EMPTY FEELING

A few dozen Florida Marlins fans sat in the stands late one night, quietly waiting out yet another rain delay and watching a video of last season’s highlights on the scoreboard.

Then the big screen showed team owner Wayne Huizenga standing next to the World Series trophy, relishing one of the great achievements in Florida sports history, and the fans came to life.

They booed.

Fans also jeered Huizenga when he dared to step on the field on opening day, and he hasn’t spent much time at the ballpark since. Like most southern Florida residents, he has decided to stay away this season rather than witness the Marlins’ painful, unprecedented tumble from first to worst.

“Everybody’s bitter about it,” said former Marlins pitcher Robb Nen, one of the stars traded away after last season. “The fans are bitter, the players are bitter.”

Most consider Huizenga the culprit because he put the team up for sale and ordered the roster dismantled, citing losses of $34 million in 1997. This year the Marlins will lose only $10 million, but they may also lose 100 games, and the decline of the franchise has raised questions about the future of baseball in the region.

The season quickly went sour with a 1-11 start, and there’s been little to cheer about since. The past week was especially bleak.

The Marlins drew the two smallest crowds in their six-year history Monday and Tuesday. Then team president Don Smiley, organizing a group that wants to buy the team, confirmed plans for further payroll cuts to $16 million or less next year, meaning most of the remaining star players must be traded.

On the field, the Marlins lost three in a row at home to San Francisco, a team they swept in the playoffs last year. Florida blew a 9-3 lead in one game and gave up six runs in the 10th inning in another.

Going into the weekend, the Marlins had the second worst record in the National League, behind only the expansion Arizona Diamondbacks. They’re losing at a pace that would result in a 54-108 finish, which would be the worst record ever by a defending championship team. The roster includes 11 rookies, most of them rushed to the majors to replace high-priced veterans traded away.

“That’s the choice that was made,” said third baseman Bobby Bonilla, one of the few remaining stars. “We’re very young. We’re just going to take our lumps.”

Manager Jim Leyland said the rookies are “paying a price for getting here early.”

“The kids are getting the opportunity of a lifetime, and they’re going through growing pains,” he said.

With the young pitching staff struggling, the Marlins this week called up 32-year-old journeyman Chris Hammond, who was part of the rotation in their 1993 expansion season. A comeback by Charlie Hough may be next.

The question is whether the fans will ever come back. Home attendance has declined 28 percent this season, and Monday’s crowd of 12,806 was the smallest in team history.

To compound the dismal outlook, southern Florida’s rainy summer weather has arrived early, further dampening fan enthusiasm but supporting Smiley’s argument that the Marlins need a stadium with a retractable roof.

“There’s no future in operating a ballclub under these circumstances,” he said. “Sooner or later, fans won’t put up with the weather.”

Smiley’s group wants Miami-Dade and Broward counties to contribute $80 million each for a new ballpark, but there’s little evidence of support from the public or any politicians. Smiley has hinted that the only alternative to a taxpayer-financed stadium would be moving the team.

“There is nothing more important than the survival of the franchise,” he said.

Moving the Marlins may be an empty threat, however, for several reasons:

* Baseball teams don’t move. Despite struggling franchises in Montreal, Pittsburgh, Oakland and elsewhere, no team has relocated since the Washington Senators became the Texas Rangers in 1972. Because of the sport’s antitrust exemption, club owners must collectively approve any move, and they’re unlikely to abandon a southern Florida market that drew crowds of more than 67,000 for the World Series.

* Fans who aren’t bitter are apathetic, making it difficult to rally support for a publicly financed stadium.

* Smiley might not be able to close the deal to buy the team. He needs $169 million and hasn’t raised it yet, despite recruiting more than a dozen partners.

“There is supposed to be a closing coming up in June,” said a source close to negotiations between Smiley’s group and Huizenga. “There are still some people who aren’t sure the deal is going to come down, but Don is pretty sure it is.”

If major league baseball approves the sale, Smiley will quickly begin a campaign for a ballpark. The Marlins, meanwhile, will complete their dismantling.

“The economics are not where they need to be for this team to become financially stable while we work toward a new ballpark,” Smiley said.

To reduce the payroll to $16 million from the current $33 million, Florida would probably have to trade Bonilla, Charles Johnson, Gary Sheffield and Alex Fernandez. Young stars Edgar Renteria and Cliff Floyd, who may be in line for big contracts after this year, could also become unaffordable. And Leyland, who quit the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1996 because their payroll was a paltry $17 million, might decide to manage elsewhere.

As for Marlins fans, they’ll probably continue to drown their sorrows in boos.