April 5, 1993: Two new Major League Baseball teams play their first games. At the facility then named Joe Robbie Stadium, in the Miami suburb of Miami Gardens, Florida, the team then named the Florida Marlins played the first major league game in Florida, and beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-3.
Baseball legend Joe DiMaggio, who lived in nearby Hollywood, Florida, threw out the first ball. Hialeah, Charlie Hough, a 45-year-old knuckleballer from nearby Hialeah, Florida, who had 202 career wins at that point, 47 of them for the Dodgers, started for the Marlins, and went 6 innings to beat his former team. The Marlins' 1st batter was center fielder Scott Pose, and Tim Wallach of the Dodgers hit the 1st major league home run in Miami.
Since 1915, major league teams had been playing Spring Training games in Florida, leading to its being nicknamed "The Grapefruit League." It had been, more or less, a race between Miami and Tampa to become the city that would bring Florida into MLB.
In the 1970s and 1980s, there were suggestions that the Cleveland Indians, the Houston Astros, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Seattle Mariners might move to Miami, playing in the Orange Bowl with a short fence until a real ballpark could be built. None of these bids ever got much traction. Art imitated life in 1989, with the film Major League showing a plan to move the Indians to Miami.
In contrast, moves to the Tampa Bay area were considerably closer. The construction of what became known as Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, to open in 1990, made the threats real. The Chicago White Sox threatened to move in 1989, and if not for some political shenanigans, necessary to build a new ballpark in Chicago, the move would have happened. The San Francisco Giants announced an agreement to move to St. Petersburg for the 1993 season, which would have given Florida 2 teams at once, but the team owners voted it down, and they stayed. The Mariners and the Minnesota Twins also threatened to move to Tampa Bay, before another expansion produced the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 1998.
The former Dolphins/Marlins stadium is now known as Hard Rock Stadium. In 2012, the team moved to Marlins Park, now known as LoanDepot Park, built on the site of the Orange Bowl, and changed their name to the Miami Marlins.
UPDATE: The team has a Marlins Legends Hall of Fame. From their 1997 World Champions, they have honored 1st baseman Jeff Conine, 2nd baseman Luis Castillo, and manager Jim Leyland. From their 2003 World Champions, they have honored Conine, Castillo, pitchers Josh Beckett and Dontrelle Willis, and manager Jack McKeon.
Conine has been elected to the Florida Sports Hall of Fame. So have 3rd baseman Gary Sheffield and pitcher Al Leiter, from the 1997 World Champions. So has founding owner Wayne Huizenga. So have Tim Raines and Andre Dawson, based mainly on their performances with the Montreal Expos, although both were from Miami, and both played briefly with the Marlins.
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Also playing their 1st game on April 5, 1993 were the Denver-based Colorado Rockies. They debuted at Shea Stadium with a 3-0 loss to the New York Mets. After decades as one of the leaders in attendance among minor-league baseball teams, Denver finally got its own MLB team in the expansion of 1991, along with Miami.
Their 1st starting pitcher was David Nied. Their 1st batter was 2nd baseman Eric Young, who grew up as a Met fan in nearby New Brunswick, Middlesex County, New Jersey, and had played baseball and football at Rutgers University. Four days later, he hit a home run to help win the 1st Rockies home game. His son Eric Young Jr. would play for both the Mets and the Yankees.
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April 5, 1993 was a Monday. These other Major League Baseball games were played on this day, Opening Day:
* The New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians, 9-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. It would be the last Opening Day at that stadium, where the Indians had played part-time since 1932 and full-time since 1947. A pregame tribute was held for pitchers Steve Olin and Tim Crews, who were killed in a boating accident during Spring Training.
Wade Boggs, Paul O'Neill, Spike Owen and Jimmy Key made their Yankee debuts. Key started and went 8 innings for the win. Boggs had a 2-run single. O'Neill went 2-for-5. Owen went 3-for-5. Danny Tartabull, Matt Nokes and Pat Kelly hit home runs.
* The Texas Rangers beat the Baltimore Orioles, 7-4 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore. President Bill Clinton threw out the ceremonial first ball.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Montreal Expos, 2-1 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.
* The Atlanta Braves beat the Chicago Cubs, 1-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Greg Maddux, a Cub the season before, took a shutout into the 9th inning against his former team.
* The Boston Red Sox beat the Kansas City Royals, 3-1 at Royals Stadium in Kansas City. Later in the season, the ballpark's name was changed to Kauffman Stadium.
* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Houston Astros, 3-1 at the Astrodome in Houston.
* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Detroit Tigers, 9-4 at the Oakland Coliseum.
That night, the NCAA Tournament Final was played. North Carolina beats Michigan to win college basketball’s National Championship. It should have been remembered for a nice performance by a Carolina team with Eric Montross and Jerry Stackhouse, getting coach Dean Smith his 2nd title. Instead, all everyone remembers is Chris Webber making the biggest goof in college basketball history. I have a separate entry for this event.
Football was out of season. The NBA chose not to schedule any games for the day, so as not to conflict with the NCAA Final. The NHL scheduled 1: The New York Rangers lost to the Hartford Whalers, 5-4 at Madison Square Garden. The Broadway Blueshirts blew 2-1 and 4-2 leads, and former New Jersey Devil star Pat Verbeek scored the winning goal with 2:17 to go.
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