The Florida Marlins, who will become the Miami Marlins prior to the 2012 season, are getting pretty excited to open their spankin' new stadium, Miami Ballpark, next year. In fact, they will be granted an exclusive opening to the new baseball season.
The Marlins and the St. Louis Cardinals will open the season a day ahead of the other 28 teams in the league on April 4 at their new $515 million, retractable-roof ballpark on the site that once housed the legendary Orange Bowl. You can probably catch that on ESPN. Prior to anything official, the Fish will host the New York Yankees in exhibition games on April 1 and 2.
The Marlins kicked off their inaugural season back in 1993 and won two World Series Championships in 1997 and 2003, both via National League Wild-Card. They've enjoyed four no-hitters between Al Leiter in 1996, Kevin Brown in 1997, A.J. Burnett in 2001, and Anibal Sanchez in 2006. Two of their former players have become Hall of Famers: Tony Perez and Andre Dawson. Those were the days. They've been through Joe Robbie Stadium, Pro Player Park, Pro Player Stadium, Dolphins Stadium, Dolphin Stadium, and finally Land Shark Stadium before settling on Sun Life Stadium in 2010.
And now, their new ballpark will feature an aquarium as the backstop.
In case you're interested, Opening Day for the rest of us is as follows: Phillies at Pirates, Blue Jays at Indians, Red Sox at Tigers, Brave at Mets, Nationals at Cubs, and Dodgers at Padres. To see the rest of Major League Baseball's 2012 schedule, released last Wednesday, check out this link. Also, what's with this crap about a new round of wild-card playoffs, fancy realignment, and the postseason expanding from eight teams to 10? That crap better not go down.
[Associated Free Press]
1 comment:
I heard the tickets for the exhibition games against the Yankees are going to be first-come-first-serve for like $8/piece. I have a feeling fans will be sleeping outside the night before!
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