Big-league teams are already playing games at training camps in Florida and Arizona.
Players essentially report one day and play a game the next. In the old days, the routine was very different. The ball club owned the facility in many cases, underwrote the costs, and didn’t worry about expenses all that much. The ball players arrived and eased into their workout routines. Now, they report ready to compete. (Originally, spring training was designed for players to dry out after a winter of hard drinking.)
With escalating salaries creating millionaires of half or more of each team, there was a move by management to make spring training a profit center.
The teams began playing games right away while expecting local municipalities to build, develop, and maintain the facilities.
Leasing facilities for a modest fee seems to be the way to go these days, but you will find a lot of dissenters who oppose the multimillion-dollar development costs of providing classy facilities for teams – especially for such a limited number of games in March.
The preferred model at one time was the concept of Dodgertown, the classy spring training facility at Vero Beach, Florida.
By taking the pioneering step to integrate baseball, meant there would be the challenge of finding accommodations for Brooklyn’s minority players, such as Jackie Robinson.
Walter O’Malley, the Dodgers owner, purchased a one-time military base on the edge of town, which solved the problem. Or at least for the most part, as players roomed in the old barracks built for the servicemen. The Dodgers took their meals on the property (many restaurants in Vero would not serve black players) and could use any bathroom onsite.
Everyone could even take a dip in the swimming pool, too, if they liked. There was also a golf course on the property and the black players were free to get up a game, same as the rest of the team.
As the proliferation of black players took place within teams, Jim Crow laws became compromised all across Florida. (Funny how economics can affect the way people think.)
The preponderance of the baseball teams trained in Florida before integration emerged across the country. The economy of the state was important, but more and more teams, as baseball expanded, relocated to Arizona for spring training, where there were not that many stringent Jim Crow laws to contend with.
These days, half of the teams train in Florida and the other half in Arizona. The Arizona teams are all in the Phoenix area in 10 different locations, but the one thing you have to manage when you are in Arizona is the traffic. (Although, if you want to experience the ultimate in traffic jams, try crossing the causeway into Clearwater sometime to see a game hosted by the Phillies and Blue Jays.)
Fortunately, the roads are good in Phoenix, especially the Interstates; however, the traffic congestion is like trying to get through mid-morning Atlanta. It is bumper-to-bumper bad. Of course, being stuck in traffic anywhere becomes an abomination for anyone afflicted with any degree of impatience.
I don’t get to Phoenix often but even when time allows for a spring training visit to Cactus League games, I still prefer Florida. Naturally, it is closer and there is more familiarity with the people and the geography.
There are golf options galore in both states, but Florida’s courses are more appealing with palm trees and lakes, rather than the rocks and cactus that prevail in Arizona.
Of course, if you don’t play golf, you can get your fill of fishing options. I remember snookfishing one morning with a former Georgia football player who lived at Ft. Myers Beach. The snook was biting, and believe me, they are a handful when you hook one. But hooking an angry snook will give you the greatest of thrills.
Then, after a nice outing on Greene Kelner’s boat, the next stop was a Red Sox game. How nice.
Ft. Myers can offer a baseball fan two great options today. You have the Red Sox, whose spring training ballpark is identical to the dimensions of Fenway Park in Boston.
And, from Jet Blue Park to the Minnesota Twins spring training site, Hammond Stadium, is roughly six miles, which is why American League fans flock to Ft. Myers for a couple of months of baseball, golf, and fishing.
I want to do that someday.