Baseball in the Tampa Bay area

Add links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Baseball in the Tampa Bay Area
)
Main article: Sports 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, the other being the Arizona Diamondbacks.

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

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

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 five teams in

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

Pasco-Hernando Community College, Saint Leo University, and Hillsborough Community College
.

The University of Tampa Spartans baseball program has won eight Division II national championships: 1992, 1993, 1998, 2006, 2007, 2013, 2015, and 2019.[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 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.

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

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, Hall of Famer Wade Boggs
and Steve Garvey (among many others) have gotten their start on local baseball programs around the area.

Tampa Baseball Museum

The

Ybor City State Museum and has been completely rehabilitated. The Tampa Baseball Museum
will open once exhibits are completed and installed.

References

  1. St. Petersburg Times
    . Retrieved 2009-08-20.
  2. ^ "MiLB headquarters relocating".
  3. ^ "National Championships | TampaSpartans.com". Archived from the original on 2014-01-07. Retrieved 2014-01-07.
  4. ^ Little League Champions – sportingnews.com Archived November 20, 2000, at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ "Southeastern Region State Little League® Champions".
  6. ^ "Past Divisional Champs - Junior League Baseball". Archived from the original on 2014-01-07. Retrieved 2014-01-07.

Further reading

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Baseball_in_the_Tampa_Bay_area&oldid=1112372241"