Tiger Town: Spring Training, 1966

In March, as my departure for my first spring training approached, I was of two minds. I was eager to see what spring training would be like and proud to be going off to Florida to play professional baseball. But I was also unsure of myself after not putting up very good numbers in Jamestown (New York-Penn League) during my rookie season. My confidence had been further shaken that winter when Detroit sent me my new contract with a 5 percent cut in salary. I boarded the plane wondering if I really had the talent to make it in pro ball. Nonetheless, I was determined to work my tail off and do whatever I could to show them—coaches, scouts, and the front office—that I had what it took. During the flight I wrote in my journal, I’m going to give it everything, my best shot, and whatever happens happens. I knew there would be more players in spring camp than roster spots and that many would be released before the new season even started.

For six weeks, from late February until the opening of the new season, Florida and Arizona were the center of the baseball universe. Nine of the sixteen major-league organizations trained in Florida; a map I saved from a local newspaper showed all the training complexes. On the Atlantic coast were the Orioles (Miami), Yankees (Fort Lauderdale), Senators (Pompano Beach), Braves (West Palm), Dodgers (Vero Beach), and Astros (Cocoa Beach). Inland in central Florida were the Twins (Orlando), Red Sox (Winter Haven), and Tigers (Lakeland). On the Gulf Coast were the Reds (Tampa) and Cardinals (St. Petersburg).

Today, only the Detroit Tigers still train in the same town. In fact, the Tigers have been in Lakeland every year since 1934, giving them the longest relationship with a spring-training host city of any major-league organization. Not only have all the others moved, usually wooed away by other towns’ offers of new taxpayer-subsidized complexes, but many have relocated to Arizona— moving from the Grapefruit League to the Cactus League. Today, half of baseball’s thirty major-league clubs train in Arizona.

Baseball spring-training camps helped put Florida and Arizona on the map. While most fans today think spring training has always taken place in one of these two sunshine states, this isn’t so. In the late nineteenth century, most clubs trained at their home park for one or two weeks before the season; when it rained or snowed, they worked out indoors or under the stands. The first teams to head south to warm weather were the Chicago White Stockings and the New York Mutuals, who trained in New Orleans in 1870. At that time, spring training sites were selected on a year-to-year basis. In the mid-1880s, several teams began training regularly in Hot Springs, Arkansas, which remained a favorite for several decades. It wasn’t until 1911 when the Pittsburgh Pirates moved their training camp to St. Petersburg that Florida hosted its first major-league team. A decade later, Florida had become the preeminent spring-training site. Arizona didn’t enter the picture until the late 1940s when the Cleveland Indians and New York Giants set up training bases in the desert.

I arrived at Tiger Town, Detroit’s spring-training complex, on Thursday, March 10, 1966, after traveling all night. The receptionist issued me a Detroit Tigers id card, gave me a schedule of meal and workout times, and assigned me to room thirty-four in the barracks. I found it, dropped my gear, and then reported to the clubhouse where the clubbie, George Popovich, issued me a uniform: number 87. With so many players in camp, uniform numbers ran into the high 90s—more like football than baseball. All uniforms were hand-me-downs from the big club. The only thing that distinguished each of the camp’s six teams or squads was the color of our socks. The rookie-league team wore pea-soup green. Class aa Montgomery had maroon, but the best was Class aaa Syracuse, who wore the same...