Connor: Florida rich with baseball's history

Celebrating Grapefruit League's 125th anniversary with trip to Florida's most unique sites

Chris Trotman / Getty Images

Members of the St. Louis Cardinals run prior to a Grapefruit League game against the Mets at Tradition Field in Port St. Lucie, Fla.

By Joe Connor

updated 4:16 a.m. ET March 27, 2013

SARASOTA, Fla. - Painted largely in bright orange against a base-colored wall behind the seats in a concourse down the right-field line at Ed Smith Stadium, Major League Baseball spring training home of the Baltimore Orioles, you find an eye-catching mural featuring ?The Oriole Bird,? the teams? long-time mascot.

With two feather hands on the wheel and a lone palm tree in the rear, the colorful mascot is nestled comfortably in a slick, four-wheeled automobile ? with no top. An arrow from the caboose points directly to a map of the State of Florida, with a pennant highlighting all the nearby MLB teams? spring training sites under a large banner that beckons, ?Did Somebody Say Roadtrip??

This year marks the 125^th anniversary of spring training in the Sunshine State, a tradition that started informally just 43 years after Florida officially became a state in the union, when, in 1888, the now-defunct Washington Capitals of the National League held a four-day camp in Jacksonville during which time they also got clobbered by the New York (now San Francisco) Giants, 10-2, thereby marking the first spring training game in the state. Catcher Connie Mack played on the Capitals, as did outfielder William ?Dummy? Hoy, notable for being deaf, which resulted in the creation of hand signals that are standard in baseball today.

As a recently completed 24-day road trip to all the current and former spring training sites throughout Grapefruit country revealed, Florida literally is a living history museum to the game of baseball. Arguably, no other geographic region in world has as much tradition in such a concentrated area, and it?s no surprise why. Of the 30 MLB teams, only six have never held spring training here, and five of those clubs are expansion franchises located in the west (Angels, Padres, Mariners, Rockies and Diamondbacks). In fact, the Brewers are the only MLB franchise based east of the Mississippi River never to train in Florida, but they also were originally known as the northwestern-most expansion Seattle Pilots. Put another way: every player inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame took to fields in Florida, with more than 40 cities across the Sunshine State having hosted MLB spring training at one point or another, from the big leaguers to their minor-league counterparts, over the past 125 years.

Baseball history oozes here as much as freshly squeezed orange juice and grapefruit. While 15 MLB and minor-league teams currently train in the state and encompass today?s Grapefruit League, more than a dozen former spring training sites ? several dating back to the early 1900s ? remain in use, appropriately by amateur teams comprised of the next generation of ballplayers, with four even listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

Monuments, plaques and markers to the game dot Florida?s landscape, which currently also is home to several museums chronicling baseball and spring training history here, from the Ybor City Museum in Tampa to the Elliott Museum in Stuart to the Sports Immortals Museum in Boca Raton to the Florida Sports Hall of Fame and Museum in Auburndale and the Ted Williams Museum and Hitters Hall of Fame in St. Petersburg. And, coming in 2014, a permanent baseball exhibit to the St. Petersburg Museum of History, plus the Al Lopez Museum in Tampa to honor its first native Hall-of-Famer. What?s more, countless quaint historical societies abound statewide, from Jacksonville to Miami and Tampa to Sanford, with artifacts and memorabilia telling the story of Florida?s rich spring training history.

At Avon Park?s Depot Museum, there?s the 24-pound, 52-inch bat presented by its citizens to Babe Ruth in 1928. Behind the fence at the ballpark that hosted St. Louis? ?Gas House Gang? is a road named Ruth Street in honor of one of the Bambino?s monstrous homers upon visiting the Cards. The park is used today by the local high school.

Down the road in Sebring, a marking on the right-field fence of Fireman?s Field commemorates the first home run hit there ? by Lou Gehrig. Sebring?s ballpark is also used today by amateurs. Tucked nearly in a manila folder at the Orange County Regional History Center in downtown Orlando is an original letter from the Giants to Sanford?s Ben Cantwell in January 1928, noting his spring training reporting date and location, as well as contract for the season, a raise of $250.00 per month from the previous season in which he made $500.00 monthly. The letter informs the pitcher that Giants manager John McGraw "prefer that you not bring your wife? and ?be sure to have a bathrobe and slippers with you.? Oh, the stories this state can tell. In Jacksonville, Palatka and Daytona, the ballparks in each of these cities continue to stand the test of time ? and teach valuable history lessons, including about the era of segregation.

Florida towns like Bartow, Davenport, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Pierce, Gainesville, Hollywood, Jupiter, Key Biscayne, Kissimmee, Lake Buena Vista, Miami, Miami Beach, Ocala, Orlando, Palmetto, Pensacola, Pompano Beach, Port Charlotte, Port Saint Lucie, St. Augustine, Viera, West Palm Beach, Winter Garden and Winter Haven have hosted baseball?s greats during spring training, either years ago or currently. And even today, former MLB or minor-league spring training sites in Miami Beach, Ocala and Winter Haven are still being used in one form or another by amateur clubs. But they?re not in the top 20 of Florida?s baseball towns. Pack your sunglasses, sunscreen and let?s ride through Florida spring training history, from Jacksonville to Homestead, to uncover the 20 most historic and unique sites that still live on today. They?re symbols of pride, perseverance and tenacity ? living, breathing testaments to baseball history in the Sunshine State.

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