2020 Opening Day Will Be the Latest the Marlins Have Been in First Place in Franchise History

A 60-game regular season is assuredly going to produce all sorts of weird stats and looking back on this season will definitely be different. But here's a good one before Opening Day even hits the calendar: when the first pitch of the 2020 season is thrown, it will be the first time in Marlins franchise history that the team holds a share of first place with 60 or fewer games left in the regular season.

This goes hand-in-hand with one of my favorite fun facts in sports, which is that the Marlins have not only never won the NL East, but have also only made the Postseason twice and won the World Series both times. The Braves got one ring out of 14 straight division championships and these clowns have made the playoffs twice and went all the way both times.

The previous record for the Marlins' last day in first place came on June 30, 2004, after they had occupied first place in the division for 89 days and ended up finishing in third.

The Marlins actually seem like a great hypothetical for fans of other teams. Assuming you're old enough to remember 1997 and 2003 well, would you trade two decades of futility and no other Postseason appearances for two World Series titles in seven years? I think the answer has to unequivocally be yes. There's no point in having great regular seasons and getting to the Postseason if you're going to be like the Braves and lose each of your last eight Division Series — with a Wild Card game loss tossed in there for good measure.

Now I've triggered myself.

Anyway, congratulations to the Miami Marlins for being in first place in July for the first time ever.