Marlins blow a game

Noise affects communication after team gives out 15,000 vuvuzela-like horns and pays the price in 9-8 loss to Tampa Bay.

Horn-blowing fans are no longer exclusive to Africa. The Florida Marlins gave away promotional horns at a game on Saturday.

MIAMI // On a night the Florida Marlins handed out 15,000 vuvuzela-like air horns to fans, there was one unavoidable question when the marathon game was over. Did those horns ? and the constant noise ? help the Marlins blow a game? Quite possibly, yes. An apparent miscommunication between Fredi Gonzalez, the Florida manager, and Lance Barksdale, the home-plate umpire, cost the Marlins a chance to score in the ninth inning. The Tampa Bay Rays then roughed up Jorge Sosa for four runs in the 11th before hanging on for a 9-8 win on Saturday night.

"That was the worst handout or giveaway I've ever been a part of in baseball," said Dan Uggla, the Marlins second baseman, who, like the umpires, resorted to earplugs. "This isn't soccer. I know the World Cup is going on, but this is baseball." Looking to feed off World Cup buzz, the Marlins gave away plastic air horns to fans as they entered the stadium, and the toy instruments created a never-ending soundtrack for the night.

Similar to the vuvuzelas that dominate the audio from World Cup matches in South Africa, the buzzing of the horns blared from long before the first pitch, and some were still going at the end. The horns might have been a hit with fans, but they were a big miss with those on the field, especially because all the noise could have prompted a lineup-card miscommunication between Gonzalez and Barksdale.

"It was the most uncomfortable baseball game I've been a part of in a long time because of that," crew chief Tom Hallion said. "Whether that had anything to do with it [the miscommunication], I don't know, but it could have. When's the last time you heard something like that at a baseball game? Never. You don't see this kind of stuff at baseball games." Said Joe Maddon, the Rays manager: "I really believe the horns should be banned from Major League Baseball."

And this from Marlins center fielder Cody Ross: "It was awful, awful. I can't tell you how awful it was." When the Marlins made a player substitution in the ninth inning, Gonzalez intended to put Brian Barden in the ninth spot in the batting order. Barksdale marked Barden as batting third ? so when Barden walked, he was called out for the lineup goof. After a long review by Barksdale, Gonzalez was ejected, then stayed on the field calmly for several more minutes as Barksdale kept checking the cards.

"Lance confirmed it with Fredi before he left to go back into the dugout," Hallion said. "And that's all we had to go by then." Afterward, Gonzalez insisted he was in the right. "He screwed it up," Gonzalez said of Barksdale. "I'll go anywhere you want me to go with it. I told him where the guys were hitting and he gave Joe the wrong places to hit. "He [has] the official lineup card, so that's the one that counts."

The noise tapered off somewhat in the later innings, but the buzz of horns was constant. "I couldn't hear myself talk," Tampa Bay pitcher Jamie Shields said. "It was a weird game." * AP