Miami, FL - Billy the Marlin

05/20/09 - Florida Marlins - Landshark Stadium

Is there any better way to spend a vacation than dodging unpredictable May Florida thunderstorms and hanging out with Billy the Marlin? We couldn't think of one so we headed down the Florida coast and into Miami for the day. The scheduled night game turned into a doubleheader after a rainout earlier that week but we decided to avoid the early game and head into Miami for the day. First stop: South Beach. Although South Beach does include the stretch of sand that it is famous for, I was interested to find out that it also stretched inland for about a dozen blocks for what has turned into a pedestrian-only area of shops and restaurants. We had lunch at a little Cuban restaurant (where else, it's Miami) and wandered the shops and the road next to the beach until it was time to go see Billy.

Landshark Stadium (formerly Dolphins Stadium, formerly Pro Player Stadium, formerly Joe Robbie Stadium...) is a football stadium. Period. The scoreboard is football-size huge, all of the seats face forward (as opposed to angling towards home plate) and I'm pretty sure the upper deck isn't even open for baseball. As you can see from the background of the picture, it was "come dressed like an orange seat" night at the game, which seems to be a popular promotion at Marlins games. To be fair, although it was probably the smallest crowd I've seen at a big league game, the fans that showed up were really in to it. The team has been involved in a long running dialogue with the city to get a baseball-only facility closer to the city (Landshark is a solid 30 minute drive from downtown) and it looks like that will be happening in the next few years. Hopefully that will increase the fan base because this team has won 2 World Series in the last 15 years and its a shame to see a big league team having to play in front of 70,000 empty seats.

Billy spent the game hanging out in the luxury box area in left field so we snuck up the ramp and into his section to get our picture. You can't tell in the pic but his snout is pretty long and pointy and I was a little afraid to make any sudden noises for fear that I'd get a skewered eyeball. Fortunately, we made it out of there with a good picture and without getting shishka-Billyed and headed back to our seats.

The only advantage to poorly-attended teams is you can usually score some good seats cheap. We landed front row by the visitors bullpen for the whopping sum of $17 and the bullpen catcher was nice enough to give Mrs. Mascot Hunter a ball. Here's hoping that Billy gets a nice new home and that baseball survives in South Florida. Miami is a great city and its great to be able to catch a ball game when you're in town.