Florida Marlins Logo Unveiled

On July 18, 1991 Major League Baseball unveils its newest expansion team the Florida Marlins' logo.
Currently the Marlins now are named the Miami Marlins after being the Florida Marlins from 1993-2011.

The Marlins began play in the 1993 season as the Florida Marlins.

They played home games from their inaugural season to the 2011 season at Sun Life Stadium, which they shared with the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League (NFL) and which was also called Joe Robbie Stadium, Pro Player Park, Pro Player Stadium, Dolphin Stadium, Dolphins Stadium, and Land Shark Stadium during their tenancy. Since the 2012 season, they have played at Marlins Park in downtown Miami, on the site of the former Orange Bowl.

The new park, unlike Sun Life Stadium, which was criticized in its baseball configuration for poor sight lines in some locations, was designed foremost as a baseball park.

The new park's name is a temporary one until naming rights are purchased. Per agreement with the city and Miami-Dade County, which owns the park, the Marlins officially changed their name to the "Miami Marlins" on November 11, 2011. They also adopted a new logo, color scheme, and uniforms.

The Marlins have the distinction of winning a World Series championship every year they qualified for the postseason, doing so in 1997 and 2003 — both times as the National League wild card team. They defeated the American League champion Cleveland Indians in the 1997 series in seven games, and then they defeated the New York Yankees four games to two in the 2003 World Series.

The Marlins have been littered with good pitching, but have struggled with keeping good players around. This has been quantified with four no-hitters, and not a single player hitting for the cycle or winning the MVP Award. All four no-hitters have also come against the National League West, a division consisting of the Arizona Diamondback, Colorado Rockies, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres and the San Francisco Giants.

On May 11, 1996 Al Leiter pitching against the Colorado Rockies threw the first no-hitter in Marlins history with an 11-0 victory at Pro Player Stadium.

Just one year later Kevin Brown, on June 10, 1997 threw the second no-hitter in Marlins history with a 9-0 victory over the San Francisco Giants at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, Calif.

On May 12, 2001 A.J. Burnett threw the Marlins third no-hitter with a 3-0 victory over the San Diego Padres at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, Calif.

Finally on September 6, 2006 Anibal Sanchez threw the Marlins fourth and most recent no-hitter in a 2-0 victory against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Dolphins Stadium.

Despite the four no-hitters in franchise history, the Marlins have never had a CY Young Award winner.

The Marlins have had successful hitters including Gary Sheffield (1996), Mike Lowell (2003), Miguel Cabrera (2005, 2006) Hanley Ramirez (2008, 2009) and Dan Uggla (2010) who all won Silver Slugger Awards, but all of those players have gone on to play with other teams, including Cabrera who won the Triple Crown and MVP in 2012 with the Detroit Tigers.

The Marlins have only one retired number in franchise history, the number 42 jersey that Jackie Robinson, of the Brooklyn Dodgers, whose jersey was retired by all of MLB on April 15, 1997, now Jackie Robinson day.

From 1993 until 2011, the Marlins had retired the jersey number 5 in honor of Carl Barger, the first president of the Florida Marlins who died prior to the team's inaugural season. Barger's favorite player was Joe DiMaggio, thus the selection of number 5. With the move to the new ballpark, the team opted to honor Barger with a plaque. The team opened up number 5 for use on February 11, 2012. Logan Morrison, a Kansas City native and fan of Royals Hall of Famer George Brett. Who wore that number with the Royals, became the first Marlin to wear the number.

The Marlins have two Hall of Famer in Cooperstown, but neither are shown wearing a Marlins cap on their Hall of Fame plaque. First, Tony Perez was inducted as a player, but also managed the club; Andre Dawson who played two seasons with the Marlins and is currently a special assistant for the club.