Name a Marlin, past or present.

Dave O’Brien has watched him play.

From Joel Adamson to Billy McMillon to Eddie Zosky.

Dave O’Brien has called his name on the air.

Eight seasons, eight summers behind the microphone.

He was there on Opening Day when the Marlins debuted in 1993.

He will be there on Opening Day today when they begin their ninth season.

“Not many announcers can say they’ve been with a club since Day One,” said O’Brien, who takes over as the lead television announcer for 150 telecasts on Fox Sports Net and Channel 69 “I’ve seen every player who has put on a uniform, and I know where all the ghosts are.”

O’Brien, 37, who worked two seasons with the Atlanta Braves, joined Joe Angel on the Marlins’ original radio broadcasting team. After four seasons on the radio, Angel and O’Brien alternated radio and television play-by-play for the next four seasons, working with TV analyst Tommy Hutton.

This season the Marlins made O’Brien and Hutton the full-time TV team and let Angel go. Former Montreal Expos announcer Dave Van Horne was hired to join Boog Sciambi on the radio team.

O’Brien did several games for ESPN in addition to the Marlins last season.

ESPN used O’Brien on college basketball this winter and wanted him to continue doing baseball games this season, but O’Brien has decided to work exclusively for the Marlins — and ESPN rival Fox.

“This is an important season for me taking over as the No. 1 announcer, and I’m excited about the Marlins,” said O’Brien, who has been replaced on ESPN by Angel.

“This team has a chance to win more games than it loses. The Marlins are at the point of recapturing the lost glory from the aftermath of the ’97 World Series championship team.”

O’Brien had been working toward a No. 1 position but didn’t think it would be here. He nearly left the Marlins for the radio job with the Chicago Cubs in 1996, but the Marlins held him to his contract.

“That was the smartest decision the team made in my behalf,” said O’Brien, who has three children — Michael, 11, Samantha, 8, and Kaitlyn, 5, with wife Debbie. “I’m delighted with the way things turned out.”

O’Brien got to call a World Series championship the following year.

“We’ve had highs and lows, but that night in October is still the most indelible thing I’ve ever been a part of,” said O’Brien, who can flash the championship ring anytime he wants to relive it.

An incredible thing for a lifelong Boston Red Sox fan from Quincy, Mass., who grew up going to games at Fenway Park. It was at one of those games, sitting with his father, that he looked up at the lights in the press box and wondered what was going on.

“That’s where the broadcasters are,” his father said, and young Dave, who remembers doing play-by-play in front of the television when he was 5 years old, knew what he wanted to do with his life.

O’Brien started broadcasting when he was 17 and attended Syracuse, the university that spawned the careers of many illustrious broadcasters.

O’Brien has done several sports, but baseball is the game he loves.

Red Sox announcers Ned Martin and Ken Coleman were early influences, and it was some advice that Coleman gave him that made the biggest impact.

“He told me that if you want to be a baseball announcer you have to learn how to ‘land softly on people’s ears.’ I never forgot that,” O’Brien said.

This season fans will be able to find him in one place. No more mid-game walks between the radio and television booths.

“I’ve got the best job in the world,” O’Brien said.

“For three hours, I’m talking baseball with a buddy next to me.”

Jim Sarni can be reached at .