60 free Miami Marlins trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Miami Marlins trivia quiz covers the strangest résumé in baseball: a franchise with the fewest playoff trips of any club, yet two World Series rings, both won as a wild card and both followed by a fire sale. There are questions on Wayne Huizenga's $95 million expansion fee, Billy the Marlin, Jeff Conine and Charlie Hough, Jim Leyland's 1997 team and Édgar Rentería's Game 7 single, the coldest World Series game ever played, the Loria-Henry ownership swap, Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera, Jack McKeon, the Bartman game, Josh Beckett at Yankee Stadium, Giancarlo Stanton's MVP, José Fernández, Kim Ng, Sandy Alcantara and Derek Jeter. The ballpark and identity get a round too: the move from Joe Robbie Stadium to the Orange Bowl site, the retractable roof and the aquarium backstop, the Red Grooms sculpture, the teal-to-orange-to-red rebrands and the Cuban Sugar Kings City Connect look. Easy questions suit any Marlins fan; the hard ones are for people who remember Carl Barger's No. 5. Every answer has been checked against an encyclopaedic source and each question shows its citation once you have answered.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Marlins began play as an expansion team in which season?
1993
They entered the National League alongside the Colorado Rockies, the only other active club never to win a division title.
Q 02Which Blockbuster Video chief executive paid the $95M expansion fee to found the Marlins?
Wayne Huizenga
He also owned the Dolphins and the NHL's Panthers, and had built Waste Management from a single garbage truck.
Q 03Which two Florida regions lost out to Miami in the 1991 bidding for a National League expansion team?
Orlando and Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay already had a domed stadium waiting; it got the Devil Rays in the next round of expansion.
Q 04The Marlins originally shared which venue with the NFL's Miami Dolphins?
Joe Robbie Stadium
The football-oriented park was later called Pro Player Stadium and Sun Life Stadium before the club moved out in 2012.
Q 05The Marlins were required to change their name from Florida to Miami in 2012 as a condition of what?
Using the county-owned new ballpark
Miami-Dade County owns LoanDepot Park and wanted the city's name on the team that plays there.
Q 06How many postseason trips had the Marlins made through 2025, fewest of any active MLB team?
4
None came via a division title, and two of them ended with a World Series ring.
Q 07The Marlins were the first team ever to win the World Series as what?
A wild card
They did it in 1997 in just their fifth season, then again in 2003.
Q 08Who was the only player to appear for the Marlins in both the 1997 and 2003 World Series?
Jeff Conine
'Mr. Marlin' was an original member of the club, left for Baltimore, and returned in time for the second title.
Q 09Who started the Marlins' first regular-season game, a win over the Dodgers on April 5, 1993?
Charlie Hough
The 45-year-old knuckleballer had pitched for the Dodgers himself in the 1970s.
Q 10The Marlins' first manager, Rene Lachemann, had managed the Brewers and which other club?
Seattle Mariners
He was the A's third base coach when Florida hired him and lasted until midway through 1996.
Q 11In 1993 the Marlins traded which future Hall of Fame closer to San Diego for Gary Sheffield?
Trevor Hoffman
Sheffield became an All-Star immediately, but the reliever went on to record 601 saves.
Q 12Which manager, hired from Pittsburgh, led the Marlins to the 1997 title in his first season?
Jim Leyland
He would later win a pennant with Detroit and manage the U.S. to the 2017 World Baseball Classic title.
Q 13Which rookie struck out 15 Braves and outdueled Greg Maddux in Game 5 of the 1997 NLCS?
Liván Hernández
He was pressed into the start when Brown fell ill, and went on to be named World Series MVP.
Q 21Which Marlins second baseman hit the foul pop that Steve Bartman reached for in Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS?
Luis Castillo
The Cubs led by three with one out in the eighth; an eight-run Marlins rally followed.
Q 22Who was named MVP of the 2003 World Series after a five-hit shutout in Game 6 at Yankee Stadium?
Josh Beckett
It was the last World Series game the Yankees would lose at the old Yankee Stadium.
Q 23Jack McKeon became the oldest manager to win a World Series in 2003 at what age?
72
He had been retired for more than two years when the Marlins hired him at 16-22; they went 75-49 the rest of the way.
Q 14The Marlins beat which team in seven games in the 1997 World Series?
Cleveland Indians
Cleveland was two outs from the title before Craig Counsell's sacrifice fly tied Game 7 in the ninth.
Q 15Whose bases-loaded single in the 11th inning won Game 7 of the 1997 World Series?
Édgar Rentería
The soft liner glanced off Charles Nagy's glove and into center field.
Q 16What was the game-time temperature at Game 4 of the 1997 World Series in Cleveland, the coldest on record?
35°F
Snow fell during batting practice; the record still stood as of 2025.
Q 17Which high-kicking left-hander went 11-2 in his first 17 starts in 2003 and won NL Rookie of the Year?
Dontrelle Willis
'The D-Train' twisted away from hitters so violently that his delivery became a Little League impression.
Q 18Which 20-year-old hit a walk-off home run in his first major league game for the Marlins in 2003?
Miguel Cabrera
He came up from the Carolina Mudcats and later won a Triple Crown with Detroit.
Q 19Which Hall of Fame catcher signed with the Marlins as a free agent for the 2003 season?
Iván Rodríguez
'Pudge' spent just one season in Florida but left with a ring.
Q 20The Marlins came back from a 3-1 deficit to beat which team in the 2003 NLCS?
Chicago Cubs
Game 6 produced the Steve Bartman incident, and Game 7 was won at Wrigley Field.
Q 24Which shortstop's extra-inning walk-off homer won Game 4 of the 2003 World Series?
Álex González
It squared the Series at two games apiece; the Marlins never lost again.
Q 25In 2002 Jeffrey Loria bought the Marlins from John Henry in a deal that let Henry buy which team?
Boston Red Sox
Loria sold the Expos to the other 29 clubs for $120M and bought the Marlins for $158M in the same manoeuvre.
Q 26Before owning the Marlins, Jeffrey Loria made his fortune in what field?
Art dealing
His collection includes works by Picasso and Henry Moore, which explains the ballpark's art-gallery aesthetic.
Q 27The Marlins' ballpark opened in 2012 stands on the site of which demolished stadium?
The Miami Orange Bowl
The old football stadium in Little Havana came down in March 2008 once the Hurricanes moved out.
Q 28Roughly what share of the $634M cost of the Marlins' ballpark was publicly funded?
80%
The financing became a long-running local scandal, especially after the team slashed payroll again in 2012.
Q 29What was built into the backstop walls at the Marlins' ballpark that opened in 2012?
An aquarium
Live tropical fish swam behind the catcher; a nightclub with a pool sits out beyond left field.
Q 30Which artist designed the animatronic flamingo-and-marlin home run sculpture at Marlins Park?
Red Grooms
Miami Herald readers nicknamed it 'the Marlinator'; the Jeter regime moved it outside the stadium.