Miami Marlins
The Miami Marlins are an American professional baseball team based in Miami, Florida. The Marlins compete in Major League Baseball as a member club of the National League East division. Their home park is Marlins Park. Though one of only two MLB franchises to have never won a division title, the Marlins have won two World Series championships as a wild card team.
The team began play as an expansion team in the 1993 season as the Florida Marlins and played home games from their inaugural season to the 2012 season at what was originally called Joe Robbie Stadium, which they shared with the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League. Since the 2012 season, they have played at Marlins Park in downtown Miami, on the site of the former Orange Bowl. The new park, unlike their previous home, was designed foremost as a baseball park. Per an agreement with the city and Miami-Dade County, the Marlins officially changed their name to the "Miami Marlins" on November 11, 2011. They also adopted a new logo, color scheme, and uniforms.
The Marlins have the distinction of winning a World Series championship in every postseason they have qualified for to date, having won the World Series in 1997 and 2003 as National League wild card team. They also have the distinction of being the only franchise in the major four North American professional sports leagues to have never lost a playoff round. They defeated the American League champion Cleveland Indians in the 1997 World Series, with shortstop Édgar Rentería driving in second baseman Craig Counsell for the series-clinching run in the 11th inning of the seventh and deciding game. In the 2003 season, manager Jeff Torborg was fired after 38 games. The Marlins were in last place in the NL East with a 16–22 record at the time. Torborg's successor, 72-year-old Jack McKeon, led them to the NL wild card berth in the postseason; they defeated the New York Yankees four games to two in the 2003 World Series.
Through the end of the 2019 season, the franchise holds the second longest postseason drought in the MLB, only behind the Seattle Mariners, and the third longest in the four major North American professional sports.
Franchise history
, CEO of Blockbuster Entertainment Corporation, was awarded an expansion franchise in the National League for a $95 million expansion fee and the team began operations in 1993 as the Florida Marlins.The Marlins qualified for the postseason and won the World Series in 1997 and 2003, but both titles were followed by controversial periods where the team sold off all the high-priced players and rebuilt. Although they followed their 2003 World Series win with a stretch in which the team posted winning records in four of the next six seasons, along with a surprise 2006 season in which they greatly exceeded expectations and stayed in the postseason race until September, the team has had the fewest winning seasons of any Major League Baseball franchise, with just six.
In 2012, the team moved to Marlins Park in downtown Miami, replacing the football-oriented Sun Life Stadium. As a condition of the move, the team was renamed the Miami Marlins, and adopted a new logo and colors.
World Series championships
The Marlins are the only team to win a World Series in their first two winning seasons ; in fact, they are the only team to even make the playoffs in their first two winning seasons. In those two seasons, they managed to make a surprise run to the World Series, both times as heavy underdogs. They are also the only team to never lose a postseason series.Roster
Roster
All-time roster
Achievements
Awards
- No-Hitters: Marlins pitchers have pitched six no-hitters in team regular-season history, five coming against teams in the NL West and one against a team from the American League.
| Pitcher | Date | Team | Result | Site |
| Al Leiter | May 11, 1996 | Rockies | 11–0 | Pro Player Stadium |
| Kevin Brown | June 10, 1997 | Giants | 9–0 | Candlestick Park |
| A. J. Burnett | May 12, 2001 | Padres | 3–0 | Qualcomm Stadium |
| Aníbal Sánchez | September 6, 2006 | Diamondbacks | 2–0 | Dolphin Stadium |
| Henderson Álvarez | September 29, 2013 | Tigers | 1–0 | Marlins Park |
| Edinson Vólquez | June 3, 2017 | Diamondbacks | 3–0 | Marlins Park |
- Hitting for the cycle: No Marlins player has ever hit for the cycle in franchise history.
Retired numbers
After José Fernández's death as a result of a boating accident on September 25, 2016, the Miami Marlins announced plans to build a memorial at Marlins Park in his honor. However, Fernández's number 16 has yet to be officially retired.
Baseball Hall of Famers
Ford C. Frick Award recipients
Florida Sports Hall of Fame
Minor league affiliations
The Miami Marlins farm system consists of seven minor league affiliates.| Level | Team | League | Location |
| Triple-A | Wichita Wind Surge | Pacific Coast League | Wichita, Kansas |
| Double-A | Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp | Southern League | Jacksonville, Florida |
| Class A-Advanced | Jupiter Hammerheads | Florida State League | Jupiter, Florida |
| Class A | Clinton LumberKings | Midwest League | Clinton, Iowa |
| Class A Short Season | Batavia Muckdogs | New York–Penn League | Batavia, New York |
| Rookie | GCL Marlins | Gulf Coast League | Jupiter, Florida |
| Rookie | DSL Marlins | Dominican Summer League | Boca Chica, Santo Domingo |
Radio and television
The Marlins' flagship radio station from their inception in 1993 through 2007 was WQAM 560 AM. Although the Marlins had plans to leave WQAM after 2006, they remained with WQAM for the 2007 season. On October 11, 2007, the Marlins announced an agreement with WAXY 790 AM to broadcast all games for the 2008 season. Longtime Montreal Expo and current Marlins play-by-play radio announcer Dave Van Horne won the Hall of Fame's Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in baseball broadcasting in 2010. He shares the play-by-play duties with Glenn Geffner.Games are also broadcast in Spanish on Radio Mambi 710 AM. Felo Ramírez, who calls play-by-play on that station along with Luis Quintana, won the Ford C. Frick Award from the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005.
Marlins games are televised by Fox Sports Florida. The last "free TV" broadcast of a game was on WPXM-TV in 2005.
Culture
In 1989, Back to the Future Part II had a reference to the Chicago Cubs defeating a baseball team from Miami in the 2015 World Series, ending the longest championship drought in all four of the major North American professional sports leagues. In actuality, the Cubs would end up getting swept in four games by the New York Mets in the NLCS, the Marlins failed to make the postseason, and the 2015 World Series was between the Kansas City Royals and the New York Mets, with the Royals winning in five games. Also, both the Cubs and Marlins are part of the National League, rendering a World Series matchup between the two teams impossible.The Marlins were the first team in Major League Baseball to have a dance/cheer team. Debuting in 2003, the "Marlins Mermaids" influenced other MLB teams to develop their own cheer/dance squads; this was inspired in part by similar squads from the NFL and NBA. In 2008, the Florida Marlins debuted "The Marlins Manatees", Major League Baseball's first all-male dance/energy squad, to star alongside the Mermaids. As of 2012, the Marlins have abandoned the "Mermaids" and "Manatees" for in-game entertainment instead using an "energy squad", a co-ed group of dancers.