Baseball's Spring Training History
The Origins and History of Major League Baseball's Preseason
The first in a series of Baseball Primer articles examines the origins of Baseball's Spring Training in Florida, Arizona, Mississippi and even Japan.
The first Baseball Spring Training was held in 1870 when the Cincinnati and Chicago ball clubs of the defunct National Association held baseball camps in New Orleans. The purpose of the camps was to find new prospects, help the veterans get into shape and to scrimmage local teams. The experiment did not catch on immediately, however. For the next twenty years, most teams trained locally simply because it was cheaper for owners. As time went on, however, and as owners realized that they could get players in shape and earn money at the same time, several teams held their Baseball Spring Training sessions on the road by combining pre-season workouts and scrimmages with road exhibition games.
By 1890, many teams were training and playing on the road during the month of March. However, training was not held at one centralized facility as it is today. Players traveled between train stops at night and played day games against local colleges, semi-pro teams and even other major league teams. Attendees flocked to these baseball preseason games because most of them were played in southern cities and towns that did not have their own professional teams. Fans knew this was their one chance all year to see pro baseball at its best. These traveling road shows were called “barnstorming tours” and went through most of Arkansas, Mississippi and Georgia.
Over the next twenty years, owners and players alike observed that teams who barnstormed made more money and were better prepared for the regular season. As a result, owners set up baseball spring training facilities throughout the South, mostly in Florida and Georgia, to serve as a home base to run their spring training operations. By 1910, there were established baseball preseason schedules, and by that time the majority of games were between major league teams. While teams still barnstormed back to their home cities in April, they no longer traveled the South as much during March.
It was about this time that writers started to call this makeshift preseason baseball competition the “Grapefruit League.” The Grapefruit League flourished from the 1920’s until today.
One team that did not play regularly in the Grapefruit League was the Chicago Cubs. They first trained in Santa Monica in 1905 and later played during the spring on California's Catalina Island between 1922 and 1942. Each year, the Cubs trained out west and then barnstormed home to Chicago to open the regular season. They started a trend that continues to grow to this day: spring training in the West. By 1947, the New York Giants and Cleveland Indians took up their spring residences in Phoenix and Tucson, respectively. In time, the Cubs and White Sox relocated to Arizona as well, and by the early 1950’s this mini-circuit was dubbed “The Cactus League” by baseball types.
Over the past fifty years, Baseball Spring Training has become an American institution and an annual rite of spring. Millions of baseball fans travel every year from all over the country to watch their favorite teams get ready for Opening Day in Arizona and Florida. Spring Training has also become a big business that is full of economic as well as baseball competition. In the past decade, four teams have been lured to Arizona from Florida because of financial incentives. In 2000, Las Vegas spoke with six different teams in an attempt to create a spring season of its own. All teams rejected the Las Vegas offers, but pre-season games have been played there, as well as in Mexico, Puerto Rico and Japan in the last decade.
If you're a baseball fan, here are links to more Baseball Primer articles that explain who invented baseball, the fastball, the curveball, the knuckleball, the screwball, the designated hitter, baseball uniforms and the ten greatest baseball teams of all time. Enjoy!
