The Fort Myers Miracle is the Class A Advanced minor league baseball affiliate of the Minnesota Twins major league club. Home games are played at the Lee County Sports Complex in Hammond Stadium, which has a capacity of 7,500, and opened in . The park is also used as the Minnesota Twins spring training facility.

Musician Jimmy Buffett and actor Bill Murray have been minority part-owners of the team since . The majority owner is Marvin Goldklang who also owns a stake in five other minor league baseball teams throughout the country (Sioux Falls Canaries, Hudson Valley Renegades, Charleston RiverDogs, Brockton Rox, and St. Paul Saints). Murray is also a minority part-owner of the Saints.

History

The Miracle franchise was founded in 1926, as the Fort Myers Palms. One year later, they moved to Miami and were renamed the Hustlers. The team became temporarily inactive, with the rest of the Florida State League, midway through the season. Even though the Florida State League resumed play in , the Hustlers remained inactive until they were reactivated by the FSL, during the – offseason to serve as the Class D affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. The team was renamed the Miami Marlins in honor of the original Marlins of the Triple-A International League who had moved to (and subsequently ) following the season.

In , there was a restructuring of the classification system of all Minor League Baseball, which resulted in the FSL changing from Class D to its current status of Class A-Advanced. They became a Baltimore Orioles affiliate in , and were renamed the Miami Orioles after their MLB parent club from –.

Upon the Baltimore Orioles' severing of their affiliation with the Miami Orioles following the 1981 season, the franchise reverted back to the Marlins name, and actually participated in the FSL season as an independent entry. Without a Major League Baseball affiliate, this team was composed of undrafted players from the area, free agents from various organizations and players on loan from the Baltimore Orioles, San Diego Padres, and Oakland A's organizations.

The following season the Miami Marlins became a San Diego Padres affiliate. This partnership only lasted two years, and the Marlins found themselves again without a parent club for the season. Again, they filled their roster with talent on loan from various organizations, along with eleven former major leaguers looking to rejuvenate their careers. They stuck with this formula through the season.

In , the Marlins were renamed the Miami Miracle after a group of investors that included Bill Murray and Jimmy Buffett purchased the club. They moved the team from Bobby Maduro Miami Stadium to Florida International University's University Park (the vast majority of their time in Miami, the team played at Miami Stadium).

The Miracle were sold again a year later to the Marvin Goldklang Group. Mike Veeck (son of Hall of Fame inductee Bill Veeck, and author of the book, Fun is Good) also became part owner of the organization while Murray and Buffett still maintained their shares as well. In , these new owners returned the Miracle to Fort Myers where it has remained ever since. The Miracle operated as a co-op club with the Minnesota Twins that season, and became a full Twins affiliate a year later. This Player Development Contract runs through 2012.

2008 Post Season Roster

2008 Season

On September 21, , in the first sporting event in New York City since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, the New York Mets took the field in caps honoring the FDNY, EMT & NYPD vs. the Atlanta Braves. On April 4, 2008, the Miracle took a page from the Mets' book. The Miracle wore Lee County Sheriff's Office hats in a game against the Sarasota Reds in honor of fallen Lieutenant Mark Niedermeyer. On March 21, Lieutenant Niedermeyer, a 14-year LCS veteran, collapsed and died on the field during LCS's annual charity arena football game against Lee County firefighters. Following the game (won 6–3 by the Miracle), the team autographed the hats, and they were auctioned off. The auction raised $2,500, with all proceeds raised from the hat auction going directly to Lieutenant Niedermeyer's family.

The Miracle captured the Florida State League First-half West Division title with a 45–24 record—tying the franchise record set in 2000 for wins in a half season. Robert Delaney, Brian Dinkelman, Jeff Manship, Wilson Ramos, Anthony Slama, and Danny Valencia represented the Fort Myers Miracle in the 2008 Florida State League All-Star game. Rene Tosoni was also selected for the Western division team, however, a broken leg prevented him from attending. Following the game, Delaney, Dinkelman, Manship & Valencia were promoted to the Twins' Double-A affiliate, the New Britain Rock Cats. Anthony Slama and Wilson Ramos were named to the All FSL team following the season. Manager Jeff Smith was named to the coaching staff.

The second half of the season was won by the Miracle's arch nemeses, the Dunedin Blue Jays. Dunedin had eliminated the Miracle the last three times they made the play offs (& ), and were averaging 5 1/3 runs per game during the regular season. Cole Devries and Alex Burnett both held the Florida State League's most productive offense scoreless over 6.2 and 6 innings, respectively, allowing the Miracle to sweep this best of three series in two games.

Matt Fox struck out ten over six innings in the first game of the FSL championship series to extend the streak of scoreless innings pitched by Miracle starters to 18.2 in the post season. Unfortunately, the bullpen imploded, and he was unable to record the win as the Daytona Cubs defeated the Miracle 5-1. Daytona ended up winning the series in four games.

Affiliates

The Miracle have been affiliated with the following major league teams:

Year(s)	Affiliate(s)
–	Philadelphia Phillies
–	Baltimore Orioles
	Independent
–	San Diego Padres
–	Independent
–Present	Minnesota Twins

Trivia

• The Miracle's name and logo appeared in the 1998 film Major League: Back to the Minors. Gus Cantrell (Scott Bakula) pitched for the Miracle before retiring to become the manager of the Buzz.
• Mike Veeck's Golden Retriever, Jericho, was the inspiration for Miss A-Miracle, the Fort Myers Miracle Mascot. "Missy" is a fun loving Golden Retriever who became a fixture at all of the Miracle's home games in . She wears the number "04" to commemorate her first season.
• The Florida State League announced that the 48th annual Florida State League All-Star Game will take place in Fort Myers in June . The league’s mid-season classic returns to Fort Myers for the first time since .
• Two former Miracle-- pitcher Brian Duensing and outfielder Terry Tiffee-- were members of the Bronze medal winning baseball team representing the USA at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

References