Derek Jeter has wanted to rid Marlins Park of its massive home-run sculpture since buying the team, and now he’s pitching a new plan to relocate the $2.5 million county-owned artwork outside the stadium so that it can whir to life every day at (you guessed it) 3:05 p.m.
The Marlins are pitching the concept as a win for public art, since daily passersby are bound to outnumber the ticket-holding spectators who can currently watch “Homer” launch into action at a stadium that this year drew the smallest crowds in Major League Baseball. But the 81-year-old New Yorker who could veto the plan, “Homer” sculptor Red Grooms, continues to resist moving his seven-story monument to beachside baseball away from centerfield.