Florida Marlins

The Florida Marlins are a professional baseball team based in Miami Gardens, Florida. The Marlins are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League. From 1993 to the present, the Marlins have played in Dolphin Stadium. more...

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The "Marlins" name originates from fish of the same name. They are nicknamed "the Fish".

An expansion franchises, the club was founded in Miami Gardens in 1993. The Marlins are notable for winning the World Series in both times they've made it into the postseason. Despite this, they have never taken first place in their division and have always gone into the playoffs as a Wild Card.

Despite success in the postseason, the Marlins have suffered from relatively low attendance, poor on-field performance, and arguably negligent ownership. The attendance problems have been blamed on the venue. Marlins ownership has pushed for a new park, threatening to move if no agreement has been made. Dolphin Stadium owner H. Wayne Huizenga, who was the mind behind the 1997 fire sale, has threatened to evict the team after the 2010 season, regardless of whether the team manages to secure a new stadium or not. The University of Miami has announced that its Miami Hurricanes football team will leave its home at the legendary Orange Bowl and play the 2008 season in Dolphin Stadium. This is noteworthy, as the Orange Bowl site is one of the proposed sites for the new home of the Marlins.

Franchise history

1991 - 1996: Early Years

On June 10, 1991, the National League awarded a franchise to Wayne Huizenga, chief executive officer of Blockbuster Entertainment Corporation, for a $95 million expansion fee.

Huizenga immediately announced plans to convert Joe Robbie Stadium (later Pro Player Park, Pro Player Stadium, Dolphins Stadium and now Dolphin Stadium), home of the NFL's Miami Dolphins, from a football-only stadium into a multipurpose stadium. The renovation cost only $100 million, largely because Dolphins founder Joe Robbie had anticipated that baseball would eventually come to South Florida and built the stadium with a wider field than is normally the case for the NFL. Purists feared the result would be similar to Skydome in Toronto. However, Huizenga decided to cut down capacity from 67,000 to just over 43,500, in order to create a more intimate atmosphere. Aside from this, many of the upper deck outfield seats would have been too far from the field. The stadium's baseball capacity has been reduced even further in recent years, and it now seats just over 36,500. Huizenga eventually bought the Dolphins, and the stadium, in 1994.

In November of 1991, the Marlins hired Fredi Gonzalez as the Marlins first Minor League manager.

Marlins selected catcher Charles Johnson of the University of Miami with their first-ever, first round draft pick in the June amateur draft of 1992. Later that year Marlins President Carl Barger collapsed during an owners meeting during the baseball winter meetings in Louisville, Kentucky, and died a few hours later in Humana University Hospital due to a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. The Marlins would go on and retire the number 5 in honor of Barger's favorite player, Joe Dimaggio.

Read more at Wikipedia.org