Loran - Smith

Loran

With spring training underway, there is that itch to pack up the car and head South to the Sunshine State and spend a fortnight visiting the bigleague training camps on both coasts. For years, the preponder ance of teams trained in Florida. With most of the original big league teams being located east of the Mississippi River, it made sense to hold spring training where there were citrus strongholds.

Only the Chicago Cubs chose to differ. Chicago trained in Santa Monica as early as 1905, and then chose Catalina Island for its training camp from 1922-1942. Then again in 195051.

In 1947 Bill Veeck, owner of the Indians, took his team to Tucson for spring training, and Horace Stoneham organized spring training for his New York Giants in Phoenix. Both owners owned property in the Phoenix and Tucson areas.

This was a forerunner of the Giants moving to the West Coast permanently following the Dodgers, who moved the same year to Los Angeles—but kept returning to Vero Beach, Fla. for spring training.

Now there are 15 major league teams in each state, which seems to be the way baseball’s hierarchy wants it. You hear about the short distances big league teams are required to negotiate in the Greater Phoenix area— but what they don’t tell you is that while the distances are shorter, you can spend a lot of time sitting in bumper- to-bumper traffic when you move about in Phoenix.

Still, it is better than what you experience in Florida where the distances are much greater, which is why the Braves were anxious to leave the Wide World of Sports complex at Disney and move 140 miles south to Northport Florida.

There are five big league parks within 40 miles of Northport, which is about as good as it gets—comparable to driving 26 miles across Phoenix in heavy traffic from Mesa to Glendale.

One of the worst traffic challenges is getting over the causeway from Tampa to Clearwater (Phillies) and Dunedin (Blue Jays); and when you cross the state from Northport to Jupiter (Cardinals and Marlins), it is 161 miles, so you don’t see a lot of games between East Coast Florida teams and teams on the West side.

Many fans, those who don’t own a Gulfstream jet or a King Air prop, find a budget motel and stay in Florida for four to six weeks, playing golf or fishing in the morning and watching baseball in the afternoon.

There is an abundance of golf courses throughout Florida, and if you opt for fishing, you can have the time of your life reeling in a big snook or a tarpon, although March is not always the best time for tarpon. continued from page

The ball parks at spring training are packed, in a cozy and relaxed setting which is refreshing and downright uplifting emotionally. It is as much fun to sing baseball’s anthem, “Take me out to the ball game,” as it is when you attend a regular season matchup when every game counts.

Tim Hyers, the Covington native, who is the new hitting coach for the Braves, likes the Atlanta lineup. “If we stay healthy, we can compete,” he says.

Already, most soothsayers are considering the Dodgers to be shooins to win the National League pennant and repeat as World Series champions.

The talk of baseball now is that the Dodgers have such talented depth, they look invincible. With all the deferred compensation contracts coming about, which has become controversial, the L.A. brass has recognized that with 24 million Asians living on the West Coast, the Japanese players are immensely popular.

They can take a lowball salary, say a million or two, and make millions in endorsements. Then when their skills begin to wane, late in their career, the deferred money kicks in. It is a very clever arrangement, but will the Commissioner allow this deferred practice to continue?