Under the March Sun: The Story of Spring Training (review)

Charles Fountain brings the history of baseball's annual rites of spring to life in the pages of his book, Under the March Sun: The Story of Spring Training. With this book, the history of spring training has been chronicled and the highlights and lowlights exposed. This is not a history book in the sense of a straight chronological recitation of events, although Fountain does follow a fairly chronological timeline; instead, he deals with major issues and events covering the period starting in the 1880s and completes the story in 2009.

Fountain begins by exploring the early traditions of spring training and refutes the persistent story that spring training began in the nineteenth century with Cap Anson taking his Chicago White Stockings to Hot Springs, Arkansas. He notes that the Cincinnati Reds and the Chicago White Stockings started their 1870 season in New Orleans and played several games in the south before heading north. Fountain gives Ned Hanlon credit for creating the modern concept of spring training due to his decision in the 1890s to take his Baltimore Orioles south to work on fundamentals and get in shape for the season.

Several themes are interwoven though the text: the reputation of early baseball players and how that changed during the 1920s due to the presence of Babe Ruth and other baseball greats; the role of racism in the South, particularly Florida, and how major-league teams reacted to racism after Jackie Robinson broke the color line in 1947; the ongoing struggles of Florida towns and cities to attract and keep major-league teams for spring training; and finally, the rise of other spring training locales, particularly Arizona and to a lesser extent the threat posed by Las Vegas.

By the 1920s, Florida had become a favored destination for major-league teams. There were still teams that went elsewhere in the south (Louisiana, Georgia, Texas, and California). Fountain notes that teams were rather peripatetic during this time until Al Lang in St. Petersburg, Florida, realized that it would be a great benefit for St. Petersburg to have a major-league team conduct their spring training in the city. In 1925, Lang convinced the New York Yankees to come to St. Petersburg, and a longstanding relationship was established. After the Yankees' decision to stay in St. Petersburg, other cities and towns in Florida began courting major-league teams.

The story of spring training would not be complete without a thorough discussion of the racism inflicted on black baseball players in the south during spring training. Fountain writes at length about the difficulties faced by players and teams in Florida following the integration of the major leagues in 1947. Noting that most major-league clubs were in the north and Midwest (St. Louis and Washington, D.C., being two of the southernmost teams), black players were faced with Jim Crow laws and racism unlike what they dealt with in the north. Black players were not allowed to stay at the same hotels with their white teammates, nor could they eat in the same restaurants. In some cases this treatment continued on until the early 1960s. Fountain skillfully relates the efforts of Wendell Smith, sportswriter for the Pittsburgh Courier, to help bring equal rights to spring training, just as Smith had lobbied for the inclusion of African Americans in the national pastime in the years prior to 1947.

Florida was never the only spring training site. Following World War II, a number of teams began looking west, especially to the Phoenix, Arizona, area for possible sites. Some teams would spend a few years training in Florida in the Grapefruit League, move to Arizona and the Cactus League, and then return to Florida. This provides Fountain a great opportunity to discuss the history of various machinations practiced, not only between towns and cities in Florida to have major-league teams locate their spring training in their town, but also the between Florida and Arizona for teams. He relates...