As in the Spring of 2020 Major League Baseball (MLB), like everyone else, contemplates an uncertain future, perhaps it is an appropriate time to consider baseball’s long past in Florida.  Even non-fans know there is a tradition of Spring Training around the Sunshine State, but it turns out that is a fairly recent development, only becoming widespread after 1915 or so .

  Baseball evolved from several early stick-and-ball games to something like the game we know now before the American Civil War. All you really needed was a stick, a ball, a field and a bunch of guys who wanted to play. It began with local clubs who would play after work and on weekends. Neighborhood rivalries grew into inter-city rivalries. Professional teams developed and by the 1850s baseball was dubbed “The National Pastime.”

                          Florida Memory

  In the post Civil War years the game in Florida echoed the earlier national development. There were clubs in the ‘big cities’ like Orlando, posing in 1888,

                   Florida Memory

and in little ones, like Quincy, Gadsden County west of Tallahassee, posing in 1890.

  There is not much action in the photographic record from this period; mainly they are shots of athletic youngish men standing around looking tough or at least unintimidated by the camera.

After all, how tough can you be when your team sports names like the Bartow Polkers (1919-20 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartow_Polkers ) and the Sanford Celeryfeds (1919 -1960, on and off and  with different names-  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanford_Greyhounds)?

                    Florida Memory

  Even when the major-league teams, like the 1899 Baltimore Orioles, began practicing in Florida and posing for team pictures they featured the look of slightly bored aggression.

                     Florida Memory

  If you wanted action, even posed action, you could find it in the images of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League ( https://baseballhall.org/discover-more/stories/baseball-history/league-of-women-ballplayers ) who played and practiced in Florida from 1943 to 1954.

                    Florida Memory

  Another missing element is diversity. While African Americans were playing the game almost as long as white Americans (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negro_league_baseball ) the earliest photo to turn up in a cursory search of the state photo archives of a game by non whites is dated to 1950.

  Of the images in the collection of the Library of Florida History referenced in this episode’s segment with Ben Dibiase (https://myfloridahistory.org/frontiers/radio/program/381 ) one captures an element that made Florida attractive for teams in the off-season - tourists looking for something to do.

  That combination of good weather and an audience willing to watch exhibition games took a while to sink in, but by the 1920s training seasons were a fact of life in Florida, and by the 1950s teams were regular fixtures in several cities.

  These 1955 pre-opening photos of the Jack Russell Stadium in Clearwater are emblematic of that relationship. It could seat 4700 people when it opened, on wooden benches and folding metal chairs.

  The locker rooms may have been spacious, but hardly ‘major league’.  Still, it was the spring training home of the Philadelphia Phillies through 2003.

  The facilities may have been Spartan, but a game is a game, major league players are always fun to watch and there are other traditions to follow...  like watching a game for free over the wall of Al Lang Stadium in St. Pete. It was likely the same 100 years ago.