1917: Another Season in the Sun
The Phillies return despite not having any major league teams to play. The Cubs have left Tampa, the A’s are still mad and refuse to schedule, and the Braves are deemed too far down in Miami. The squad will play two games against Southern College and otherwise play games between themselves the rest of the spring. The Phillies arrive on March 9th to a large greeting audience. They are then loaded in cars and driven to the Edgewater Inn. 25 players come to camp and this spring Moran dictates that no women are to accompany players to town. Moran feels the players “…will work harder and better with no distractions.” The one exception was Jimmy Lavender. He had been acquired from the Cubs and was not informed of the policy prior to arriving here with his wife.
The added feature to camp with war on the horizon was that each team had to drill and learn to march properly. Instead of getting a military person on site to conduct the drills, it was decided that Gavvy Cravath and Garry Fortune, both with reserve experience, could lead the drills. Until military equipment arrived, they used bats for guns.
The outfielders’ legs were suffering as the outfield grass had grown more and more clumpy through the years. It was also a bit high for the outfielders’ liking. One day at lunch break, Dode Paskert decided to do something about it. The morning practice was cut 15 minutes short due to rain that cleared the area quickly. Paskert takes a box of matches to the outfield and begins lighting them. Some of the clumps do catch fire but most of the ground does not. The wind picks up and blows the fire over to and under the left field fence. The fence and some ground behind it caught fire. Shettsline, a fire chief in his hometown, organizes a bucket brigade. Dugey, who is also a volunteer fire fighter, finds an axe and cuts out the burning section of the fence. In about thirty minutes’ time the fires are extinguished.
The Phillies easily dispose of Southern College in both games to be awarded the mythical Florida West Coast championship for the 2nd consecutive year. The Regulars take most of the games from the Yannigans through the spring. The alteration here is that generally Moran had the top pitchers perform for the Yannigans against the starters and the pitchers lower in rank throw for the Regulars.
The only real other news was the potential recruitment of another team to the area. Although Al Lang denied it, Buck Herzog, a winter resident playing for the Giants, wrote a letter to his friend Bayard Cook saying that the Giants would be interested in training in the Bay area. The weather in Marlin, TX. has only offered three or four decent days to practice. Herzog said he recommended to Giant manager John McGraw that the Giants train down here. Cook said he filled Lang in on the contents of the letter. The Phillies though were expected to come back in ’18.
A couple of days later, it is published that prominent land owner Walter Fuller offered to build a practice field on the west side of town. No fences or bleachers were to be constructed and all of the teams games would be held at Coffee Pot. It was also reported that Phillies manager Moran had been in contact with two American League teams, the Red Sox and the Yankees about coming to the area also.
The Phillies depart on April 1. Not a single day of work was lost for the team. A few individual days may have lost to sunburn. The Phillies would win 87 games again good for second place. The Giants however, won 97 leaving the Phillies ten games behind in the standings. Despite threats of war and its uncertainty the Phillies did express their intention to return in ’18.
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