For the sake of bandwidth, there are another 15 photos here.

 

I'll probably post videos later. (tomorrow?)

Awesome photos Rab! Sick camera! How much are those photos scaled down by?

Awesome pictures Rab.

I don't have pics but I have a funny story.

 

Me and my friend don't own Marlins caps, so we went with my Red Sox cap and his Yankee cap. Billy the Marlins saw my friend's Yankee cap and walked up the bleachers to take it from him... My friend pointed at me so Billy took my cap as well. He held them both up to the crowd, drawing boos every time he held it up lmao..

 

 

http://i31.tinypic.com/1219ahj.jpg

 

Hahahahaha yeah I saw that. I was kicking myself afterwards for not recording it. Anyone else see the old guy with the marlins tattoo? Damn, I wish I could be as cool as him.

I don't have pics but I have a funny story.

 

Me and my friend don't own Marlins caps, so we went with my Red Sox cap and his Yankee cap. Billy the Marlins saw my friend's Yankee cap and walked up the bleachers to take it from him... My friend pointed at me so Billy took my cap as well. He held them both up to the crowd, drawing boos every time he held it up lmao..

 

i was front of you their booo big time when billy show yankee cap

I don't have pics but I have a funny story.

 

Me and my friend don't own Marlins caps, so we went with my Red Sox cap and his Yankee cap. Billy the Marlins saw my friend's Yankee cap and walked up the bleachers to take it from him... My friend pointed at me so Billy took my cap as well. He held them both up to the crowd, drawing boos every time he held it up lmao..

 

 

http://i31.tinypic.com/1219ahj.jpg

 

Hahahahaha yeah I saw that. I was kicking myself afterwards for not recording it. Anyone else see the old guy with the marlins tattoo? Damn, I wish I could be as cool as him.

Yea I'm the guy with the Pierre shirt. And yea, that guy was like some sort of a marlins hobo LOL

I don't have pics but I have a funny story.

 

Me and my friend don't own Marlins caps, so we went with my Red Sox cap and his Yankee cap. Billy the Marlins saw my friend's Yankee cap and walked up the bleachers to take it from him... My friend pointed at me so Billy took my cap as well. He held them both up to the crowd, drawing boos every time he held it up lmao..

 

 

http://i31.tinypic.com/1219ahj.jpg

 

Hahahahaha yeah I saw that. I was kicking myself afterwards for not recording it. Anyone else see the old guy with the marlins tattoo? Damn, I wish I could be as cool as him.

Yea I'm the guy with the Pierre shirt. And yea, that guy was like some sort of a marlins hobo LOL

LOL That's funny. Especially seeing that old guy with the tattoo is me. And the tats probably almost as old as most of you here.

 

You guys were a little behind and to to our right. Saw Billy making fun of your hats. Like he was wiping the sweat off his underarms and acting like he was gonna wipe his butt with them.

Hey Bob:

 

 

 

You're the best hype man in the business.

Awesome photos Rab! Sick camera! How much are those photos scaled down by?

 

Thanks.

 

It's regularly 3648x2736, I think that's a little big for the forum though.

I ended up getting to the Orange Bowl at 9:05 a.m. By that time, the line stretched around to the corner of 14th and 7th. So, no groundbreaking pin was in the offing. But my wife and I did get a free meal.

 

Despite the heat, crowds, deafening music, and politicians that love the sound of their own voices we had a good time and were glad to be a part of team history.

 

We bypassed the various Miami Herald and Marlins tents and made straight for the bleachers once we got in. Below is the line waiting for what we thought was open bleachers. It turned out to be a bleacher reserved for team sponsors. Thankfully we did manage to get some seats in the bleacher seats for regular fans.

 

 

 

The shovels and helmets were shined and lined up before the stage ready for the dignitaries to take their ceremonial dig. Somehow they all came tumbling down - I suspect one of the staffers was responsible. But they recovered and lined them anew, below.

 

 

 

While we common folk baked in the sun sitting on open air bleachers, the VIPs below got to sit in ahaded opulence. Later they were kind enough to completely block the view of the ceremonial first shovel of the groundbreaking from the rest of us. It was only after the masses in the crowd rose up in rebellion, raining boos down upon the VIPs blocking the view, that they eventually scuffled off to the left. To let the people see. Thankfully the dignitaries were mindful of this and did some more ceremonial groundbreaking for the people who had roasted for hours to witness this moment.

 

 

 

The assembled dignitaries on stage listen to speeches or get ready for their own.

 

 

 

Loria and Selig relax before Selig's speech. Of course Loria was sporting that massive 2003 World Series ring. How many occasions does he get a chance to wear it?

 

 

 

This is the best shot I could get from my vantage point of the second ceremonial groundbreaking for the regular fans.

 

 

 

Hanley approves.

Thanks for posting pics, guys.

 

About how many fans would you say showed up?

Thanks for posting pics, guys.

 

About how many fans would you say showed up?

 

 

Frank Ford noted that 5,000 showed up, The news media noted that 2,500+ showed up... So I guess in between would be fair to say...

 

From what I saw I would say 2,800-3

We bypassed the various Miami Herald and Marlins tents and made straight for the bleachers once we got in. Below is the line waiting for what we thought was open bleachers. It turned out to be a bleacher reserved for team sponsors.

 

Worst part was that those bleachers were half-empty for a good portion of the event. A good percent of the people that ended up there slid through the bottom of the bleachers.

I don't have pics but I have a funny story.

 

Me and my friend don't own Marlins caps, so we went with my Red Sox cap and his Yankee cap. Billy the Marlins saw my friend's Yankee cap and walked up the bleachers to take it from him... My friend pointed at me so Billy took my cap as well. He held them both up to the crowd, drawing boos every time he held it up lmao..

 

 

http://i31.tinypic.com/1219ahj.jpg

 

Hahahahaha yeah I saw that. I was kicking myself afterwards for not recording it. Anyone else see the old guy with the marlins tattoo? Damn, I wish I could be as cool as him.

Yea I'm the guy with the Pierre shirt. And yea, that guy was like some sort of a marlins hobo LOL

LOL That's funny. Especially seeing that old guy with the tattoo is me. And the tats probably almost as old as most of you here.

 

You guys were a little behind and to to our right. Saw Billy making fun of your hats. Like he was wiping the sweat off his underarms and acting like he was gonna wipe his butt with them.

 

Rofl I was expecting you to be on these boards. When did you get the tat btw?

Hey Bob:

 

 

 

You're the best hype man in the business.

 

 

(Mrs. BB27 here...)

 

HAHA That's awesome. He did a great job pumping up the crowd. My pics didn't turn out all that good, I had my old camera, and the zoom feature wasn't great. That, and people got in the damn way. Oh well, I was there. I got a killer sunburn and a touch of sun poisoning/dehydration to go with my commemorative pin and memories. Good times. Great pics, Rab, and I'll see your old Marlins hobo pic and raise it with this:

 

 

 

Oh and Rabs, we're still good, right? :thumbup

I don't have pics but I have a funny story.

 

Me and my friend don't own Marlins caps, so we went with my Red Sox cap and his Yankee cap. Billy the Marlins saw my friend's Yankee cap and walked up the bleachers to take it from him... My friend pointed at me so Billy took my cap as well. He held them both up to the crowd, drawing boos every time he held it up lmao..

 

 

http://i31.tinypic.com/1219ahj.jpg

 

Hahahahaha yeah I saw that. I was kicking myself afterwards for not recording it. Anyone else see the old guy with the marlins tattoo? Damn, I wish I could be as cool as him.

Yea I'm the guy with the Pierre shirt. And yea, that guy was like some sort of a marlins hobo LOL

LOL That's funny. Especially seeing that old guy with the tattoo is me. And the tats probably almost as old as most of you here.

 

You guys were a little behind and to to our right. Saw Billy making fun of your hats. Like he was wiping the sweat off his underarms and acting like he was gonna wipe his butt with them.

 

Rofl I was expecting you to be on these boards. When did you get the tat btw?

 

Between the '96 and '97 seasons.

Hey Bob:

 

 

 

You're the best hype man in the business.

 

 

LOL Wellllllllll.....We all gotta do our best for our team. I'm usually not so vocal, but it was a special day. And everyone was having a great time, despite the toasty conditions.

 

The speeches got boring as heck. Kinda funny when one of the commishes got booed. Had to guess that was a "No" voter. Pretty ballsy and arrogant to be there, IMO.

 

Gotta make another trip or two there to get comfortable with the drive. They had the way blocked off that my dash witch wanted me to go and kinda got tired of hearing her say "Recalculating." But I still can't see how it is not going to be a traffic nightmare leaving games. Whatever. It's still better than taking a plane trip to watch the team's home games.

it was good day for marlins and fans it was fun day i meet few member of this site and my friend BroncoBob27 and Rab was their too

Near the end I was feeling sorry for those in attendance that aren't used to being out in this heat and humidity. I'm used to being outside and it was pretty toasty to me.

Thanks for posting the pics, guys. I love them!

is that our first strip of cement?

is that our first strip of cement?

 

 

Nope. According to the latest article on the Marlins site, concrete won't begin being poured until next Monday.

 

http://florida.marlins.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090727&content_id=6083852&vkey=news_fla&fext=.jsp&c_id=fla