St. Petersburg, Florida, has a rich baseball history, with its roots dating back to 1914. The city’s warm weather made it an ideal location for spring training, and it was here that the Grapefruit League was born.
Early Days of Spring Training
Coffee Pot Boulevard in St. Petersburg was once the site of Florida’s very first baseball field of dreams. Historian Peter Golenbock explained that former Mayor Al Lang successfully lobbied executive Branch Rickey to bring the St. Louis Browns to the city in 1914. Lang wanted teams to avoid practicing in freezing northern winter weather.
Other cities quickly joined, with former Tampa Mayor DB McKay paying $100 per player to lure the Chicago Cubs to Plant Field. The Cubs trained at the current site of The University of Tampa. Early games also sprouted up with the St. Louis Cardinals in St. Augustine and the Philadelphia A’s in Jacksonville.
Florida Tourism Boom
The ultimate triumph for the region came when the New York Yankees arrived. The iconic franchise trained in Jacksonville in 1919 before shifting to St. Petersburg from 1925 until 1961. Journalist Craig Pittman called this the greatest marketing technique for state tourism because northern newspapers printed endless reports with local datelines.
Intimate stadiums, low stakes, and near-perfect weather helped the Grapefruit League expand significantly, experiencing only three rainouts in its latest season. The league features 15 teams across 13 stadiums, with 10 based directly along the Gulf Coast.
Original reporting: Tampa Bay Florida News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
