Miami Marlins Opening Day Flashback: Remembering Kevin Brown

Kevin Brown only spent two seasons with the Miami Marlins- plenty of time to turn two of three best Opening Day starts in franchise history.

When most baseball fans think Miami Marlins and pitching dominance, thoughts turn to Josh Beckett and Jose Fernandez.

When looking back on past Opening Day showings, it’s hard for even most Marlins fans to look past Charlie Hough‘s Inaugural Day knuckleballs, even if that win was made possible by a lot of looking past the strike zone by the home plate umpire.

However, it turns out the answer to any questions of Miami’s most dominant pitcher, be it Opening Day or any day, is one Kevin Brown.

Between Beckett’s postseason dominance six years later, and being arguably outshined by teammate Livan Hernandez during his own World Series run, it’s easy to forget Brown’s flat out awesomeness for his two seasons with the Marlins. Perhaps that’s the price you pay for being most famous for a single game. Brown was the author of franchise’s second no-hitter, and was just a hit batsman away from a perfect game in 1997. You can find a great rundown of his entire career here, courtesy of FishStripes. But I’ll leave you with one career fact that really hammers home the brilliance.

Brown is 10th all-time amongst Miami Marlins WAR leaders, as the FishStripes piece notes and Baseball Reference indicates on the team page. That’s not the sobering part though. Take a look at the rest of the Top 10. Everyone else in it needed four or more years with Miami to climb that high. Brown got there in just two seasons.

And in both cases, Brown set the tone right from the jump, with those two dominant Opening Day starts.  Both coming, strangely enough, on April 1st.

In 1996, Brown pitched seven innings of one run ball in his Miami Marlins debut…and took the loss. Six hits, only three for extra bases. One walk. His ERA was 1.29 at the end of the game, and would only rise by 0.6 the rest of the year. Unfortunately, the Marlins themselves could only manage three hits in support of their ace. A common theme in 1996, as Brown did lose 11 games that season despite leading the majors in ERA and WHIP.

In 1997? Same day, same stuff, but better result. In what is inarguably the best Opening Day performance by a Miami Marlins pitcher, the entire Cubs team couldn’t manage to outhit the opposing pitcher. Brown shut down the Cubs to the tune of 7.0 IP, 1 H, and 8 Ks, and yes, did chip in a hit of his own for good measure.  It’s hard to as for much more from your ace than that.

Throughout his career, in Miami and elsewhere, Brown was known for his bulldog like mentality, his snarl, and desire to be out there from start to finish for his club. He might not have lead the league in strikeouts, but his team was never out of the game while he was in it.

For Marlins fans of all ages, that’s both well worth remembering…and should also sound a little familiar.

Twenty-four years later, the Miami Marlins are handing the ball to another similar mound presence in Sandy Alcantara. Like Brown in 1996, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind who was getting that Opening Day start. Like Brown in 1997, Sandy is fresh off a dominant Opening Day performance the previous year.

Here’s hoping he can channel a certain Miami Marlins legend, and get his 2021 season started the right way.