Greatest Moments in Marlins History: #99 The First Gold Glove

Charles Johnson was the first Amateur draft pick in Marlins’ history. (M. Spencer Green/AP)

Welcome back to the Greatest Moments in Marlins History. Today is a day to celebrate! With moment 99 we are finally in the double digits of days until Opening Day! Let’s jump on in with the first ever Gold Glove winner in Marlins history! Charles Johnson won the Gold Glove Award in 1995 as a catcher. Even though the Marlins had only been in the league for 3 years (2 in you don’t count the strike season) we had our first Gold Glove.

As most of you remember, Charles was our first ever pick in the Amateur Draft back in 1992. He finally debut for the Marlins on May 6, 1994 and was he a defensive catching machine! In 1995 Charles recorded 642 put outs, 63 assist, only 6 errors, 9 double plays and had a fielding percentage of .992 (.003 above the league average). Don’t think about stealing on Charles either. In 89 attempts Charles threw out 38 base runners, giving him a 42.7% in caught stealing, 3rd in the National League.

What made this all even more impressive is this was Charles’ Rookie year (he only played 4 game in 1994, so MLB counts 1995 as his rookie year). He joined such great catchers as Johnny Bench, Carlton Fisk, and Sandy Alomar Jr. as rookie Gold Glovers. We are not done with Charles. Join me tomorrow and see what else we have in store for this great Marlins catcher!