Baseball in the Tampa Bay Area
Baseball in the Tampa Bay Area, both amateur and professional, has had a long and storied history, even though the Tampa Bay Rays are one of the two youngest franchises in Major League Baseball.
Spring training
In 1913, the Chicago Cubs moved their spring training site to the city of Tampa. St. Petersburg soon followed, becoming a spring training host for the first time in 1914 when the St. Louis Browns came to town.
St. Petersburg
Since 1914, more Major League spring training games have been played in St. Petersburg than any other city.
Team | Year(s) | Stadium | Practice Field[1] |
St. Louis Browns | 1914 | Sunshine Park | N/A |
Philadelphia Phillies | 1915–18 | Sunshine Park | N/A |
Boston Braves | 1922–37 | Waterfront Park | N/A |
New York Yankees | 1925–42, 1946–47 1947–50*, 1952–61 | Waterfront Park Al Lang Field | Huggins-Stengel Field |
St. Louis Cardinals | 1938–42, 1946–47 1947–97 | Waterfront Park Al Lang Field | Busch Field (1965–87) Naimoli Field (1988–97) |
New York Giants | 1951* | Al Lang Field | Huggins-Stengel Field |
New York Mets | 1962–87 | Al Lang Field | Huggins-Stengel Field (1962–67) Naimoli Field (1968–87) |
Baltimore Orioles | 1992–95 | Al Lang Field | Huggins-Stengel Field |
Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays | 1998–2008 | Al Lang Field | Naimoli Field |
*Note: In 1951, the New York Giants, whose normal spring training site was in Phoenix, Arizona, swapped locations with the New York Yankees so Yankees' co-owner Del Webb could oversee both his team and a growing real estate business concurrently. The teams returned to their typical training sites in 1952.
Tampa
Tampa has hosted spring training for seven teams: the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, Washington Senators, and the New York Yankees, who currently call Tampa their spring training home.
Team | Year(s) | Facility |
Chicago Cubs | 1913–16 | Plant Field |
Boston Red Sox | 1919 | Plant Field |
Washington Senators | 1920–29 | Plant Field |
Detroit Tigers | 1930 | Plant Field |
Cincinnati Reds | 1931–42, 1946–87 | Plant Field |
Al Lopez Field (1955–87) | ||
Chicago White Sox | 1954–59 | Al Lopez Field |
New York Yankees | 1996-Present | George M. Steinbrenner Field |
Clearwater
Team | Year(s) | Facility |
Brooklyn Robins (Dodgers) | 1923–32 | Brooklyn Field |
Cleveland Indians | 1942 | Clearwater Athletic Field |
Philadelphia Phillies | 1947-Present | Jack Russell Memorial Stadium (1955–2003) |
Bright House Field (2004–present) |
Dunedin
Dunedin has been the only spring training home to the Toronto Blue Jays since the franchise's inception.
Team | Year(s) | Facility |
Toronto Blue Jays | 1977-Present | Dunedin Stadium |
Tarpon Springs
Team | Year(s) | Facility |
St. Louis Browns | 1925–27 | |
Plant City
Team | Year(s) | Facility |
Cincinnati Reds | 1988–97 | Plant City Stadium |
Minor leagues
Past
The Tampa Bay area has had a long association with minor league baseball. The first modern example was the 1919 Tampa Smokers, a charter member of the original Class D Florida State League (FSL). The expansion St. Petersburg Saints joined the FSL in 1920. After the Smokers folded in 1954, the Tampa Tarpons played in the FSL from 1957 until 1989.
Tampa, St. Petersburg, and other nearby communities also fielded teams in a variety of defunct minor leagues, including the Florida International League, the Florida State Negro League, and the short-lived Florida West Coast League.
Present
The Tampa Bay area is currently home to several teams in the Florida State League (which is now a Class-A Advanced circuit), including the Tampa Yankees, the Clearwater Threshers, the Dunedin Blue Jays, the Bradenton Marauders, and the Lakeland Flying Tigers. Several major league organizations also field squads in the rookie-level Gulf Coast League and the Florida Instructional League.
Besides hosting actual baseball games, the corporate offices of Minor League Baseball have been located in St. Petersburg since 1973.[2]
Other professional leagues
St. Petersburg was the home of the St. Petersburg Pelicans in the short-lived Senior Professional Baseball Association in 1989–1990. The league featured former major league players who were age 35 or older. The Pelicans won the only league championship.
College baseball
Several notable ballplayers have come from the college and university baseball programs in the Tampa Bay Area. Players and managers have reached the Major Leagues from the University of South Florida, University of Tampa, St. Petersburg College and Eckerd College. Other schools in the area with baseball programs include Pasco-Hernando Community College, Saint Leo University, Hillsborough Community College, and Clearwater Christian College
The University of Tampa Spartans baseball program has won six Division II national championships: 1992, 1993, 1998, 2006, 2007, and 2013.[3]
Amateur baseball
Amateur baseball also has a long tradition in the Tampa Bay area. This tradition began in the ballfields of Ybor City and West Tampa, two neighborhoods originally founded in the late 1800s by immigrants from Cuba, Spain, and Italy. The neighborhoods were home to many social clubs, many of which sponsored highly competitive teams that inspired much local support.
Today, high school and AAU baseball in the area is very competitive, with many players drafted out of high school into the major leagues every year.
Little League Baseball teams from the area have excelled in the Little League World Series, finishing as Runners-Up in the 1948, 1975, 1980 & 1981 Little League World Series tournaments.[4] Tampa Bay area teams have won the state Little League tournament in 1967, 1969–1975, 1977, 1980–1981, 1988–1991, 1994, 2006, 2008, 2011, and 2012.[5] In addition, local teams have won Junior League championships in 1982, 1985, 2004, and 2011.[6]
Little League Baseball's headquarters for the Southern Region was located in Gulfport until 2009.
Notable baseball players from the Tampa Bay area
Al López, the first area native to play and manage in the major leagues and the first to be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame, came out of the leagues of Ybor City in the early 20th century. Since then, many current and former major league players and managers such as Lou Piniella, Fred McGriff, Gary Sheffield, Tino Martinez, Luis Gonzalez, Dwight Gooden, Howard Johnson, Brad Radke, Craig Lefferts, Tony La Russa, Matt Joyce, Chone Figgins, Ryan Raburn and Hall of Famer Wade Boggs (among many others) have gotten their start on local baseball programs around the area.
Tampa Baseball Museum
The Tampa Baseball Museum is scheduled to open in Tampa's Ybor City in 2014. It aims to explain and celebrate the Tampa Bay area's rich baseball history with memorabilia and exhibits. The museum building was once the childhood home of Al López, which was moved to its present location across the street from the Ybor City State Museum before being remodeled.
References
- ↑ Topkin, Marc (2008-02-10). "St. Petersburg Landmarks". St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved 2009-08-20.
- ↑ http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090209&content_id=507021&vkey=pr_milb&fext=.jsp
- ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-01-07. Retrieved 2014-01-07.
- ↑ Little League Champions – sportingnews.com Archived November 20, 2000, at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑
- ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-01-07. Retrieved 2014-01-07.
Further reading
- "Tampa Bay Rays Team History". raysbaseball.com. Retrieved 2008-04-29.
- Topkin, Marc (2008-02-10). "All-Time Spring Team". tampabay.com. St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved 2008-04-29.
- Arsenault, Raymond (1998). "Spring Training Baseball in Florida – Our Roots Run Deep". floridagrapefruitleague.com. FHC Forum. Retrieved 2008-04-29.
- "Spring Training Sites for all American League Baseball Teams". baseball-almanac.com. Baseball Almanac. Retrieved 2008-04-29.
- "Spring Training Sites for all National League Baseball Teams". baseball-almanac.com. Baseball Almanac. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
- Kerstein, Bob (2007-10-07). "Tampa's Original Field Of Dreams". tbo.com. Tampa Tribune. Archived from the original on October 24, 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-29.
- Vascellaro, Charlie (2006). "History of the Cactus League". cactusleague.com. Cactus League. Retrieved 2008-04-29.
- McCarthy, Kevin (1996). Baseball in Florida. Sarasota, Fla: Pineapple Press. ISBN 1-56164-089-1.
- de Quesada, A.M. (2000). Baseball in Tampa Bay. Images of Sports. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 0-7385-0058-5.