Opening Day of the baseball season is a time of hope for baseball fans -- except for those who root for Florida teams. The Marlins and Rays are both notorious for divesting themselves of good players when their salaries start to rise. It must be a Florida state law. If so, both Florida MLB teams are in compliance.

Which way did they go?

In 2016 the Marlins had an outfield of Christian Yelich, Marcel Ozuna and Giancarlo Stanton. All three are young and have been all-stars. All three are also now out of Miami. Miami fans have to feel like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football with Lucy holding it.

It has to be getting old.

White collar public assistance?

Previous Marlins owner, Jeffery Loria, used public funding to raise the value of the franchise and then pocketed a huge profit when the team was sold to a group headed up by Derek Jeter for a cool $1.2 billion in October of 2017. This was after Loria bought the team for $158 million in 2002. Why don't they just call the team the Carpetbaggers?

Parting gifts?

As slimy as Loria has seemed, Derek Jeter is losing some luster he had as a player by his cost cutting way of running the Marlins. I wonder if he gets players a fruit basket when he sends them packing.

Power outage

The Tampa Bay Rays have similarly been run on the cheap, though the profit hasn't been as egregious.

The face of the franchise, Evan Longoria, was traded to the Giants this offseason. Outfielder Corey Dickerson and first baseman/DH Logan Morrison are also gone. Outfielder Steven Sousa Jr. also had a breakout season in 2017, hitting 30 home runs. He's now with the New York Yankees. There's not a lot on the horizon in the way of replacing those 115 home runs produced by Longoria, Dickerson, Morrison, and Sousa Jr.

Still, there are ways you can enjoy a Rays game.

Why go to a Rays game?

Out of the 30 MLB stadiums, Tropicana Field is consistently ranked 30th. Personally, I enjoy going there. There are a lot of reasons to go to a Rays game whether you are a baseball fan or not. If you want to get away from it all, it's a great place to go.

You can park relatively close to the ballpark for $10 and get away from the park fairly easily. Traffic also isn't that much of an issue. The personnel at The Trop are friendly, and the restrooms are clean and easily accessible. Lines to concession stands are usually short and the prices aren't as outrageous as they are in some ballparks.

In addition, many baseball fans in Florida are transplants from other states and root for visiting teams. Watching the Rays gives fans an opportunity to see potential help for the teams. For example, I can watch for bullpen help for the Cubs when I go to a Rays game. You can also play a variation of the Dead Pool with the Rays. You can call it the Trade Pool.

Sounds familiar

While I enjoy going to The Trop, that will be changing before very long. The Rays are looking to move to the Ybor City portion of Tampa Bay. It looks like public funding could be involved. Didn't something like this happen in Miami?