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A Short History Of Spring Training Baseball

As fans are enjoying Spring Training baseball that is well underway in Florida and Arizona, it may leave some fans wondering about Spring Training’s past. While most of what we know as fans is the warm Spring Training games in cities like Tucson, Mesa, Jupiter or Ft. Meyers, fans have experienced Spring Training in numerous cities and under many different conditions for over a century.

The first time major league teams played in ballparks other than their own for Spring Training dates back to the 1890s. Many other cities have served as Spring Training sites along side Arizona and Florida for decades. Such cities as New Orleans in Louisiana, Tulsa in Oklahoma, Hot Springs in Arkansas, and even Hawaii’s Honolulu welcomed major league teams prior to the 1940s.

Arizona and Florida had always been incorporated into Spring Training baseball from the very beginning. The Philadelphia Phillies were the first major league team to play in Florida in 1889, prompting more teams to desire to play in the Sunshine State. Some three decades later the Detroit Tigers would be the first team to play Spring Training in Arizona. They began play in 1929 at Riverside Park in Phoenix.

It’s important to note that the Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues did not always include the teams we see today in their respective states. In fact the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians began playing in Florida in 1914 joining the Phillies to form what we now know to be the Grapefruit League.

The establishment of the Cactus League has been debated, yet the best traces of its creation go back to notorious baseball man Bill Veeck. If one were to read through Veeck’s autobiography they would discover that racism was one of the reasons for the formation of the Cactus League, as Veeck explains. Veeck tells the story of how he had accidentally sat in the black section of what were segregated stands in the 1940s. He was enjoying a game of the minor league Milwaukee Brewers team he owned. Soon law enforcement had approached Veeck reminding him that he could not sit in the section, to which Veeck responded by arguing back. The mayor of Ocala, Florida was involved and Veeck threatened to move his team out of Florida being sure to explain his story to the rest of the country.

Veeck ended up moving himself to Tucson, Arizona upon retirement and soon purchased the Cleveland Indians. It was not very long before his team trained in Arizona and was joined by what was then the New York Giants organization.

After a long-established Grapefruit League and new Cactus League was born in 1946 the league’s major league teams soon followed suit to form the leagues we know today. Despite the fact that these leagues were formed teams had still from time to time visited other sites for Spring Training baseball. Havana, Cuba had hosted the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Chicago White Sox at one time played in French Lick, Indiana and the Chicago Cubs played parts of a few decades on Catalina Island. It was not until as recent as 2010 that teams were equally divided between the Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues and certainly there to stay.

There is something special for fans as they sit on the outfield lawns of the varies parks in MLB’s Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues, yet even more special is the evolution of the history of Spring Training baseball and how numerous cities and many ever-changing teams have enjoyed the fruits of regular season preparation.

Sources for Further Reading:

Veeck, Bill and Linn, Edward (2001). Veeck as in Wreck: The Autobiography of Bill Veeck. University of Chicago Press.

Fountain, Charles (2009). Under the March Sun: The Story of Spring Training. Oxford University Press.

Pahigian, Josh (2004). Spring Training Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to the Ballparks of the Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues. McFarland and Company.

Author: Anthony Schullo

Chicago Cubs Writer/Analyst for The Runner Sports. Following the Cubs as one of their biggest fans and perhaps their harshest critic.

Follow Anthony on Twitter: @AMSchullo
Reach out via email: [email protected]

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