It was widely assumed that the National League would follow the American League’s expansion lead in 1977.
The AL added the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays that season, prompting the NL to ponder its options. It eventually (and somewhat surprisingly) decided to stand pat.
That meant the two leagues varied in size — the American with 14 clubs, the National with 12. Most observers assumed the scales wouldn’t remain unbalanced for long.
Yet that’s precisely what happened. The NL accepted the status quo for the rest of the 1970s and all of the 1980s. It wasn’t until 1993 that it welcomed a pair of new franchises, bringing the two leagues into an equilibrium of 14 clubs apiece.
We’ve been examining MLB’s five expansion rounds on successive Wednesdays. Follow these links to see the previous stories about 1961-1962, 1969, and 1977. The final installment on 1998 will run next week.
There were six finalists in the race for the National League’s two new teams in 1993, with three of the six coming from Florida. They’re ranked here by their 1990 metropolitan populations:
Washington, 3.92 million
Miami, 3.19 million
Tampa, 2.07 million
Denver, 1.85 million
Buffalo, 1.19 million
Orlando, 1.07 million
The final two markets on the list were eventually deemed to be too small to join the major leagues, leaving the National League with four options.
Washington was tarnished by the departures of its two previous franchises — to Minnesota in 1961 and Texas in 1972 — because of poor box-office support. Tampa was eliminated because it seemed excessive to grant both franchises to Florida.
That left the NL with new clubs in Denver and Miami. The former franchise, the Colorado Rockies, has been wildly successful at the gate. The Florida/Miami Marlins, on the other hand, have been a bust.
Look below for breakdowns of 1993’s newcomers, and click here to learn about the fan support index (FSI). Win-loss records and attendance figures for 2023 are not included in the summaries.
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Colorado Rockies
Span: 1993-2022
Regular-season record: 2,201 wins, 2,495 losses (.469)
Postseason record: 5 playoff qualifiers, 1 National League pennant
Fan support: Average FSI of 135.0 (35.0% above expectations)
Strange but true: Denver’s new baseball team opted for an old nickname. The Colorado Rockies had previously been a franchise in the National Hockey League, which relocated from Kansas City to Denver in 1976, then moved east in 1982 to become the New Jersey Devils.
Verdict: Success. The Rockies rarely prosper on the field — winning a single NL pennant in 30 years — but their fans continue to stream to the ballpark. Only the Los Angeles Dodgers have a higher Modern Era FSI than Colorado’s 135.0. The club’s annual attendance has exceeded 3 million on 10 occasions.
Miami (originally Florida) Marlins
Span: 1993-2022
Regular-season record: 2,157 wins, 2,531 losses (.460)
Postseason record: 3 playoff qualifiers, 2 National League pennants, 2 World Series titles
Fan support: Average FSI of 73.1 (26.9% below expectations)
Strange but true: The Marlins were the first MLB franchise based in Florida, predating Tampa Bay by five years, and the club adopted Florida’s name in hopes of attracting a statewide audience. That didn’t sit well with government officials in Miami. They agreed to finance a new ballpark only if the Florida Marlins were renamed the Miami Marlins. And so the change was made in 2012.
Verdict: Failure. Yes, yes, the Marlins were remarkably competitive in their first 11 seasons, winning a pair of World Series trophies. But they’ve made the playoffs just once since 2003, and that was in 2020’s Covid-expanded postseason. And where are the fans? Attendance exceeded 2 million on only one occasion between 1998 and 2022.