This Day in Marlins History: Happy birthday, Kevin Millar!

On this date in Marlins history, September 24th, 2013, former Marlin Kevin Millar turns 42 years old. Millar began his professional career with the St. Paul Saints of the Northern League, who are a part of the American Association, an independent minor league baseball league. Finally on September 20, 1993, Millar was purchased by the Florida Marlins. He finally got his shot in the big leagues at the age of 26, when he had a short stint with the Fish.

Millar went on to play five major league seasons with the Marlins from 1998 to 2002. During that five-year stretch, Millar would go on to have arguably the best stretch of his career, excluding his MVP-like season in 2003 with the Red Sox. His greatest season with the Marlins was 2001 where his slash line was .314/.374/.557, good for a .931 OPS.

After five years with the Marlins, Millar became too expensive for the Marlins, as he was due for a new contract. Millar then took to Japan after he was sold to the Chunichi Dragons and signed a two-year contract for $6.2 million. During his five-week stint, Millar had second thoughts about leaving Major League Baseball and was determined to make his return. The Red Sox broke an unwritten rule on a waiver claim of Millar but MLB still awarded him to the Red Sox. They agreed to pay the fee for Millar's termination of his contract with the Dragons. Ironically, he would leave the eventual World Series champion Marlins of 2003 but would get his revenge in 2004. In the 2004 LCS against the Yankees, MIllar earned the pivotal walk to set the stage for Bill Mueller's game-tying single against Mariano Rivera.

After winning the World Series with Red Sox in 2004 he would play with two more clubs the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays in the final four years of his career. Millar announced his retirement on April 21, 2010 from the Major Leagues. On May 20, 2010, Millar also joined New England Sports Network (NESN) as a pre-game and post-game analyst. On May 22, 2010, Millar made his debut for Fox Sports and its MLB on Fox Saturday telecasts. He served as a pre-game, game break, and post-game analyst for its primetime games in the studio, as well as a fill-in color analyst for select games during the season. Currently Millar has switched over to the MLB Network and has joined forces with Chris Rose who co-host the show Intentional Talk.

To one of the Marlins greats we wish him a happy birthday from our community here at Fish Stripes!