The Southern Illinois Miners are a professional baseball team based in Marion, Illinois. The Miners are a member of the West Division of the independent Frontier League. Since 2007, the Miners have played their home games at Rent One Park.

The "Miners" name refers to the Southern Illinois region's history of coal mining.

The Miners' games are broadcast on four Withers radio stations as part of the Southern Illinois Miners Radio Network. The flagship station is 97.7 WHET-FM in Marion. The Miners radio broadcaster and media relations director is Jason Guerette. The Miners won their first Frontier League Championship in 2012.

The city of Marion had not hosted any professional baseball team since the departure of the Marion Indians after the 1948 season. The Indians played for only two seasons in the class D Illinois State League.

John Simmons, an Illinois lawyer, proposed the Marion ballpark originally for an affiliated professional minor league baseball team, but that request was rejected by the Midwest League. However, Simmons remained interested in bringing professional baseball to Marion, so he petitioned several independent leagues for membership. In August 2006, Marion was officially announced as an expansion franchise of the Frontier League, to begin play in 2007. The region's close proximity near existing teams made Southern Illinois a natural fit for the Frontier League.

The Miners began their inaugural season on May 23, 2007 on the road against the Gateway Grizzlies, with the franchise's first home run hit by Tim Dorn that same night. Six days later, they would play their first home game against the Evansville Otters, winning 9-6 in front of a crowd of 6,251. The team set a new Frontier League attendance record by hosting 259,392 fans (the prior record was 217,500 set by Gateway in 2004). The Miners also became the first team in Frontier League history to average over 5,000 fans per game for a season (5,086). Southern Illinois Miners fans also contributed heavily to supporting their lead mascot Big John to become the record-setting overall winner of the Best Logo in Minor League Baseball, awarded April 2, 2008 by CNBC following their largest online poll ever.

After going 49-47 in their first season, the Miners made their first playoff appearance in 2008. Led by postseason all-star outfielder Joey Metropoulos (who hit .315 with 20 home runs and 66 RBIs) and Frontier League Pitcher of the Year Ryan Bird (who went 13-3 with a 2.48 ERA and league-best 152 strikeouts), Southern Illinois went 58-38, making the postseason as a wild card entrant. On September 8, they won their first playoff game in team history, defeating the Windy City ThunderBolts 4-2 at home. They ultimately fell in the Division Series round to the eventual league champion ThunderBolts in four games.

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