Teal deal: Miami Marlins must bring old colors back for good

There’s no doubt about it … the Miami Marlins just look better in their true, teal colors. The team must bring them back for good next season.

Saying the Miami Marlins looked good Friday night in their first win of the season might sound obvious.

It would also be a massive understatement.

That’s on account of the Marlins not just looking good. They looked fantastic. Fantastic with a bunch of loud, unprintable adjectives in front of it. Why? Because the Marlins looked like … well … they looked like the Marlins. All on account of the fact that, for the first of 11 glorious nights, TEAL IS BACK.

The look just popped. I believe the kids call it drip, and that those same articulate juveniles would say it was fire. Social media was ablaze last night, with mentions from both fans of the Marlins, and just baseball fans in general. This is how the team is supposed to look.

Don’t get me wrong, the win was nice too. Of course, the Marlins should have won by way more than that 2-1 margin. The Fish went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position Friday night, and need to do much better in the run department on a night they outhit their opponent 10-4. This was game two of 162 though. Two games is a far too small of a sample size when it comes to definitive conclusions. Same goes for two weeks. Most MLB front offices would probably tell you the same goes for two months. Yet when it comes to those teal colors? That’s a takeaway that can be chiseled in stone right now.

The Miami Marlins absolutely must bring back teal full-time next season.

Moving away from that original teal? One of the biggest mistakes in a franchise history full of mistakes. Now, most of those mistakes are tied to payroll, and the dubious timing of some of their … let’s call them “market adjustments.” This one though? Entirely preventable, even if originally somewhat understandable. As part of the team’s stadium deal with the city of Miami, the club had to rebrand themselves, switching from the Florida Marlins to the Miami Marlins. Logical, given the existence of Tampa Bay Rays, and that Miami was paying for the stadium. Granted, the city only said put Miami in the title, not ditch the teal. Still, you can see how being told to rebrand might cause imaginations to run wild.

Particularly if the owner at the time was an art enthusiast.

However, what made zero sense was not switching back when the new ownership took over six years later. Going with midnight blue as an accent color, as a half measure, half nod to the past instead of giving the fanbase what they had very loudly been asking for since teal first started being phased out under the old regime. Bringing back teal would gave brought back memories of old Marlins teams, and not the new Marlins that Derek Jeter sought to create.

The thing is … MLB is kind of all about nostalgia.

More than any other sport, it thrives on it. History drives baseball, whether you cheer the Marlins or the Yankees. Jeter spent his career playing home games in a ballpark with a museum practically in the outfield. He should have known better. Time and again, Marlins fans have voiced their devotion to teal.

That devotion showed again Friday night. It will show 10 more times in 2023, for almost every Friday home game.

Obviously, winning is the most important thing that will turn the Miami Marlins franchise fortunes around. If the next Steve Cohen buys the team, he could dress them in potato sacks and still pack the house provided a cool $300 million-plus is being put into the roster. In reality though? It’s going to take a lot of hard work, savvy trades, and little victories to get this club back on track.

Perhaps Bruce Sherman never will never spend enough on a superstar free agent to put them in a Miami Marlins uniform. Perhaps he really can’t afford to match the Braves, Mets, and Phillies.

But what that Miami Marlins uniform looks like? That’s something he can afford, and he’d be crazy not to take that win.