On December 18th, 1990, the city of Denver received a little bit of a Chanukah or early Christmas present with the city being named one of six finalists for the next round of expansion teams for Major League Baseball. The other five were:
- Buffalo, New York
- South Florida (in the Miami metropolitan area)
- Orlando, Florida
- St.Petersburg/Tampa, Florida
- Washington, D.C.
OTD in 1990: The National League unveiled its short list of six potential expansion cities: Buffalo, Denver, Orlando, South Florida, Tampa-St. Petersburg and Washington, D.C.#Rockies25th pic.twitter.com/T01L8FIkJi
Just a little over six months later, on June 11, 1991, Denver and Miami would be rewarded further by being recommended by a league committee to be the two winners of teams for expansion in the National League.