abuse of baseball's salary structure than the 1997 Florida Marlins. In 1995 or 1996, the Marlins signed Kevin Brown, Bobby Bonilla, and Moises Alou, won the World Series and then traded all of them plus Gary Sheffield, Al Leiter, and probably others that I'm not even remembering before the 1998 season ended, going from an 80-win team in 1996 to a World Series title in 1997 to a 54-win team in 1998.

With Tuesday's sale of the Miami Dolphins to Stephen Ross, giving him control of 95 percent of the franchise, team vice president Bill Parcells now has a 30-day window to cash in the remainder of his $16 million contract and bolt to another team (or the nearest beach and/or golf course). That is, if he wants to.

Parcells is spending this week, along with Dolphins head coach Tony Sparano and general manager Jeff Ireland, at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, scouting the NFL's stars of tomorrow. On Tuesday afternoon he addressed the window of opportunity he has to exit Miami with a truck full of cash.

On Tuesday afternoon, Wayne Huizenga is expected to complete the sale of the Miami Dolphins to Stephen Ross, as reported by the Miami Herald. It's reported that the deal is worth $1.1 billion, and would give Ross 95 percent ownership of the team. Huizenga would maintain ownership of the other 5 percent of the franchise.

The Miami Dolphins have now officially ended their 2008 season, which means it's front office time again. Well, at least after they deal with landing a new owner.

Some controversy has circulated around Wayne Huizenga's sale of the Miami Dolphins during this offseason; most of it's politically infused, and, actually, the sell kind of makes sense from that fiscal standpoint. Of course, there's one other bit of controversy: if Wayne sells the franchise, Bill Parcells has a clause in his contract that lets him walk out of Miami with $12 million in hand.

"Bill's going to stay,'' Huizenga said after the Dolphins' 27-9 loss to Baltimore.

"He told me [Friday] he's going to stay."

That's a pleasant stance to take and all -- and probably one that Huizenga has to take, since he doesn't want to make it appear like his organization could crumble; after all, despite the great job that Tony Sparano has done, Parcells is the one who very, very quickly took the Fins from 1-15 all the way to the playoffs.

And as a result of his front office success, you'd have to think Parcells would be highly sought after by a team like, say, the Lions, would he come available on the market. None of that means he'll leave, but at least he'll certainly have some leverage with the new owner.

In a lot of ways, Cam Cameron was set up to fail when he accepted the Dolphins head coaching job early in 2007. And fail he did. Spectacularly. Miami finished the season 1-15, owner Wayne Huizenga hired Bill Parcells to fix the mess, and Cameron soon found himself out of a job. (Happy ending, though; Cameron landed in Baltimore as the team's new offensive coordinator. And not just in name only.)

Tony Sparano was hired as Cameron's successor, and some four months into the gig he already seems to have the respect of his team, something Cameron struggled with during his short tenure. In fact, Cameron's biggest critic -- at least publicly -- Joey Porter, hearts both Sparano and Parcells.

Coach Tony Sparano said he's ''very proud'' of Joey Porter on several levels, and Porter makes one thing clear: There's no excuse if he doesn't deliver.

''I'll have a chance to silence them,'' Porter, 31, said Thursday of his critics. 'They will say, `What will be his excuse now? He cried about the defense last year.' I'm telling you, I'm honestly happy with the defense now. If I don't do what I'm supposed to, then you fire up the pistol and beat me up in the media....

Porter said he and Bill Parcells have ''a great relationship.'' Porter said he is on his best behavior: ``You want to make sure you don't rub anybody the wrong way.''

It's been well established that Bill Parcells would prefer defensive end Jason Taylor use the team's offseason workouts to prepare for the 2008 season instead of other, less rigorous regimens. In fact, Parcells and general manager Jeff Ireland haven't spent more than 60 seconds talking to Taylor, which presumably has everything to do with Taylor's part-time gig.

It's all rather bizarre -- from the love-spat silent treatment to the television dance shows -- but it's not like Taylor's some late-round rookie draft pick in danger of getting cut. He's a team leader and a potentially important part of helping the Dolphins turn things around.

It's gotten to the point where the media are asking owner Wayne Huizenga if he plans to intervene.

Huizenga said this week he would be happy to talk with Taylor if he wants to play elsewhere, he made clear he is not going to tell Bill Parcells how to handle the matter, and feels no need to smooth over the Taylor/Parcells relationship

Like there was a chance Huizenga would tell Parcells anything. The owner told the Miami Herald that Taylor hasn't requested a trade, and he expects the defensive end to be on the field when the '08 season opens.

And although Taylor, Parcells and Ireland haven't really gotten to know each other yet, Huizenga doesn't think there's any need to get involved: "They are fine." Yes. Much in the same way Cam Cameron and Joey Porter were "fine" last year.

Bill Parcells has already dismissed general manager Randy Mueller, and the scuttlebutt has head coach Cam Cameron next in line on the chopping block.

FanHouse's Michael David Smith wrote earlier that Cameron and Parcells could meet tomorrow to discuss Cameron's future, and the Miami Herald's Armando Salguero suggests that the first-year head coach could be looking for work by Wednesday. And then there was this odd nugget near the end of Salguero's piece:

Parcells apparently told Huizenga he has heard stories about Cameron spending some of his time monitoring the team's website to make sure the players are being asked the right questions by club-employed reporters. Cameron also wanted to make sure the players were giving the right answers.

Parcells told Huizenga he doesn't want a coach that is worried about blogs or website interviews. He wants a tough-minded, hard-driven football man who is more concerned with football than facade.

Awesome. I"m sure Parcells is thinking, "What the hell is going on in an organization when the head coach is reading blogs?!?" True that, and I'm a, ahem, blogger. This is why the Tuna is so big on Dallas offensive coordinator Tony Sparano. Not only does he not read blogs, he doesn't own a computer. In fact, he's been known to kick other coaches' asses for doing things like "checking e-mail," or posting to "Facebook." And rightly so.

Seriously, the probability has to be negative that Cameron keeps his job in light of this latest revelation, and it's not like his chances were all that great after "leading" the Dolphins to a 1-15 record.

It's (almost) official: the Dolphins have hired Bill Parcells to become the executive vice president of football operations. Next up: who stays and who goes? For starters, owner Wayne Huizenga won't be selling the team -- that was part of the deal that brought the Tuna to Miami -- and it looks like first-year head coach Cam Cameron's job is more secure than it was two days ago. But the fate of myriad assistant coaches and general manager Randy Mueller is less certain.

According to the Miami Herald's Armando Salguero, it's not clear if Parcells will hire a general manager to serve under him or do the job himself. Either way, it doesn't look good for Mueller (Salguero thinks Parcells will keep Mueller on through the draft, and then re-evaluate things). For Dolphins fans, though, Parcells' hire is a welcome change. Consider his handy work during his stint with the Cowboys:

In Dallas, he drafted cornerback Terence Newman, tight end Jason Witten, running backs Marion Barber and Julius Jones, receiver Patrick Crayton, linebacker DeMarcus Ware, and defensive ends Marcus Spears and Chris Canty.

He also signed quarterback Tony Romo, a Pro Bowl reserve this season, as an undrafted free agent in 2003.

Not too shabby. Parcells has a eye for talent, but he's also shown a chronic inability to say put for very long. In most cases, though, he leaves an organization better than he found it, which would be a good start in Miami.

ESPN is reporting that one of its employees, Bill Parcells, has signed a contract to become executive vice president of football operations, that he has faxed the signed contract to Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga, and that there's really, truly, no backing out this time.

ESPN also reports that Parcells will still be an analyst for the network through this weekend's games. In theory, that should mean we'll hear an interesting account this weekend of what went down between Parcells, the Falcons and the Dolphins, but Parcells doesn't have a very good track record when it comes to giving interesting information to ESPN viewers.

Parcells' job will apparently entail determining whether the Dolphins should keep coach Cam Cameron and general manager Randy Mueller (most people think he'll fire both of them), and then overseeing personnel acquisition. That means the Dolphins will have a guy with a phenomenal track record running the show. Until he quits.