Spring training
Spring training, also called spring camp, is the preseason of the Summer Professional Baseball Leagues, such as Major League Baseball, and it is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for the roster and position spots, and it gives established players practice time prior to competitive play. Spring training has always attracted fan attention, drawing crowds who travel to the warm climates to enjoy the weather and watch their favorite teams play.
In modern MLB training, teams that train in Florida will play other Florida-training teams in their exhibition games, regardless of regular-season league affiliations. Likewise, Arizona-training teams will play other Arizona teams. This arrangement commenced long before either state received MLB franchises of their own, and thus at the time were widely considered "neutral" sites for preseason MLB play. All MLB teams each own or hold a long-term lease for a spring training ballpark distinct from their regular stadium. These facilities are typically comparable to the AAA-caliber ballparks of Minor League Baseball.
Sometimes, teams will finish the preseason with games in their home ballpark although with the introduction of interleague play this has become less common. Over time, the Florida and Arizona preseason circuits were informally nicknamed the Grapefruit League and Cactus League, respectively, after plants typical of the respective states. Both names have been trademarked by MLB.
In the case of the Asian Leagues, teams tend to follow a similar logic, but those teams more commonly will temporarily travel to play in another team's region during their spring camp, also, most still usually finish the pre-season in their home stadiums right before the season.
Spring training typically starts in February and continues until just before Opening Day of the regular season, which falls in late March or the first week of April. In some years, teams not scheduled to play on Opening Day will play spring training games that day. Pitchers and catchers report to spring training first because pitchers benefit from a longer training period. A few days later, position players arrive and team practice begins. Exhibition games, also called Open Games in the NPB, usually begin in late February.
MLB history
The New York Mutuals became perhaps the first baseball team to hold a spring training outside of their home when, in 1869, Boss Tweed sent the Mutuals south to New Orleans to prepare for the season. In the 1870s, several clubs began following the example set by the Mutuals by training in warmer climates. New Orleans was a popular location for spring training in the 19th century but teams also trained in Washington, D.C.; Savannah, Georgia; and Cape May, New Jersey, among other locations. In 1888, the Washington Nationals became the first club to hold spring training in Florida. The practice was not universally adopted, however. Critics including Cap Anson argued that players would be more prone to sore muscles and colds after returning to their colder home climates.Hot Springs, Arkansas
Spring training by major league teams in sites other than their regular season game sites first became popular in the 1890s and by 1910 was in wide use. Hot Springs, Arkansas, has been called the original "birthplace" of spring training baseball. The location of Hot Springs and the concept of getting the players ready for the upcoming season was the brainchild of Chicago White Stockings team President Albert Spalding and Cap Anson. In 1886, the White Stockings traveled to Hot Springs to prepare for the upcoming season. After holding spring training at the Hot Springs Baseball Grounds, the White Stockings went on to have a successful season and other teams took notice. In subsequent years other teams joined Chicago and began holding spring training in Hot Springs, leading to the first spring training games. The Cleveland Spiders, Detroit Tigers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds, Brooklyn Dodgers, and Boston Red Sox followed the White Stockings to Hot Springs. Whittington Field/Ban Johnson Park, Majestic Park, and Fogel Field were all built in Hot Springs to host Major League teams.File:Babe Ruth Red Sox 1918.jpg|thumb|right|Babe Ruth hit a home run in spring training, 1918. He led the league with 11 home runs and had a 13–7 record as the Red Sox won the 1918 World Series.
Famously, on St. Patrick's Day in 1918, a successful young pitcher for the Red Sox named Babe Ruth was forced to play an emergency game at first base in a spring training game against Pittsburgh. This game possibly changed the course of baseball history, as it was the first time Ruth had ever played any position other than pitcher. Ruth responded by hitting two home runs that day in Hot Springs, with the second being a shot that landed across the street from Whittington Park in a pond of the Arkansas Alligator Farm and Petting Zoo. The Red Sox took notice and soon Ruth was playing the field more often. Over 130 Major League Baseball Hall of Famers, including Ruth, Anson, Cy Young, Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Walter Johnson, Rogers Hornsby, Mel Ott, Dizzy Dean, Jimmie Foxx, and Stan Musial, trained in Hot Springs. The First Boys of Spring is a 2015 documentary about Hot Springs Spring Training. The film was narrated by actor Billy Bob Thornton, an area native, and produced by filmmaker Larry Foley. The documentary began airing nationally on the MLB Network in February 2016.
Early training sites include the St. Louis Cardinals in Hot Springs and Tulsa, Oklahoma; the New York Yankees in Bermuda, New Orleans, and later Phoenix, Arizona, when the team was owned by Del Webb; the Chicago Cubs in Los Angeles when owned by William Wrigley Jr.; the St. Louis Browns and later the Kansas City Athletics in San Diego and then in West Palm Beach, Florida; the Pittsburgh Pirates in Dawson Springs, Kentucky around 1915 and Honolulu, while other teams joined in by the early 1940s. The Detroit Tigers are credited with being the first team to conduct spring training camp in Arizona. They trained in Phoenix at Riverside Park at Central Avenue and the Salt River in 1929.
Founding of the Grapefruit League
The Philadelphia Phillies were the first of the major-league teams to train in Florida, when they spent two weeks in Jacksonville, Florida in 1889. Spring training in Florida began in earnest in 1913, when the Chicago Cubs trained in Tampa and the Cleveland Indians in Pensacola. One year later, two other teams moved to Florida for spring training, the real start of the Grapefruit League. Except for a couple of years during World War II, when travel restrictions prevented teams from training south of the Potomac and Ohio Rivers, Florida hosted more than half of the spring training teams through 2009. Since 2010, major league teams have been equally divided between Arizona and Florida during spring training, with 15 teams in Florida and 15 teams in Arizona. All but six of the major league teams have gone to spring training in Florida at one time or another. Many of the most famous players in baseball history have called Florida home for four to six weeks every spring.Founding of the Cactus League
According to the autobiography of former Cleveland Indians owner Bill Veeck, the avoidance of racism was one reason the Cactus League was established. In 1947, Veeck was the owner of the minor league Milwaukee Brewers and the team trained in Ocala, Florida. Veeck inadvertently sat in the Black section of the segregated stands and engaged in conversation with a couple of fans. According to Veeck's book, the local law enforcement told Veeck he could not sit in that section, and then called the Ocala mayor when Veeck argued back. The mayor finally backed down when Veeck threatened to take his team elsewhere for spring training and promised to let the country know why.Veeck sold the Brewers in 1945 and temporarily retired to a ranch in Tucson, Arizona, but purchased the Cleveland Indians in 1946. Intending to introduce African-American players, Veeck decided to buck tradition and train the Indians in Tucson and convinced the New York Giants to give Phoenix a try. Thus the Cactus League was born. In 1947, Veeck signed Larry Doby to the Indians. Doby was the second African-American to play MLB in the 20th century, and the first in the American League.
Arizona had eight teams in the Cactus League in, with the other eighteen in Florida. By, the split was even, with 15 teams training in each location.
Other spring training sites
While Florida and Arizona host all Major League Baseball teams for spring training, this has not always been the case. Especially in the early 20th century, baseball clubs did not build facilities dedicated to spring training and would use local facilities in various cities, sometimes changing spring training sites on an annual basis. The Cleveland Indians, for example, held spring training in seven different cities – including New Orleans, Dallas, and Macon, Georgia – between 1902 and 1922. This was not uncommon at the time.The New York Giants likely built the first "permanent" spring training facility in Marlin, Texas. The Giants trained in Marlin from 1908 to 1918 and built Emerson Park and adjacent parks for spring training activities. The city of Marlin deeded the land to the ballclub. During World War II, most teams held an abbreviated spring training within easy reach of their cities. In order to conserve rail transport during the war, 1943's Spring Training was limited to an area east of the Mississippi River and north of the Ohio River. The Chicago White Sox held camp in French Lick, Indiana; the Washington Senators in College Park, Maryland; and the New York Yankees in Asbury Park, New Jersey.
After World War II, some teams trained outside of the United States. The Brooklyn Dodgers trained in Havana, Cuba in 1947 and 1949, and in the Dominican Republic in 1948. The New York Yankees also trained in the early 1950s in Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Spring training camps and games were also held in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and northern Mexico, sometimes by visiting major league teams in the 1950s and 1960s.
Before and shortly after big league baseball reached the West Coast, a number of teams trained in the state of California or along the state line. The Chicago Cubs trained on Catalina Island in the 1920s, '30s, and '40s. Early in their history, the then-California Angels held spring training in Palm Springs, California from 1961 to 1993, the San Diego Padres in Yuma, Arizona from 1969 to 1993, the Oakland Athletics in Las Vegas, Nevada in the 1970s, and other major league teams had trained in El Centro, Riverside, and San Bernardino.