Tommy Hutton called his last Marlins game on Sunday, September 27, and the team made sure he did not do it alone. Midway through the season finale at loanDepot park, his longtime television partner Rich Waltz walked into the booth unannounced, and South Florida got one more inning of the duo it grew up with.

A surprise in the seventh

For close to two decades, Hutton and Waltz were the voices in South Florida living rooms every night of the baseball season. Waltz has since moved on, and on Saturday night he was calling a college football game in Pullman, Washington. Rather than miss Hutton's farewell, he flew out of Spokane, connected through Denver and landed in Miami in time to slip into the booth during the seventh inning. A clubhouse staffer even found him a dressing room so he could freshen up before going on the air.

Then the ballpark did its part. While Waltz was still explaining his cross-country scramble to viewers, Griffin Conine, a second-generation Marlin, launched a home run to right field. Hutton nudged his old partner, and Waltz delivered his trademark home run call, the one longtime fans can still hear in their heads. Waltz stayed on for a while after that, ribbing Hutton about how many on-air rants he had worked in this season and trading stories with current play-by-play man Kyle Sielaff.

The Marlins won the game 5 to 3 over the National League East champion Braves, finishing the year at 80 and 82. It was one win better than last season, and the team set a franchise record with 47 victories at home. As farewell afternoons go, it was a good one.

Twenty-eight seasons in the booth

Hutton, 80, joined the Marlins organization in 1997, the season the young franchise won its first World Series. He has covered the team for 28 seasons, 23 of them on television, and he is an Emmy Award winner. Before any of that he was a big leaguer himself: twelve seasons in the majors with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, Montreal Expos and Toronto Blue Jays. His broadcasting career, counting the years before Miami, stretches past four decades.

What made him a fixture was less the resume than the voice: a former player who could explain why a cutoff throw went wrong, a broadcaster with opinions and the occasional rant he was happy to own, and a storyteller who made a quiet Tuesday in July feel like it mattered. Generations of Marlins fans learned the game listening to him.

A season-long goodbye

The club spent all of 2026 saying thank you. The biggest moment came on August 23, Thank You Tommy Day, when the Marlins hosted the Nationals and opened with an on-field tribute. A video replayed his most memorable moments and calls, his family joined him on the field, and his three granddaughters threw out ceremonial first pitches to him.

The final game was quieter and, in its own way, better. No ceremony, just the booth, a long-lost partner and a home run that arrived right on cue. Griffin Conine, who grew up on the Hutton and Waltz broadcasts, said after the game that he had been looking forward to hearing the replay with both voices on it.

How to say thanks

The Marlins have posted the story of Waltz's surprise visit and the season finale on the team's website, and the clip of the seventh inning is the one to send the friend who still quotes Hutton and Waltz.

Next spring, when the Marlins report to Jupiter and the first exhibition game comes on, the booth will sound different. For one more Sunday afternoon in Little Havana, though, it sounded exactly the way South Florida remembers it.