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Home > Baseball > MLB Teams > Florida Marlins
Florida Marlins
Baseball is an outdoor sport in which a pitcher pitches a hard, fist sized ball to the hitting area of a batter. The batter hits the hard ball with a tapered, smooth, cylindrical bat made up of wood or metal. The batsman scores by running counter-clockwise within the four markers called the bases arranged at the corners of a diamond. Baseball is sometimes called hardball to differentiate it from similar games such as softball.
Throughout the team's short history, the Marlins rose to success due to continual upgrades of their starting rotation. Before 1997, the Marlins almost exclusively relied on experienced starting pitchers, out of the 21 Florida hurlers to start 10 or more games in a season between 1993 and 1996.
The path towards a major-league team in South Florida started in 1985, when the National League was permitted to expand by two teams by Major League Baseball's new basic agreement. Wayne Huizenga's group representing South Florida was picked as one of six candidates for expansion in December 1990, and along with Denver, South Florida was officially selected by the NL, the National League Expansion Committee in June 1991. The Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins were unanimously approved by the major-league owners the following month.
That September, the Marlins began to build their club. Dave Dombrowski, who was instrumental in building the Montreal Expos' famed talent pool which had produced Delino DeShields, Larry Walker, and Randy Johnson, amond others was hired away to be the Marlins' first General Manager. Three months later the team's first player, Clemente Nunez, was signed to a minor-league contract. Nunez never played with the team.
The team had already shipped rightfielder Moises Alou to Houston, centerfielder Devon White to Arizona, and closer Robb Nen to San Francisco. Kevin Brown would soon be dealt, as would Al Leiter. Dennis Cook and Ed Vosberg, both key relievers, were also traded. The team tried unsuccessfully to find a taker for high-priced Gary Sheffield. As a result, the defending champs started 1998 with an emaciated lineup and a rotation that included no returning starters.
After 108 losses and a last-place finish, Jim Leyland left to become the manager of the Colorado Rockies. John Boles took over in 1999 with a mandate to develop the team's young talent, but the Marlins continued to deal away emerging stars such as shortstop Edgar Renteria and closer Matt Mantei.
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