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Fort Myers Miracle
Fort Myers Miracle Founded in 1926 Fort Myers, Florida | |||||
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Class-level | |||||
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A-Advanced (
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Minor league affiliations | |||||
League | Florida State League | ||||
Division | South Division | ||||
Major league affiliations | |||||
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Minor league titles | |||||
League titles |
6 (
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Division titles |
3 (
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Team data | |||||
Nickname | Fort Myers Miracle | ||||
Previous names |
Fort Myers Palms (1926), Miami Hustlers, (
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Colors |
Navy, Red, White | ||||
Ballpark | Hammond Stadium (1992–Present) | ||||
Previous parks |
Pompano Beach Municipal Stadium FIU Baseball Stadium (1989) Bobby Maduro Miami Stadium (1962–1988) Miami Field (1927-28) Terry Park Ballfield (1926) | ||||
Owner(s)/ Operator(s) | SJS Beacon | ||||
Manager | Jeff Smith | ||||
General manager | Andrew Seymour |
The Fort Myers Miracle is the Class A Advanced minor league baseball affiliate of the Minnesota Twins Major League Baseball club, based in Fort Myers, Florida and currently managed by Jeff Smith. Home games are played at the CenturyLink Sports Complex in Hammond Stadium, which has a capacity of 7,500, and opened in
- REDIRECT Template:Baseball year. The park is also used as the Minnesota Twins' Spring Training facility. Prior to Twins Spring Training and the 2014 Florida State League season, Phase I of a two-part renovation was completed with the addition of an outfield boardwalk. The second phase of the renovation, which includes new sky suites, concessions, wider concourses and new offices for the Miracle staff, will be completed before Spring Training in 2015. Due to the start of construction on Phase II in August 2014, the Miracle played the final 10 home dates, including playoffs, at JetBlue Park.
The majority owner is SJS Beacon, a privately held company managed by Jason Hochberg, who purchased the club from Marvin Goldklang at the beginning of the
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Contents
History
The Miracle franchise was founded in
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File:Cal Ripken Jr. in 1993.jpg Before embarking on his Hall of Fame career with the Baltimore Orioles, Cal Ripken, Jr was a member of the Miami Orioles |
In
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Upon the Baltimore Orioles' severing of their affiliation with the Miami Orioles following the 1981 season, the franchise reverted to the Marlins name and participated in the
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The following season the Miami Marlins became a San Diego Padres affiliate. This partnership lasted two years and the Marlins were without a parent club for the
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In
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The Miracle were sold again a year later to the Marv Goldklang Group. Mike Veeck (son of Hall of Fame inductee Bill Veeck, and author of the book, Fun is Good) also became part owner of the organization while Murray and Buffett still maintained their shares as well.
In 1990, the team moved again, playing its home games at Pompano Beach Municipal Stadium. The team spent two seasons in Pompano Beach with future big league skipper Fredi Gonzalez at the helm.[2]
In
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Miracle in Fort Myers
Since moving to Fort Myers for the 1992 season, the Miracle have qualified for the Florida State League Playoffs eight times. The Miracle won the FSL West Division first half in
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After a three season hiatus, the Miracle returned to the FSL Playoffs under first-year manager Doug Mientkiewicz. Guiding a star-studded team of Twins prospects such as Miguel Sano, Kennys Vargas and Eddie Rosario, the Miracle won the first half in the FSL South with a 45-22 record. The 45 wins tied the franchise record for the most in a single half and the winning percentage of .672 marked the best for a half in team history. Posting the best overall record in the Florida State League at 79-56 during the regular season, the Miracle again fell to the Stone Crabs in the FSL South Divisional Playoff. Charlotte held the league-best Fort Myers offense, that included the consensus top prospect in baseball Byron Buxton, to just one run in a two-game sweep.
2014 Championship Season
Entering the
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In the FSL South Divisional Playoff, the Miracle faced Bradenton. Trailing 7-3 in the top of the fourth inning, Jason Kanzler hit an opposite field grand slam to tie the game in the first of a best-of-three series. After the fifth inning, play was halted for 58 minutes due to rain. When the game resumed in the top of the sixth, Dalton Hicks drove in the eventual game-winning run with a single. The Miracle won game one, 8-7, and Kanzler had six runs batted in. In game two, the Miracle scored six runs in the bottom of the third inning to take 6-1 lead. Miracle starter D. J. Baxendale earned the win with six innings allowing just one unearned run and five strikeouts. After a two-game sweep of the Marauders, the Miracle advanced to the FSL Championship series for the third time in team history.
Facing the Cubs again, the Miracle hosted the first two games of the best-of-five series at JetBlue Park. The Miracle pitching staff allowed just one run in a pair of wins. Fort Myers took game one, 5-1, and game two, 5-0. With a 2-0 series lead for the Miracle, the Cubs staved off elimination in game three at Jackie Robinson Ballpark in Daytona, Fla. After a two-hour, seven-minute delay, the Cubs and Miracle engaged in a back-and-forth battle with Daytona eventually going on to win, 8-7. The Cubs trailed 6-5 in the bottom of the eighth inning, but took the lead on a three-run homer by Wilson Contreras. After the Cubs' win, the two teams had to wait a day after heavy storms made the field in Daytona unplayable. On Monday, September 8, the Miracle and Cubs played game four. Fort Myers built a 2-0 lead midway through the fourth inning. Daytona tied the game in the sixth. Going into extra innings, Kanzler gave the Miracle a 4-2 lead with a two-run homer in the top of the eleventh. Zack Jones recorded a perfect ninth inning, striking out Contreras for the save. The FSL Championship was the first in team history since moving to Fort Myers in 1992. The series win also marked the first time the Daytona Cubs had lost a FSL Playoff series.
Miracle in the Media
The Miracle's name and logo appeared in the 1998 film Major League: Back to the Minors. Gus Cantrell (Scott Bakula) pitched for the Miracle before retiring to become the manager of the Buzz.
Roster
Fort Myers Miracle roster
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Catchers
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Outfielders
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FSL All-Stars
- REDIRECT Template:Baseball year - Troy Buckley, Brian Raabe
- REDIRECT Template:Baseball year - Brent Brede, Steve Hazlett†, Damian Miller
- REDIRECT Template:Baseball year - Gus Gandarillas, Andrew Kontorinis‡, Matt Lawton‡‡, Scott Moten, Chad Roper††
- REDIRECT Template:Baseball year - Shane Bowers
- REDIRECT Template:Baseball year - Mike Moriarty, Javier Valentín
- REDIRECT Template:Baseball year - Chad Allen, Phil Haigler, Jacque Jones, Brad Niedermaier, David Ortiz†† ‡‡, A. J. Pierzynski‡‡
- REDIRECT Template:Baseball year - Joe Mays, Chad Moeller, Tommy Peterman‡,
- REDIRECT Template:Baseball year - Matt LeCroy, Kyle Lohse
- REDIRECT Template:Baseball year - Brandon Masters, Juan Rincón, Saul Rivera, Rubén Salazar, Brad Thomas††
- REDIRECT Template:Baseball year - Ronnie Corona, Juan Padilla
- REDIRECT Template:Baseball year - Beau Kemp, Josh Rabe, Matt Scanlon††
- REDIRECT Template:Baseball year - J.D. Durbin, Jason Kubel, Joe Mauer‡‡
- REDIRECT Template:Baseball year - Scott Baker††, Travis Bowyer††, Kaulana Kuhaulua, Francisco Liriano, José Morales, Justin Olson
- REDIRECT Template:Baseball year - Nick Blackburn, Matt Moses, Denard Span
- REDIRECT Template:Baseball year - Alexi Casilla, Matt Garza††, Kyle Geiger, Brandon Roberts, Kevin Slowey
- REDIRECT Template:Baseball year - Eddie Morlan, Ryan Mullins††, Oswaldo Sosa
- REDIRECT Template:Baseball year - Robert Delaney, Brian Dinkelman, Jeff Manship, Wilson Ramos, Anthony Slama, Rene Tosoni†, Danny Valencia
- REDIRECT Template:Baseball year - David Bromberg, Chris Cates, Carlos Gutierrez††, Steven Hirschfeld, Daniel Lehmann††, Chris Parmelee, Ben Revere, Steve Singleton, Spencer Steedley
- REDIRECT Template:Baseball year - Billy Bullock, Kyle Gibson††, Chris Herrmann, Yangervis Solarte††
- REDIRECT Template:Baseball year - Brian Dozier††, Bruce Pugh††, Danny Rams, Dakota Watts
- REDIRECT Template:Baseball year - Ricky Bowen, Pat Dean, Josmil Pinto, Daniel Santana
- REDIRECT Template:Baseball year - D.J. Baxendale††, Matt Koch, Zack Jones, Taylor Rogers, Miguel Sano††, Kennys Vargas, Corey Williams
- REDIRECT Template:Baseball year - Jose Berrios, David Hurlbut†, Brett Lee†, Adam Brett Walker‡
† Injured & did not play
†† Promoted & did not play
‡ FSL All-Star Game MVP
‡‡ MLB All-Star
References
- ^ Brad Shellgren (April 28, 2014). "Fort Myers Miracle sold to New Jersey businessman". WZVN, ABC 7.
- ^ "Fredi Gonzalez Minor League Statistics & History - Baseball-Reference.com". Sports Reference LLC. December 12, 2013.
- ^ "Miracle, Twins extend Player Development Contract through 2018=www.miraclebaseball.com". September 11, 2014.
External links
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