Bagpipes and kilts flood ballpark as Scotland fans turn a Marlins game into a party

MIAMI (AP) — The sound of bagpipes echoed around the outskirts of the Miami Marlins' ballpark hours before the first pitch, as Scotland fans announced their arrival in South Florida days before their squad's World Cup match against Brazil.

Dressed in kilts and belting “No Scotland, No Party,” they marched roughly one mile from a popular Miami bar to loanDepot Park on Monday night, turning the stadium into the latest stop on the Tartan Army's Major League Baseball takeover tour after they filled the streets of Boston and New York for Scotland's previous matches.

Inside the ballpark, the atmosphere was more lively than for most weeknight games for the Marlins, who in recent years have had some of the worst attendance in baseball. Longtime supporters were looking forward to seeing their ballpark transformed by the boisterous Scotland fans.

“It’s going to give a really good experience to us fans,” said Victor Munoz, a Miami native. “Usually the stadium’s not full, now it’s going to be full. It’s going to be packed. It’ll be fun.”

Scotland fans roared during a routine groundout in the first inning and chanted in anticipation of nearly every pitch. Some kicked around empty beer cans as if they were soccer balls. They took over the concourse, wearing traffic cones atop their heads while cheering.

“We’re loving everything,” said Johnnie Sloan, who flew to Boston from Glasgow, Scotland, and drove to Miami for Wednesday's match. “We're here for the World Cup, obviously, but tonight we’re here in Miami going to watch the baseball (game). This is a warmup for Wednesday. I guarantee the Miami Marlins win tonight because they’ve got the full support of the Tartan Army.”

The Marlins lost 4-3 to the Texas Rangers, but the Scots embraced the experience, singing afterward as if they were celebrating a victory.

“Lively out there tonight,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said. “That was quite the atmosphere.”

The announced crowd of 20,008 included about 8,000 members of the Tartan Army, and it was a striking sight. The ballpark was used for the World Baseball Classic, where a sellout crowd of 36,190 watched Venezuela beat the United States in the final earlier this year. But the Marlins entered Monday's game averaging 12,604 fans per game in the regular season.

They've been one of the hottest teams in baseball, going an MLB-best 14-4 in June with an eight-game home winning streak entering Monday.

Munoz hopes the Tartan Army takeover leads to more attention for the ascending Miami team.

“It’s going to give us visibility,” Munoz said. “The Marlins are a fairly new team. So it’s good because that way, the world is going to get to know us. And we’ll eventually get to become like a Yankee team.”

The Scots had descended on bars and filled the pubs in the Boston area as they celebrated their team’s first World Cup appearance in 28 years, and a historic victory over Haiti in their opener.

“I don’t think the ballpark is ready to supply so much beer,” said Harry Guerrero, a Marlins season ticket holder who was born and raised in Miami. “I honestly think it’s going to be out of hand. But I wish the ballpark well.”

Members of the Tartan Army met at the bar Ball & Chain to begin their march to the ballpark. Guerrero showed up to share a few drinks. He said it was the earliest he’d arrived at a Marlins game in at least five years.

“It’s kind of crazy. We’re so glad to have them in Miami and we hope they enjoy themselves,” he added. “I hope they’re getting hydration — I told them — and their sunscreen because they’re a bunch of pale guys.”

After singing along to a live pregame performance by Nick Morgan, who released the song “No Scotland, No Party,” fans turned the famed chant into “No Marlins, No Party” throughout the night.

The players noticed.

“They brought their spirit over. It was really cool to see,” said Owen Caissie, who had to corral a few water-filled beach balls in the outfield.

Added Marlins starting pitcher Tyler Phillips: “If it was up to me, I would have us paying those people to show up to the games. That was unbelievable. Like from the second I walked out and then up the dugout, I felt it in my chest. It felt great. ... And man, if I ever see them, like if I’m ever out there, I got their backs.”

Associated Press journalist Gracie Fisher contributed to this report. Fisher is a student in the University of Georgia’s Carmical Sports Media Institute.

AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/FIFA-World-Cup

Scotland soccer fans sing along to music before a baseball game between the Miami Marlins and the Texas Rangers as part of the Tartan Army march, Monday, June 22, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

A bagpipe band marches in the outfield as Scotland soccer fans with the Tartan Army attend a baseball game between the Miami Marlins and the Texas Rangers, Monday, June 22, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Scotland soccer fans sing along to music before a baseball game between the Miami Marlins and the Texas Rangers as part of the Tartan Army march, Monday, June 22, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Scotland soccer fans sing along to music before a baseball game between the Miami Marlins and the Texas Rangers as part of the Tartan Army march, Monday, June 22, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Scotland soccer fans sing along to music before a baseball game between the Miami Marlins and the Texas Rangers as part of the Tartan Army march, Monday, June 22, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

A bagpipe band marches in the outfield as Scotland soccer fans with the Tartan Army attend a baseball game between the Miami Marlins and the Texas Rangers, Monday, June 22, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

The deadly destruction of a Florida beachfront condominium actually started weeks before it collapsed into a pile of rubble in the middle of the night, killing 98 people in 2021, but the building had been vulnerable from the start, federal investigators found in a final report issued Monday.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology said in the report that two connections between garage columns and the pool deck started to fail around early June. The combination of a structure design that did not meet building codes and alterations made to it over its 40 years meant that the other parts of the pool deck weren’t strong enough to withstand the extra load, leading to the type of slow-motion collapse.

"When building structures are designed and built to required codes and standards, they have margins against failure, meaning they should be able to support much more load than they are expected to bear,” Judith Mitrani-Reiser, who co-led the investigation, said in a video accompanying the report. “In the case of Champlain Towers South, these margins against failure were too narrow from the start.”

The report underscores findings that have trickled in since the 12-story beachfront condominium catastrophe, which showcase weeks of building distress and deeper-seated problems.

Most residents were asleep when the building in the tiny town of Surfside, Florida, a few miles north of Miami, collapsed into a huge pile of rubble at 1:22 a.m. on June 24, 2021.

The dead included members of the area’s large Orthodox Jewish community, along with the sister of Paraguay’s first lady, her family and their nanny. A Miami judge approved a more than $1 billion settlement for personal injury and wrongful death claims from the disaster.

Harley Tropin, who represented the families of victims and survivors in a class-action lawsuit, declined to comment on the new report.

The structure didn't meet the building codes in place at the time and the building's construction did not follow the design, including large planters being added on the pool deck, explained Mitrani-Reiser.

“In some locations, the design provided less than half of the code-required strength,” she said

Work done later around the pool, in which sand and pavers were added, further strained an “already structurally inadequate” system, she said.

Meanwhile, reinforcing steel in the pool deck and street-level parking slabs were corroded in some areas, according to NIST.

Photos taken by people at the building in the weeks before the collapse show a long crack in a planter wall on the pool deck as well as cracks in the corner where the planter wall met a planter box, according to the NIST report. Less than a day before the collapse, that planter had detached from the pool deck.

About one week before the tower collapsed, water that had been leaking from a ceiling in the parking garage increased, according to NIST. A few hours before the destruction, one person interviewed by investigators described it as a “water faucet.”

People in the building described seeing the pool deck collapsing, “one bay at a time as if dominoes were falling in a sequential chain reaction,” said Mitrani-Reiser. Some said they felt a sudden wind in the lobby and others heard sounds like a “jet engine.”

The pool deck started falling minutes before two parts of the tower. A strong concrete wall helped to keep the destruction from completely spreading to the third section, according to NIST.

The companies responsible for designing and building the original structure in the late 1970s are no longer in operation.

After the collapse, state legislators enacted a law in 2022 requiring condo associations to have sufficient reserves to cover major repairs. Some residents were caught off guard by hefty fees imposed to cover years of deferred maintenance expenses required to bring their buildings into compliance with the law’s standards. That led to another law providing condo associations and residents more flexibility in handling the costs.

Associated Press reporter Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City contributed to this report.

FILE - Search and rescue workers descend from the rubble pile at the Champlain Towers South condo building, July 2, 2021, in Surfside, Fla. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

FILE - Coast Guard boats patrol in front of the partially collapsed Champlain Towers South condo building, July 1, 2021, in Surfside, Fla. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

FILE - Furniture sits perched in the remains of apartments sheared in half in the still standing portion of the Champlain Towers South condo building, July 2, 2021, in Surfside, Fla. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)