Chris Jaffe of the Hardball Times sent me an interesting blog post this morning about a very special event in Florida Marlins history: it turns out today is the ten-year anniversary of Jeffrey Loria's Marlins ownership.

10 years ago today, Jeff Loria officially became owner of the Marlins, as major league baseball approved of the sale. Few changes in ownership have garnered as much negative publicity as that one.

It was part of a game of musical owners. The Marlins owner went to Boston, Montreal’s owner (Loria) went to Florida, and baseball itself took over the Expos (a move that made it much easier to pull them out of Montreal and re-baptize them as the Washington Nationals.

Jaffe goes on to discuss the fates of both the Marlins and the Montreal Expos (soon to be Washington Nationals) and how they were embroiled in the ever-present threat of contraction. Of course, neither team underwent the dreaded "C" word, as the Nationals moved and the Marlins eventually got their wish of a new, state-of-the-art, retractable roof stadium built almost entirely from public funds.

This has not made Jeffrey Loria a popular character among Marlins fans and baseball fanhood in general, however. As Jaffe points out, the Marlins were next line for the contraction threat due to their comically low attendance records, so it was feared that Loria would profit from snagging two teams and selling them before contraction came to town. But it seemed that contraction was never a real threat, so Loria could not benefit as such. In addition, the Marlins did a little something that would have made such a move look hideous in comparison: they won the World Series in 2003.

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It's been a week since we last visited the Fish Stripes All-Time Florida Marlins Team. Last week, we discussed the issue of corner outfielders, and what an issue it was. There was a logjam of four very legitimate contenders for the crown, but only two can make the starting lineup. Part of the voting will involve the Fish Stripes readership, and this week their voices have been heard. Their first vote for top Florida Marlins outfielder has been cast.

It seems the first choice for top outfielder by the fans is Gary Sheffield! Sheffield was one of the four names, and his top-notch 1996 season and contributions to the 1997 championship team were enough to put him over in the fan's eyes. Sheffield has accumulated more PA with the Marlins than any other team, and if he ever gets a shot at entering the Hall of Fame, you have to suspect that he will at least consider putting on the Marlins hat and becoming the team's first representative.

But now the question becomes: who else will join the readers ballot?

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The Fish Stripes All-Time Florida Marlins Team voting rolls on this week, with the latest edition discussing perhaps the most controversial voting to date: the topic of corner outfielders. Last season, the Marlins started three players in their starting outfield who have earned time in a corner position, with Chris Coghlan having played the most outfield games with 278 total by the end of 2011. The Marlins have seven players with corner outfield experience that earned more starts than Coghlan's 278 games. And of those names, at least four are worthy contenders to the two spots on the Fish Stripes All-Time Florida Marlins Team. So this vote will perhaps be the most difficult that Fish Stripers will have to face.

Here are the nominees for the corner outfield voting, from which Fish Stripers can select two players.

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A few weeks back, we asked you, the voters of Fish Stripes, to put in your tallies for the Fish Stripes All-Time Florida Marlins Team shortstop. While I should have gotten the results out to you guys a little earlier, we can take a look now to see what you, the readers, thought. Here are the results for the readers vote:

It was closer than it probably should have been, but Hanley Ramirez easily won the vote with 52 percent of the votes going in his favor. This time around, I was unable to ask for the votes from all of the Fish Stripes authors, but I did get my own personal vote in as well. Due to these two votes (and in the end, it would have turned out the same even if the writers did not vote for Ramirez) Hanley Ramirez won the vote for Fish Stripes All-Time Florida Marlins shortstop!

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Here we come to yet another edition of the Fish Stripes All-Time Florida Marlins Team voting. This time, we arrive at the voting for the shortstop position. The Marlins have had surprisingly few shortstops over the course of their career; not counting five PA by the incomparable Eddie Zosky in 1995, only five men have ever manned the position for the Marlins. Of course, this season will mark the sixth player, as free agent addition Jose Reyes is set to start on Opening Day for the Fish in 2012.

But we are not here to celebrate the future (though I hope there is a fair share of future celebrating to be had this season) but to honor the past. I will list three shortstops of Marlins history, and I will ask you readers to vote for the All-Time Florida Marlins member among them. There is a good chance that this is a landslide choice, as there are few worthy candidates beyond the very best one, but we will see how the voting turns out.

Here are your nominees for the team's shortstop:

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I allowed a week to pass on the Fish Stripes All-Time Florida Marlins Team voting for third base, and the results are now in. With 202 votes, let us see who you, the Fish Stripes readership, selected as the team's all-time third baseman!

First, your voting tallies:

The readers of Fish Stripes voted Mike Lowell, the team's longest-tenured third baseman, over Miguel Cabrera, who received his fair share of votes as well. From the comments left on the post, it sounded as though readers were more interested in voting Cabrera in as an outfielder rather than a third baseman; a lot of you mentioned that Lowell "felt" like the team's third baseman, and I do not blame you.

Let's see how the rest of the Fish Stripes team voted. For the purposes of choosing a winner, I will only consider Mike Lowell and Miguel Cabrera in our voting.

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After a long hiatus, the voting for the Fish Stripes All-Time Florida Marlins Team has returned! We will now begin voting for the third baseman. The Marlins have actually had a surprising amount of stability at the third base position; only four players were named on ballots, and they are all names that make sense when you consider the club's best third basemen. Of course, it's likely that of those four names, only two will stand out as true competitors for the crown. It will be interesting to see how this competition turns out.

Here are your candidates for Fish Stripes All-Time Florida Marlins third baseman.

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With my move to the new Fish Stripes, there was one thing that I wanted to do for our history section that I had yet to get a chance to do. I watched ESPN 30 for 30's documentary entitled "Catching Hell," a piece that was about the infamous Steve Bartman and the events that occurred during Game Six of the 2003 National League Championship Series between the Chicago Cubs and the Florida Marlins. Since I watched it, I have wanted to review it, but I have waited since the move to Fish Stripes to do it. No better time like the present.

Overview

Catching Hell was the 32nd piece in ESPN's 30 for 30 series. As mentioned, it was about the situation with Bartman and the attempted Moises Alou catch on a foul ball to left field. In case any of you Marlins fans forgot it, here it is in all of its glory:

Catching Hell did an excellent job of portraying the human aspect of the play rather than discussing strictly the baseball aspect. There was a lot of discussion as to why Bartman became the scapegoat for the entire disastrous inning for the Cubs (or triumphant inning for the Marlins, on our side of the story) rather than some of the other parties that were eventually involved in that inning. But eventually they delve more into the human story of what happened to Bartman after the fateful event and how Chicago quickly turned on him that evening. The game's results became an afterthought in the quest to reason out why Bartman was identified as the man behind the collapse and what the different parties involved felt about the incident and aftermath.

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