The moment is almost upon us. At 9 pm EST, the Marlins will be reborn as the Miami Marlins, and a new era of Fish will begin. And you Fish Stripers will be here to join us in commemorating or denigrating this occasion, depending on how you feel. Tonight, we officially see the new jerseys, check out the players in said jerseys, and ring in the arrival of the Miami Marlins. And hey, we may even see the arrival of a new Miami Marlin (though the odds are very small).Mike Rodriguez stood outside the Marlins' ballpark late Friday night examining the two team caps he had just purchased, one black, the other orange.He held them side by side, taking stock of the new look with the multicolored logo the Marlins unveiled a couple of hours earlier."There was a lot of controversy regarding them, but I think ultimately they look pretty cool," said Rodriguez, a Pinecrest resident who has a 40-game ticket plan. "I'm pleasantly surprised."Meanwhile, the Marlins' new fashion statement was getting ripped online. Of more than 5,000 votes cast in a poll on SunSentinel.com, 59 percent rated the uniforms "awful." Only 14 percent gave them high marks.A more telling gauge of sentiment may be that expressed with cash or credit card. There were 200-300 fans lined up waiting for the first chance to buy merchandise at 11 p.m. Friday at the ballpark, and some waited more than an hour and a half. Most were buying multiple items, with the more colorful items drawing a lot of interest."The logo is really intense. The colors are pretty cool," said David Arteaga, of Miami. "It's South Beach colors. It does actually represent us pretty well."Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria said the colors were chosen to represent the distinctive shades of Miami."We are the red-orange of the breathtaking Miami sunsets and the citrus industry; the blue of the sky and the sea; and the yellow of the beautiful Miami sunshine," he said.Saturday, at the Marlins kiosk at Sawgrass Mills mall in Sunrise, lifelong Marlins fan Michael Flusberg seemed torn between his team's past and future. He wore the teal pinstriped jersey and cap of the Florida Marlins as he prepared to purchase the orange cap of the Miami Marlins."I was very skeptical at first, but I'm actually kind of liking it now," the Plantation resident said. "I still think the color could be a little different. I still like the old teal and silver and all that. It's my favorite, it's my childhood. I grew up with the Marlins, but I guess I have to go with the Miami Marlins now."John Husocki, of Fort Lauderdale, was typical of many who said they changed their opinion of the new look once they saw it on merchandise. He was buying an orange cap that went well with the Miami Hurricanes' green-and-orange shirt he was wearing."I just like the color of the orange, really. It's different, it's more Florida now," he said.Uni-watch.com gave the new uniforms a B+. Todd Sokolowski, senior director of on-field products for New Era caps, said, "Merchandisers really like the new bold statement the club is taking with their new look."Steve Greenspan, of Miami Beach, came to the ballpark Friday with a custom T-shirt he had produced 19 years ago. It had the Florida Marlins logo, but the letters of Florida were crossed out and "MIAMI" printed above. His son Josh wore the shirt and a Miami Marlins cap when he approached Loria for an autograph."That's an old shirt," Loria said, then after signing, added, "Nice hat."
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