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GNDN -> Maybe they should stay in a classier joint? (4/9/2008 11:13:53 PM)
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From the Palm Beach Post:
WASHINGTON — Hanley Ramirez, the Marlins' star shortstop, stepped outside the team hotel on his way to lunch when a tour bus screeched to a sudden stop on Connecticut Avenue.
Pressed against the windows, dozens of passengers aimed their cameras and snapped away. But they weren't photographing Ramirez. They were shooting the hotel's stately entrance with its famous sign - The Mayflower.
The grande dame of D.C. hotels - it was nicknamed "Washington's second-best address" by President Harry S. Truman - has become a tourist magnet since federal investigators said then-New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer booked Room 871 to rendezvous with a prostitute.
The hotel, which has 657 guest rooms and 74 suites, also is a frequent home to sports teams visiting Washington. The Marlins, who tonight resume their three-game series against the Nationals, are the first baseball team to sample Spitzermania.
Few players were amused.
"I can't believe a tour bus would stop because that's where the governor did his thing,'' pitcher Scott Olsen said. "You have the White House and the monuments and the Capitol, and they stop at the Mayflower? That's ridiculous."
Catcher Matt Treanor joked that he was staying in the room where Spitzer's alleged $4,300 tryst took place. Treanor actually was staying one floor below. Room 871 is temporarily off-limits, according to a desk clerk who did not want to be named, because visitors were knocking on the door and disturbing guests.
"I'm not going anywhere near that room,'' Olsen said. "I'm not even going to venture to that floor. There's bad karma or something going on in that room."
Two weeks ago, the "871" placard on the door disappeared. "We're keeping an eye on eBay,'' said Joseph Cardone, the hotel's resident manager. A new placard has been installed, and the hotel will rent the room when the fervor dies down.
"I'm sure you can imagine we have to be cautious with that room,'' Cardone said. "It's a corner king. It's not the most unbelievable suite we have at the hotel. We have lots nicer rooms.''
Even before Spitzer checked in Feb. 13, The Mayflower had enjoyed a colorful history. Opened four blocks from the White House in 1925 - when the nation was still buzzing over the tricentennial of the 1620 Mayflower landing - it hosted the inaugural ball of every president from Calvin Coolidge to Ronald Reagan.
Walk the halls of its 10 floors, and historical plaques mention an all-star lineup of guests - from Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle to Carole Lombard and John Wayne.
A few doors down from Treanor's room, another former New York governor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, penned his famous "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" speech for his first inaugural address in March 1933.
"There's good historic stuff there. It's not always about sex,'' Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez said.
But it often is - JFK supposedly enjoyed trysts there. And in 1999, the Mayflower comped its $5,000 Presidential Suite so that House impeachment managers could privately interview former White House intern Monica Lewinsky about her liaisons with Bill Clinton.
The Marlins have been staying at the Mayflower since 2005, the year baseball returned to the nation's capital. Like most sports teams, the Marlins try to stay at four-star hotels or better. Part of that is to retain the elite image of a major-league team, but it's also because larger hotels are able to rent large blocks of rooms at a discounted rate.
"A lot of it has to do with service and the willingness to work with teams,'' said Bill Beck, the Marlins' traveling secretary, who books at least 50 rooms (for players, coaches and support staff) in every city the team visits.
"Sure you want to stay in nice hotels, but if you need rooms you need rooms. This hotel gets busy. At times you can't get a room, but they're willing to always take us.''
Team President David Samson said he hasn't noticed much interest in the scandal among the Marlins players, but he took special note of Spitzer's troubles.
Samson, Spitzer and Harvey Greene, the Dolphins' senior vice president for media relations, all went to the Horace Mann School, a private institution in The Bronx. Samson said Greene has feigned being upset with Samson because the Marlins executive was the first Horace Mann alum to get a championship ring.
"He would always call me the most famous alum and he was the second-most-famous alum," Samson said.
When the Spitzer scandal became public, Samson received a call from Greene.
"He said, 'By the way, you're now No. 2 and I'm No. 3,' " Samson quoted Greene as saying. " 'We've been pushed down the list.' ''
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