The 1955 Chiefs, an affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies, finished only two games out of the playoffs, but drew only 85,000 fans, last in the eight-team league. In the Marlins' debut season in Miami, the club finished third and attracted 288,000 spectators, second in the IL circuit. Attendance dwindled in the years that followed, however, and by 1960 the Marlins were at the bottom of the IL, with fewer than 110,000 paying fans. The franchise moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1961, but after little more than a month of play the Marlins moved again to Charleston, West Virginia on May 19. In 1962, the franchise moved to Atlanta, Georgia. In 1966, when the Milwaukee Braves moved to Atlanta, the franchise relocated to Richmond, Virginia, where it played as the Richmond Braves for 43 seasons, through 2008. The franchise is scheduled to move to Gwinnett County, Georgia in 2009.[1] The current Syracuse Chiefs club, reformed in 1961, is actually the transplanted Montreal Royals.
Notable Marlins during the 1956-60 period were Leroy "Satchel" Paige, the great former Negro Leagues pitcher then in his 50s, three-time league all-star infielder Forrest "Woody" Smith, 1959 IL earned run average champ Artie Kay, and future big-leaguers, infielder Jerry Adair and pitcher Rudy Arias. On August 7, 1956, the largest crowd in minor league history (57‚000) came to see Miami's 50-year-old Satchel Paige beat Columbus at the Orange Bowl.
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hey where can i get the blue miami marlins hat??
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