Marlins History

With the only 3 players from the World Championship team of 1997, the Marlins young talent looked promising. The young pitchers guided the team to a 3rd Place finish with a 79-82 record. In November, David Dombrowski resigned from his designation of President and General Manager of the Florida Marlins and went on to accept the post of President of the Detroit Tigers. In 2001, the Marlins young talent played a solid baseball for most of the season finishing the season in 4th Place with a 76-86 record. In the meantime, owner John Henry purchased the Boston Red Sox leaving the Marlins without any owner. Following a lawsuit Jeffrey Loria, owner of the Montreal Expos sold his team to Major League Baseball, and bought the Marlins. He immediately hired Manager Jeff Torborg to guide the Marlins. The following season, the Marlins faced lots of rumors due to the Marlins fans lost all of their interest in the team. Ryan Dempster and Cliff Floyd were both traded away following the All-Star break. Moreover Pro Player Stadium deserted look gave it a ghostly appearance.

Despite all these negativities, the Marlins finished the season with a record of 79-83. In 2003, Preston Wilson was traded to the Colorado Rockies for speedster Juan Pierre. However, the team decided to build around speed and pitching to remain competitive in the season. The Marlins struggled in the opening stages of the 2003 season, going 16-2. The same season pitcher Dontrelle Willis made his debut and instilled some enthusiasm in the team. He made the team so energetic that the Marlins fans that were still ignoring the team came to see his pitching. The Marlins finally climbed above .500 and Willis earned a spot on the NL All-Star Roster. In September, the Marlins clinched the wild card spot, which allowed the Marlins earn their second playoff berth with a 91-71 record. Dontrelle Willis won NL Rookie of the Year honors. In the NLDS the resilient Marlins swept the heavily favored San Francisco Giants and advanced to contend for the NLCS. In the NLCS, Mike Lowell returned from his hand injury. The Marlins scored 3 runs in the 5th on a double by MNLCS MVP Ivan Rodriguez and brought in Josh Beckett to defend the lead. The Marlins won the game by 9-6 to advance to their second World Series. In the World Series, the Marlins bested the New York Yankees in six games. The game remain tied until the 12th Inning when Alex Gonzalez hit a line drive home, which gave the Marlins a 4-3 win that evened the series. In Game 6, Josh Beckett tied up the Yankees allowed just 5 hits to give the Marlins a 2-0 win which helped the Marlins to clinch their 2nd World Championship.

In 2004, the Marlins remained a strong contender due to the solid pitching of Dontrelle Willis and Josh Beckett. The Marlins finished the season finished in 3rd place with an 83-79 record. The Florida Marlins became a MLB team in 1993 as a part of the National League expansion. The franchise was awarded to H. Wayne Huizenga on June 10, 1991. The Marlins in their formative seven years of existence won the Fall Classic title in 1997. The Marlins debuted started their professional career with the Colorado Rockies. Rene Lachemann an ex-catcher became the club’s first manager. When the Marlins scores slumped in 1994 and 1995, Rene Lachemann was immediately replaced by Marlins’ director of player development, John Boles. The team’s early line-up featured Walt Weiss, Benito Santiago, and Charlie Hough. Due to the outstanding performance of pitcher Kevin Brown and right fielder Gary Sheffield, Marlins won 80 games in 1996. In 1997 they won the NL wildcard berth. The Marlins defeated Cleveland Indians (4-3) to win their first Fall Classic title. With this achievement the Marlins received wide acclamation since it became the fastest expansion team ever to win a World Series crown. Catcher Charles Johnson led the league with a .995 fielding percentage. He also received his second consecutive Gold Glove Award. The post victory was highlighted with some notable events; Boles resumed his position director of player development and Jim Leyland, ex- Pittsburgh Pirates manager became the new manager of the Marlins. Another important event was the break up of the team by Huizenga. He traded off the team’s most skilled players. In 1998, Leyland resigned from the managerial duties of the club and Huizenga sold the club to business tycoon John Henry. The team’s nickname represents an aquatic creature that dwells in the waters adjoining Florida. The logo of the team has a marlin jumping through the circle and a baseball in the background with FLORIDA and MARLINS written in the band of the circle. The mascot of the team is Billy the Marlin