I was a Marlins fan from their inaugural season in 1992. Living in Miami, I was beyond excited to have an MLB team to call my own once again. I followed them diligently, went to lots of games at the baseball-fitted version of Dolphins Stadium, bought the hats, shirts and other paraphanelia, rejoiced when they traded for Gary Sheffield and just had a generally wonderful time being a fan. My children went to MLB games as infants.
I once wrote an extensive blog post about the best baseball season of my life; the magical 2003 run by the little Marlins that could, who would shock the baseball world by winning the Wild Card and then defeating the SF Giants, the Chicago Cubs and the storied NY Yankees to bring home the World Series Championship. I’ve since deleted that post when the Marlins ownership chose to sever our relationship.
Loria and his half-pint stepson David Samson dissed all Florida Marlins fans several years after winning the series when they finally conned the City of Miami into building them a ballpark on the site of the old Orange Bowl. I’m sure I could find the interview that Samson gave that was the final insult to all long suffering Marlins fans, but suffice it to say he said the Florida Marlins, the team I loved, followed to Chicago and defended against all haters even when ownership made awful decisions, was no more. They wanted a new team, and new fans to come to their shiny new mockery of a ballpark with a rotating art deco monstrosity in the outfield serving as their Home Run ornament. He said Florida Marlins fans never came to the stadium and they wanted fans who would come to the Miami park and spend their money. The insult was too much for me to bear and I took him at his word. The Florida Marlins were extinct, and the Miami Marlins didn’t want the Florida fans any more.
I’m not going to suggest that my ability to stubbornly hold a grudge is superior to others, but I do have some skill in belligerently sticking to my position unless there’s a reason to move off of it. I never watched a Marlins game again, and only saw the field on TV when the Mets played there. Every time the Marlins ownership traded away their players to their fans’ chagrin, I figuratively threw my head back and laughed an evil laugh. Of course they screwed their fans over and over again. The ballpark may be new, it may say Miami on the shirts now instead of Florida, but Loria and Samson were still Loria and Samson.
When I read that Loria was selling the team, and that a group that included Derek Jeter was buying it, I had a brief thought that I could finally come home again, but by then I had reconnected with my boyhood Boys from Flushing and it was too late.
But then came 2020 and the tragedy of our global nightmare. The MLB season was delayed and honestly, it just fell off my personal radar as I had more important things to contend with. But on Opening Day of the shortened season, I was so happy to see MLB back that I couldn’t get enough by just watching the Mets opener. I scanned my MLB.TV schedule and saw the Marlins were playing the Phillies. I felt a slight, reluctant tug at my memories and before I knew what was happening, I clicked on the Miami TV feed. I watched without any particular passion until Opening Day Starter Sandy Alcantara struck out his 7th Phil and I did a little fist pump and applauded.
Confused, I walked into the kitchen to consider what had just happened. Could it be that my righteous indignation toward this team had lost its bitter sheen? Suddenly, I heard a familiar voice from the TV. I rushed back into the room and sure enough, Tommy Hutton, who was unceremoniously dumped by Loria & Samson after almost two decades of Marlins commentary, was talking about the game with long time Marlins commentator Craig Minnervinni, whom I met at Wrigley Field during that aforementioned magical 2003 season. Hearing T-Hutt brought back a flood of memories as no one, and I mean no one, had keener insight into what was happening in 2003 than Mr. Hutton. I remember listening to the post game show on the radio driving home from a game that season, with the Marlins in disarray after Number 1 Starter AJ Burnett was out for the season for Tommy John surgery and the manager was fired after only a month, replaced by some old man named Jack McKeon. Tommy was trying to talk up the team, who was bringing up a AA pitcher named Dontrelle Willis rather than going out and spending money to get a front line starter to replace AJ. Tommy said he’d seen Dontrelle pitch and he was something special and everyone should come see him. So I did, and the Marlins were so pitiful I was able to park a few feet from the ticket office, and buy 5 tickets to seats behind Home Plate for a Saturday night. At a Major League baseball game. T-Hutt wasn’t wrong. Dontrelle was electric that night, striking out Cliff Floyd several times and I remember Cliff walking away just shaking his head.
But I digress…. when the current game resumed, I found myself rooting for the Fishy Boys from Miami and today, right now as I write this, I am watching the Marlins v. Phillies game. I’m a Mets fan now; I don’t want there to be any confusion. I have a Mets hat and everything. But maybe, just possibly, I can have a second team I enjoy. Maybe I can tell my kids, who aren’t kids any more, that it’s okay if we like the Marlins again. After all, they were our team, and they brought us great joy in that most unexpected year of improbabilities where our little gang of five decked out in our Marlins gear and cheered the little Fish on when no one else did. They say you can’t go home again, but who the hell are “they” to tell us what we can or can’t do?
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