As a kid in the 1980s, Andrew Maraniss made sure he was prepared when his family headed to Florida to experience Major League Baseball (MLB) spring training. “I used to draw logos of the teams in Magic Marker in a notebook and take it with me for autographs,” he remembers. The players were more than happy to oblige. One year at Al Lang Stadium in St. Petersburg, he even scored an autograph from Tommy Walton, the famed “singing hot dog vendor.”
For Cristy Stewart, an early spring-training experience was 20 years ago on a date with her future husband. It later became a family tradition. When the couple’s daughter was eight, she carried a handmade sign to a Cardinals game at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium in Jupiter. It said, “Yadi, can I have a hug?”
“He (then-Cardinals player Yadier Molina) was in the middle of pitching, took his face mask off, came over and gave her a great big hug,” Stewart says. “Those fan moments are much harder to come by in the regular season.”
Special connections like these are the heart of baseball’s spring training, when teams and spectators alike flock south to enjoy the weather and the game in a more casual and intimate setting. From mid-February to late March or early April, every major league team holds spring training in either Florida (the Grapefruit League) or Arizona (the Cactus League). The games don’t count toward the regular season, but the memories last forever.
The Beginning of an American Tradition
Though other teams had gone to practice in Florida even earlier, the Grapefruit League officially dates back to 1913, when the Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians began using Tampa as their spring training grounds. After that, Al Lang, onetime mayor of St. Petersburg and a giant baseball fan, convinced the St. Louis Browns to come to Florida for spring training. The St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Athletics followed suit, and it became the start of the Grapefruit League — which boasts the appearance of some of the most famous names in baseball history, including Jackie Robinson, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, and Babe Ruth, who allegedly hit his longest-ever home run at spring training in Tampa.
According to MLB lore, the Cactus League was born after a man named Bill Veeck bought the Cleveland Indians in 1946 and moved the team’s spring training away from Florida and close to his ranch in Tucson, Arizona. Notably, having signed Larry Doby, the American League’s first Black player, he was also strategically avoiding states in the Jim Crow South. The New York Giants followed suit, attracted in part by the local hot springs. When the Chicago Cubs moved their training site to Mesa, there were enough teams to give Arizona’s spring-training league a name: the Cactus League.
A Memorable Prelude to the Season
Today, fans come to experience spring training from near and far — many traveling thousands of miles, while those who live in Florida or Arizona feel lucky to enjoy easy access every year.
Many of the teams are close together, making it easy to bounce from one game to another and still have time for a trip to the beach, a dip in the pool, or a round of golf. Fans might even get a chance to see players out in the community, giving back to the places they call home several weeks of the year. At the annual Celebrity Bartender Event in Arizona, you might see players like Vinnie Pasquantino, Billy Hamilton, or former All-Star Julio Teheran mixing drinks for charity. Players conduct clinics, donate uniforms for local charity events, even visit hospitals to read to children.
In some ways, spring training has become a lot bigger and a little glossier than it once was. Many ballparks have undergone major renovations over the years and feature fan amenities from upscale concessions to seating that ranges from picturesque lawns to luxury sky boxes. Kids get a chance to run the bases, and stadiums host family-friendly theme nights.
Matt Slatus is the president and general manager of Camelback Ranch in Glendale, Arizona, the spring training home of the Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers. “The games are just one part of the experience,” he says. “You can come and watch players like Shohei Ohtani or Luis Robert train, and you don’t even need a ticket for that.” Camelback Ranch has 12 practice fields — two of them exact replicas of the Dodgers and White Sox home ballparks, respectively—and player facilities are state of the art.
“You can’t have a great season if you don’t start things off the right way, and that begins with spring training,” Slatus adds. “We hope we are day one of a path to a national championship.”
Stories Unfolding in the Sun
Like Maraniss, Dennis Alpert made his first spring training trip with his family in the 1980s, traveling from Massachusetts to Florida. “You could literally bump into the players walking from the practice field or batting practice over to the stadium or back to the locker rooms,” he says. “It was exciting for a kid who played baseball, a sports fanatic, to be able to access my favorite players and get autographs.”
For many, spring training is synonymous with family togetherness. Elise Woodard’s family used to come from California every year to watch the Los Angeles Dodgers play in Phoenix. But her favorite memory was bringing her grandmother — an avid fan — in 2015. “She was getting older, and she wanted to go to one last game while her health was still good enough,” Woodard says. “We took her to see the Mariners play in Peoria, and she continued to talk about it until she passed four years later. We also saw Clayton Kershaw play that day, and our oldest son is named after him.”
Still other fans, the die-hards, come to see not only the big-name players but also the rookies, for whom this is a make-or-break opportunity. Meeting and watching them at spring training, fans hope they can later say, “I knew him when…”
Devon Davis, a former player for the Birmingham Barons (the Double-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox), was once one of those rookies. He spent three trainings (2014 through 2016) in Glendale, Arizona as a member of the White Sox organization. “It’s a massive tryout,” he says. “We were all fighting for roster slots.”
Despite the pressure, there were perks. “You could get a taste of the big-league games if they needed an emergency player,” he says. “You might end up being teammates with a guy you watched when you were growing up. You think they’re superheroes, and then you see they’re normal dudes, just insanely talented.”
A Lifetime of Experiences
Alpert returned about five years ago to see the Boston Red Sox play in a spring training game in Ft. Myers, Florida. He reports that while much has changed, much of it is familiar, too. “I ran into a few people I hadn’t seen in years from my childhood,” he says. “They go every day to the games and find one another, and it’s a continuation of their life from up north.”
Alpert says his memories of seeing the players, building traditions, and soaking in the atmosphere will last him a lifetime. “For a baseball fan, it’s heaven,” he says.
“Spring training is Americana.”
