Meet the Marlins A marlin is a swift powerful fish that moves through the water hhee wwaatteerr with great confidence in search of its next meal That is hat is le also a good way to describe the Miami Marlins They gobble up opponents with tremendous power and speed They play every game with maximum effort The Marlins do their hunting on the baseball diamond of course They are always on the lookout for young talent to blend with experienced stars In their most successful seasons this has been the winning recipe This book tells the story of the Marlins While most teams depend on a small group of stars Miami is at its best t when everyone on the team has a chance to play That is why hy ally out even when the odds are against them the Marlins are never really out of a game On any given day any player can win a game and be a hero Gaby Sanchez gets a high-five from Hanley Ramirez The Marlins have been most successful when building around young stars like these two 5
Glory Days I n 1993 the National League NL decided it was time to add two new teams One of them would be in Florida Groups from different cities around the state made their pitch to get that team The winner was Miami However instead of using the city’s name the team’s new ownership chose to call the club the Florida Marlins This way everyone in the state would think of the Marlins as their team Over the next 19 seasons the Marlins gave their fans plenty to get excited about The team assembled a talented roster in its early years including All-Stars Jeff Conine Gary Sheffield Charles Johnson and Robb Nen Unfortunately the Marlins often struggled That began to change in 1996 when Kevin Brown Al Leiter and Devon White joined the club A year later the Marlins added Moises Alou Alex Fernandez and Bobby Bonilla 6
LEFT Gary Sheffield set a team record with 42 homers in 1996 RIGHT Edgar Renteria was a young leader on the 1997 Marlins At the same time young players such as Edgar Renteria Luis Castillo Craig Counsell and Livan Hernandez began to contribute The Marlins went from having a losing record in their first four seasons to winning the World Series in 1997 They beat the Cleveland Indians in one of the most thrilling finishes ever After the World Series team owner Wayne Huizenga broke up the team by trading away many of his best and highest-paid players Unhappy with Huizenga’s moves many fans stayed away from the ballpark In 1999 Huizenga decided he would rather be a baseball fan than a team owner and sold the Marlins Florida soon dropped in the standings From 1998 to 2002 the team had a losing record every year However the Marlins slowly rebuilt their roster with exciting young players They had a group of hard-throwing pitchers including Brad Penny A J Burnett 7
