Baseball in the Spring

Football season is over, and while basketball and hockey remain ever present, it is baseball that will now take center stage. Unlike any other sport, baseball’s “rites of spring” attract followers from the time pitchers and catchers report in mid-February to when the teams pack up and “head north” in late March.

I have been traveling to spring training camps since the early 1980s and while some things have changed, the romance of baseball in the spring looms large each and every season.

My attachment to spring training, however, began long before I actually started covering the Grapefruit and Cactus circuits. It began as a kid when I listened to games on the radio. Still today there is no better way to experience a baseball game than over the radio, especially when announcers such as Jimmy Dudley, Herb Score and Russ Hodges were behind the mike. Dudley and Score called games for the Cleveland Indians, the former being a Hall of Fame broadcaster and the latter a former major league pitcher.  Score became a broadcaster after his playing career was cut short when he was hit in the eye by a line drive off the bat of Yankee shortstop Gil McDougald.

Hi Corbett Field, long-time home of the Cleveland Indians and site of my first spring trainiing assignment

Hodges was another Hall of Famer and is most noted for his call of the Bobby Thompson home run (“The Giants win the pennant, the Giants win the pennant…”) which gave the New Yorkers the pennant in 1951. Hodges, the Giants announcer, would swap with Dudley during those spring games so Cleveland fans could hear his call, while Dudley did a few innings on Giants radio. What a treat for listeners in both markets.

The Indians trained at Hi Corbett Field in Tucson, Arizona at the time and little did I know that my first real spring training assignment would be in Arizona. I was writing for the old St. Louis Globe-Democrat at the time and was assigned to do a story on Davey Phillips, a stellar American League umpire. Not only was he cooperative when it came to the interview, we spent a solid two days together in Arizona with the last stop being, yes, Tucson. What a thrill to see Hi Corbett in person, to chat with Score, watch a first class umpire in action and have dinner with him later, talking about some of the finer points of his profession. I remember being with Davey at the legendary  La Cantina restaurant in Orlando hearing him describe the importance of positioning (15-20 feet away from first base and at a 90° angle from the throw), thinking ahead, being authoritative in voice and gesture—something he felt very strongly about. It was a real clinic on umpiring.

Every so often I was able to take one or all of my three sons with me to spring games. Probably my favorite spring training park was Dodgertown, one of the great spring training camps of all time. An abandoned Naval base, Dodgertown was the spring training home of the Brooklyn and L.A. Dodgers from 1948 through 2008. It was noted for its open-air dugouts and the easy access fans had to ball players. One year my middle son, David, saw Dave Winfield as he was headed for the club house after a Yankee-Dodger game. David McKillips intercepted Winfield and asked for an autograph. The future Hall of Famer was more than happy to oblige. At Dodgertown, you never knew when a star player would appear in your midst. It was that kind of place.

There were numerous encounters with broadcasters over the years. I have often written articles for the American Sportscasters Association and did spring training interviews with everyone from Milo Hamilton, the Hall of Famer who, regretfully, retired at the end of last season to Harry Kalas of the Phillies to Tom Hamilton the current voice the Indians.

Of course player interviews are a lot easier in spring training. John Smoltz would always give reporters plenty of time and a good education on some aspect of the art of pitching. I can remember him talking about keeping the delivery the same for each pitch to avoid tipping off a batter—just one of many of Smoltzie’s cardinal rules for pitchers imparted during an informal chat at the Braves complex.

 For younger players, spring training might be their first experience with the media. I remember Jason Heyward being particularly media-shy prior to his rookie season. He said very little following one of his early appearances at Disney, but has since matured and become one of the Braves real go-to guys after the game be it spring training or during the regular season.

Although many of the parks today are too commercial—including Disney’s Wide World of Sports where the Braves play--there are still a few of the originals around.. One is McKechnie Field in Bradenton, home to the Pittsburg Pirates. It has served as the Buccos home since 1923. Joker-Marchant Stadium in Lakeland is another vintage park, having served as the home of the Tigers since 1966. Overall the Tigers have been in Lakeland for 74 years.

Another gem is Hohokam Park in Mesa, the home of the Cubs and the place where Harry Caray reigned supreme over the years. You would often see him mingling with the fans. HoHoKam is the largest spring training park with a capacity of 12,900.

If you don’t mind the more modern look there’s Georg Steinbrenner’s Legends Field in Tampa, home of the Yankees; Surprise Stadium, home of the Royals and Rangers, in Surprise, Arizona; or Goodyear Stadium, home to both the Indians and the Cincinnati Reds in Goodyear, Arizona. Since some teams double up there are 24 parks from which to choose.

Regardless of where you go, however, there is nothing like baseball in the spring—where everything is new and memoires are created that will last a lifetime.