Sign here: A young Marlins fan gets his wish: an autograph from a Big League star.

The throngs of University of Miami employees began lining up outside Dolphin Stadium’s Gate D shortly before 5 p.m. on Saturday.
 
Inside the 75,000-seat ballpark, their hometown Florida Marlins baseball team was scheduled to face the San Diego Padres in an important National League matchup.
 
But it didn’t matter to these early arrivals that the first pitch was still more than two hours away. It was UM Family Night with the Marlins, and a bevy of pregame activities awaited.

The delivery: Crystal Rivera, right, a radiation therapist at the Miller School of Medicine, throws out a ceremonial first pitch at Saturday’s Florida Marlins-San Diego Padres game. Looking on are fellow UM employees Lucy Montoya and Miguel McKinney.

Children got their faces painted as mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers looked on. Marlins players autographed baseballs, T-shirts, hats, and game programs. Employees displayed their pitching prowess at the dunk tank, and many had their pictures taken with Sebastian the Ibis and Billy the Marlin.

This was the third annual UM Family Night, which has quickly grown into a tradition where employees spend a day at the ballpark, rooting for the hometown team and enjoying the many pre- and post-game festivities.
 
UM employees and friends purchased more than 17,000 tickets for Saturday’s game, making it the single-largest group event of the season for the Marlins.
 
“Our annual Family Night with the Marlins has become such a special event for the University,” said UM President Donna E. Shalala. “Its popularity has grown each year, and it’s a wonderful opportunity to bring together the UM family for a special evening with our hometown World Series champions.”

Watching the action: Once the game started, UM employees and their families had plenty to watch.

For Yurong Tan, it was the first American baseball game she ever attended. A post-doctoral student at the Miller School of Medicine, Tan is from China and has been in the United States for a year. She brought her son, Yufei Jiang, and mother and father-in-law to the game.
 
When the 2008 college football season kicks off, Hurricanes fans will be a familiar sight at Dolphin Stadium. UM’s storied football program begins playing its home games at the venue later this year.

But on Saturday, it was all about baseball and the University of Miami, which was featured throughout the game.
 
Shelton “Shelly” Berg, dean of UM’s Frost School of Music, and Barbara Kahn, dean of the School of Business Administration, threw out ceremonial first pitches along with three UM employees: Lucy Montoya, Crystal Rivera and Miguel McKinney.
 
Montoya, a systems analyst in Information Technology on the Coral Gables campus, practiced with a friend at a local park in Miami, but was still “nervous and jittery to stand in the infield and throw a baseball with thousands of people watching,” she said.

Sign language: UM President Donna E. Shalala welcomed hundreds of employees who streamed through Dolphin Stadium’s Gate D. Here, she shows two Mini ‘Canes how to make the ever-popular “U” sign.

For McKinney, throwing a ceremonial first pitch at a Marlins game was a dream come true. “I’ve always been a big Marlins fan,” he said. “I even have a Christmas ornament from the team’s first World Series championship,” said the operations coordinator at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science
 

During an on-field pregame ceremony, Marlins President David Samson and of Florida Marlins Community Foundation Executive Director Nancy Olson presented President Shalala, Executive Vice President and Provost Thomas J. LeBlanc, and School of Education Associate Dean John Andrew Gillentine with a $7,500 scholarship check. The money will go toward the School of Education’s Sport Administration program on behalf of the Florida Marlins Community Foundation.
 
UM student Stephanie Olson sang the national anthem and was accompanied by student trumpet player Ben Fairfield.