Today in Miami Marlins History: Two Franchise Milestones
May 11th was a big day in team history for the Miami Marlins as not just one, but two notable franchise firsts were achieved.
For a franchise with only six winning seasons, the Miami Marlins have had plenty of notable milestones.
Bizarrely enough, a lot of them have happened in the month of May. Plenty of franchise lows have gone down in the season’s second month. Alex Fernandez played the last game of his professional career this month. Fourteen years later, another fan favorite Fernandez underwent Tommy John surgery. May has seen some massive losing streaks, and not surprisingly, some dramatic personnel decisions. But it has also seen plenty of highs. If nothing else, it’s an interesting month for pitchers, and really just for the Marlins overall.
More from Call to the Pen
- Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
- Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
- Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
- Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
- 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals
More interesting still, two of these milestones happened on the same day. May 11th, some seven years apart. Even more interestingly, both these milestones came at the expense of the Colorado Rockies.
At any rate, it’s the kind of thing that passes for interesting when baseball has been indefinitely delayed. But May 11th is quite the loaded day for the Miami Marlins, and would be worth reflecting on even if the 2020 Marlins were in action against the Reds today.
Had Miami played a game today, it would be their twenty-sixth time doing so on May 11th. The Marlins sport an 11-14 record on the day, making 2020 only the third time ever they’ve failed to get a game in on this date. The first victory on this date didn’t come until Miami’s fourth season, a blowout laugher against the Colorado Rockies.
That same blowout laugher was also the biggest day in Miami Marlins history since Opening Day back in that inaugural 1993 season.
Just what was so special about an 11-0 shellacking of baseball’s other expansion team? Let’s take a look.
Al Leiter Makes Miami Marlins History
The Marlins have only had six winning seasons in their history, which says a lot about how this franchise has been operated over the years. Of course, as all Marlins fans know, it’s also been a really weird franchise, often offering more highs than plenty of more established and better funded clubs. Particularly in their own division- after all, no NL East squad was won more championships than Miami since the Marlins entered the league.
But up until May 11th, 1996, the Miami Marlins had really failed to make to do much to make their mark on baseball history.
Al Leiter changed that over the course of nine hitless innings, surrendering only two walks and striking out six en route to the first no hitter in Marlins history.
Leiter’s no-no was the first of a staggering six no-hitters for Miami- one for each of those six winning seasons. Which is another curious point of contrast with those other NL East clubs. It’s NL East 10, Miami 6 in the no-no department since 1993, with only the Phillies five no-nos coming close to matching the Marlins output. The contrast is particularly stark when it comes to the Mets, who have only had one no-hitter ever.
What stands out the most about Leiter’s particular no-hitter is just how unnecessary his efforts arguably were. Miami scored six runs- there’s that number six again- in the first inning of this 11-0 victory. Every other Marlins no-no but one could have gone either way right down to the last out, and even Kevin Brown‘s 9-0 hitless decision was a one-run game until the 7th inning.
Again, rollercoaster is the right word when it comes to Marlins history. Thanks to Al Leiter, May 11th, 1996, was arguably the first peak. Now, fastforward a few peaks and several years, and we come to another notable May 11th.
Jack McKeon Makes Miami Marlins Debut
The 2003 Miami Marlins were never necessarily expected to compete for a World Series title.
However, that’s not to say they weren’t expected to play competitive baseball. At minimum, this squad was supposed to easily deliver on the desire to produce what would only be the second winning season in franchise history.
More from Miami Marlins
- The Miami Marlins actually do have a Jazz Chisholm problem
- Square one at catcher? Miami Marlins sign former backstop Jorge Alfaro
- Miami Marlins remake their infield at MLB trade deadline for playoff push
- Miami Marlins make late night splash with David Robertson trade
- MLB trade deadline: Nationals and Mets for sale, plus wish lists for Phillies, Braves, Marlins
Through 38 games, Jeff Torborg’s 16-22 Marlins were showing no signs of delivering on such a mandate. So not even two months into the season, a change was made. Torborg was fired on May 10th, 2003.
Enter “Trader Jack” McKeon.
The big league club wasn’t quite sure what to make of the move- though they were nice enough to make sure McKeon was a winner his first time out. Providing an immediate example of things to come, Miami stole a blistering four bases that day in their 7-2 victory on May 11th. Talk about lighting a fire under someone. If nothing else, when even Luis Castillo hits a home run for you (only 28 in his career), you know something has changed in the clubhouse.
Things wouldn’t turn around overnight though. In fact, the Marlins would drop to ten games under .500 before the turnaround really got underway. Once it did though, the rest is history, with the septuagenarian guiding Miami to the best record in the National League over the final four months, culminating in a World Series title.
Next. If Nothing Else, 2020 Season Could Be Greenest Yet. dark
Obviously, there was a long road ahead, and a lot of baseball left to be played. But that journey needed to start somewhere, and May 11th, 2003, was the day.