25th Anniversary Retrospective: The 1994 and 1995 Seasons

Thanks for checking back in with me as I reflect on the past Marlins’ seasons to celebrate the 25^th Anniversary. Click HERE to read the 1993 season retrospective and see some highlights and notable moments from that inaugural season. Let’s dive right into a couple more seasons and look back at the shortened 1994 baseball season.

Players Strike Shortens Seasons

The biggest news story of 1994 season was not Miami Marlins specific but MLB wide. There was a lot of tension between the MLB and the Players Association over proposed salary caps and revenue sharing. That’s the subject of a different article! Long story short, this resulted in the longest player strike in MLB history. August 12, 1994 the players went on strike. No agreements could be made and the duration of the season was canceled, playoffs included. No World Series Champion would be crowned in 1994.

Negotiations would go on through the off-season and eventually come to temporary agreements in the spring of 1995. This caused a delay to the start of the MLB season by three weeks. The MLB was also able to avoid using replacement players for the season. 1995 was shortened from 162 games to the abbreviated 144 games.

1994 Miami Marlins Offseason

After the inaugural season, the Florida Marlins made some minor moves trying to improve their ball club going into their second season. The major signing the fish made was bringing back 46 year old knuckleball pitcher Charlie Hough to a second one year deal. Nothing of the blockbuster variety, but a solid off-season signing.

OPENING DAY 1994

Rene Lachemann was back to manage the ballclub in 1994. The Marlins opening day 1994 was on April 5^th as they visited Dodger Stadium.

The Opening Day Lineup

Charlie Hough was the opening day pitcher for the second year in a row. He faced Orel Hershiser in a rematch of Opening Day a year prior. The tides were turned in 1994 as the Dodgers pulled off the Opening Day Victory.

Season leaders consisted of Gary Sheffield leading in the long ball category with 27. “Mr. Marlin” Jeff Conine was the hits and RBI leader with 144 and 82 respectively.

Mandatory Credit: Glenn Cratty /Allsport

David Weathers and Pat Rapp started 24 and 23 games with respective ERAs of 5.27 and 3.85.

In the 1994 Amateur Draft the Marlins chose Josh Booty with their fifth overall pick in the first round. He would go on to have an interesting tenure in the Marlins system. He would ultimately only make 13 appearances for the big league Marlins between 96-98. He would hit for some power in the minors and was selected as the Minor League Defensive Player of the Year as a member of the Portland Sea Dogs in 1997. He shifted gears and went on to purse a professional football career. That didn’t quite pan out either.

1994 BY THE NUMBERS

Record 51 – 64
Fifth Place NL East
Annual Attendance 1,937,467
Runs Scored 468, Runs Allowed 576
All Star Game Representative: Jeff Conine

THE 1995 CAMPAIGN

The Players strike finally came to a resolution, albeit a temporary one, on April 2, 1995. This was just days before the season was set to begin using temporary players. The duration of the strike was 232 days. The official start of this 1995 season was postponed until April 25, 1995. The shortened season was 144 games instead of the standard 162

The Marlins made two “blockbuster” free agent signings in April of 1995, just after the strike ended and just prior to the season starting. They signed free agent veteran Terry Pendelton as well as future Hall of Famer Andre “The Hawk” Dawson.

Both players would stay with the team over two seasons. Dawson had the longest impact with the franchise as he was a special advisor to the Marlins up until the end of the 2017 season.

Opening Day 1995 Lineup

Quilvio Veras – 2B
Alex Arias – SS
Gary Sheffield – RF
Jeff Conine – LF
Terry Pendleton – 3B
Greg Colbrunn – 1B
Charles Johnson – C
Chuck Carr – CF
John Burkett – P

The Marlins once again opened the season against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The pitching matchup was different this time. It was not Charlie Hough vs. Orel Hershiser. It was a match up of Florida’s John Burkett vs Los Angeles’ Ramon Martinez. The Marlins came up short and lost the opening contest 8-7.

The only carry overs from the 1994 opening day lineup were Jeff Conine, Chuck Carr and Gary Sheffield. This team found a little bit more success than the previous year. Having a higher winning percentage.

1995 SEASON LEADERS

1B Greg Colburn appeared in a team leading 138 games in 1995. Mr. Marlin, Jeff Conine, lead the team in Batting Average (.302), OPS (.899), HR (25) and RBIs (105) among qualified players. This effectively made him the team MVP for the season and began to solidify his place in Marlins lore.

Jeff Conine also made Marlins history in the 1995 All Star Game. He launched a pinch hit solo home run that gave the NL a lead that would hold until the contest ended. He holds the honor of the only Marlin in franchise history to win MVP at the MLB All Star Game.

After setting the team mark for home runs (27) in 1994 slugger and All-Star Gary Sheffield missed most of the 1995 due to a torn ligament in his right thumb.

Three pitchers had records of .500 or better for the year including John Burkett (14-14, 4.30 ERA), Pat Rapp (14-7, 3.44 ERA) and Chris Hammond (9-6, 3.80 ERA). Some quality pitching helped to improve the teams win total from he previous season. Robb Nenn appeared in 62 games, saving 23.

More from Marlins History

Heading into 1995 the team made strides to improve their play and get some notable veterans on the squad. These vets potentially helped attendance numbers and were also able to mentor a young squad that was beginning to look for success.

1995 BY THE NUMBERS

Record 67 – 76
4^th Place NL East
Annual Attendance 1,700,466
Runs Scored 673, Runs Allowed 673
All Star Game Representative: Jeff Conine

Thanks for looking back on Marlins history with me! Next time we will take a look at the 1996 season.

Statistical informational via www.baseball-reference.com

Next: 1993 Marlins

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