City’s baseball dreams shattered

“That deal was signed — I know the date, I’ll never forget it— June 8th of 1991,” said Muxo. It was a 20-year contract, set to start in 1993. Billboards went up around the underdeveloped city, celebrating the monumental success. “It was excellent. Then, fast forward to August 24, 1992.”

On that day, Hurricane Andrew devastated South Miami-Dade County but especially Homestead and the stadium.

“The community basically was wiped out. City hall was left. Part of the power plant. Part of the hospital. Pretty much everything was wiped out,” said Muxo. The stadium was one of the first things they rebuilt. For Muxo, the reason was obvious. “The city needed a Phoenix.”

But after assessing the extensive damage to the city itself, the Indians apologetically pulled out of the deal, according to Muxo. And the city never found a replacement. Spring training moved away from South Florida. And for many years, the field sat empty. Now, almost 30 years after Muxo’s deal of deals, Homestead is considering demolishing the everempty, now dilapidated stadium that costs the city roughly half a million dollars a year to maintain.

“This was a field of dreams for the city of Homestead. It just never came true,” said Dennis Maytan, director of Parks and Public Works in Homestead. “I wanted to run from my house and see the lights on and know people were playing in our stadium.”

Instead, Maytan and his team spend time shooing off vandals, fighting a losing battle against roof leaks, and cleaning bird droppings from the jail cells constructed during the building’s short stint as a police precinct. Once, they busted a group of local teens who had broken into one of the side buildings and set up a sort of clubhouse for playing video games after school.

“How did we get here?” Muxo mused of his pet project. “If it weren’t for Hurricane Andrew it might have been different.”

But Andrew wasn’t exactly the end of the major league dream for the city. In 1993 the Indians played two hurricane-relief benefit games at the Homestead field against the Marlins. It was during those games that Muxo met his future employer, Wayne Huizenga, the former owner of the Marlins, Dolphins and Panthers but better known for his many successful businesses. Huizenga died this year.

In 1995, Homestead got another shot at the big leagues. Major League Baseball had tried to cap salaries, and the players went on strike on Aug. 12, 1994, causing the rest of the season to be canceled. For months, the Players Association duked it out with management. And with 1995’s opening day looming, the unprecedented backlog of still-unsigned players —free agents — needed a place to practice. So the Players Association hired Jackie Moore, a one-season catcher turned MLB coach, and sent him to train the free agents at a ballfield the association knew to be both up to their standards, and off the MLB grid— Homestead Sports Complex.

“We went down to get the free agents in shape. That was the perfect situation for it,” Moore remembers. “It was a major-league complex that they had rebuilt from the hurricane before.”

Dozens of men trained under Moore at the free agent camp, now something of an MLB legend. In its comprehensive history, the Ringer put the number at around 70, including big names like Randy Velarde of the Yankees. They played games against local college teams to stay fresh. Homestead loved it.

“I’m sure it was a shot in the arm for them,” said Moore. “These kids got to play against players that they had probably heard of, that they wanted to be like.”

The free agents called themselves the “Homestead Homies.” Moore said it was because they were sort of the odd kids on the block, training under unprecedented circumstances. On any other year, players would train with their club, which would jealously guard its talent from scouts. At Homestead, it was the opposite. Moore said he invited the scouts onto the field, in hopes of getting all of his guys hired. And it worked. Scouts came from all over.

“If they needed a certain player — a second baseman or whatever — chances are they could sign them out of Homestead. They were watching us real close,” remembers Moore.