The Florida/Miami Marlins have been playing baseball for nearly three decades, but only twice in franchise history has a player managed to hit 40 home runs in a season for the Fish. The first player to get there did so on this day 25 years ago.
The Florida Marlins were playing their third game of a four-game set against the Montreal Expos on Sept. 7, 1996 when Gary Sheffield made history. Sheffield’s eighth-inning blast broke up the shutout and served as a franchise-first in a 2-1 defeat.
The Marlins had managed just four hits and no runs as Sheffield came to the plate to face Montreal’s Ugueth Urbina with two outs in the bottom of the eighth.