Tag: Spring Training
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The 99th Year of Spring Training in Clearwater is Complete
This article appeared in the Clearwater Historical Society, Spring 2026 Newsletter When the Philadelphia Phillies left the city at the end of March, it marked the end of 99 years of professional baseball teams training in Clearwater. It has not been 99 consecutive years though. Four franchises, three of them major league have made their…
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Coffee Pot Ballpark Part 4
Deciding on a Location Back in the winter of 2024 the chapter decided to pursue a project of putting together a trolley tour of the spring training sites that existed in Pinellas County. First, we would need to do some research. SABR’s Spring Training Research Committee seemed like a good place to start. The committee…
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MLB Players Born in the Region
The Top 10 by WAR The Tampa Bay region has been the birthplace of 195 major league players thus far. This number includes a handful of Negro League players added to the rolls this year (2024) by MLB as well as a handful from Pasco and Hernando counties. Thus far three Hall of Famers were…
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Spring Training in the Region
In the Beginning… While Spring Training made it to Florida (Jacksonville) in 1888, it did not reach central and west Florida until 1913. The reason? Transportation. The East Coast teams had a choice of taking a steamer or a train to Jacksonville while inland teams could get there via train. Neither way was practical below…