There is a sports team in all 4 major categories in South Florida. Football has the Miami Dolphins, basketball has the Miami Heat, Florida Panthers play in the National Hockey League, and in Major League Baseball there is the Florida Marlins.
Baseball season is here, and since it's my favorite sport, I wanted to talk about the Florida Marlins. 1990 was the year that the powers that be in Major League Baseball decided that they wanted to have two new teams in the National League. One of these two expansion teams was going to have a home in the Sunshine state. Three cities, Orlando, Tampa Bay, and Miami got into a bidding war to determine where the new team would play their home games. In the end, it was a businessman by the name of Wayne Huizenga who won the bidding war and set up the team in Miami. It was June 1991 and the team cost Huizenga $95 million dollars.
In 1993, Major League Baseball welcomed the Florida Marlins to their family. 1997 was a banner year for the club as they made history winning their first of two wild card and World Series - in the process breaking a then record of becoming the fastest expansion team at the time to win a championship. The Wild Card position was once again the way they got into the 2003 World Series - which they won again - and in the process became the first team to be two time champions in any of the four major sports after winning a wild card spot.
The joys, however, did come with some low points. The Marlins inaugural season ranks amongst their worst on record. Their .395 win percentage ranks among the games worst, although their sophomore season shattered that mark with a .333 winning percentage. Of course things did pick up in the winning column - as both their championship runs had percentages just above .500 with their 1997 season being their best, a .568 winning percentage.
Fan attendance has always been a problem for the Florida Marlins. Since 1998, the team from South Florida has ranked amongst MLB lowest in attendance. 2003 saw the Marlins be the second to last team in attendance, which is surprisingly since they had won their second world series that year. A new home in 2012 is what the owners hope will draw people back to the ballpark.
The Marlins are responsible for developing some sought after talent in MLB. Kevin Brown, for one, had a career year back in 1996, coming in second in the CY Young race (an individual award for pitchers). One of the game's best hitters, Miguel Cabrera started also started his career with the Marlins, going through the farm system. He played five seasons with the 'fish' and hit 138 homeruns.
Like I stated earlier, a new home is awaiting the Marlins in 2012. Since 1993, the Marlins have shared the same playing field as the NLF's Miami Dolphins. The site of the old Orange Bowl is where the Marlins will call home starting in the 2012 baseball season. The new stadium will hold an estimated 37,000 people, and to combat the hot summer days/nights in South Florida, will have a retractable roof, becoming the sixth stadium in MLB to have one. The Marlins will not only have a new home, but will have a new name. As part of the relocation agreement, the Miami-Dade commissioner's office will change the name from the Florida Marlins to the Miami Marlins.
Hopefully, with their new home and a new name, the team will look more like they did back in the 1997, 2003 seasons.
Author Resource:
Richard M Gonzalez lives in Ft. Lauderdale and has written about Deals Miami for different website based travel companies. He has found great savings at Coupons Ft Lauderdale , a money saving website serving the local Miami/Ft. Lauderdale community.
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