Marlins Pins and Buttons
Description: So how, exactly, did the capital of West Virginia end up with a minor league baseball team named for a tropical saltwater sport fish for a few short months in the summer of 1961? At the dawn of the 1960’s, a colorful, corpulent South Florida multi-millionaire named Bill MacDonald bought the forlorn Miami Marlins of the Class AAA International League. The Marlins were the top farm club of the Baltimore Orioles at the time. MacDonald was a sportsman – he owned a stud farm, a share of the Tropical Park race track and he would later promote the first Sonny Liston-Cassius Clay fight in Miami. The Marlins were rather unloved in Miami. A particular sore point for MacDonald was the team’s lack of a profitable local radio deal.
Description: After one summer at the helm in Miami, Bill MacDonald announced a scheme to move the Marlins to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where a lucrative radio contract beckoned. The International League approved the shift in late November 1960. It was a decision that MacDonald’s fellow I.L. owners would soon come to regret. Meanwhile, the Baltimore Orioles transferred their Class AAA farm club to Rochester, New York and the Marlins became an affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals stocked San Juan with several top prospects, including 19-year old catcher Tim McCarver, slick fielding shortstop Dal Maxvill and pitching ace Ray Washburn (16-9, 2.34). All three would go on to spend most of the next decade in St. Louis.
