Joe Henderson
Kids in my hometown of Lebanon, Ohio, during the 1960s would grow up as fans of the Cincinnati Reds. There wasn’t any way around it. Baseball also exposed us to Tampa and the enchanted land that was named Florida. The Reds went there every February for spring training.
Tampa looked like a magical place, mostly because sunshine replaced the blankets of gray clouds we were used to every day. People actually wore shirt sleeves outside in February. And as I bundled up in a heavy coat and gloves to venture out into ice and snow, Tampa’s warm weather seemed awfully appealing.
I really wanted to go there, never dreaming I would make a career out of covering sports in Tampa, especially baseball.
Well, that was a long time ago, but I’m sure over the decades that spring training in Florida has triggered similar emotions in countless others. I mean, it was 12 degrees last Friday in Lebanon. Friends from there have been sharing pictures of blizzards that have hit this winter.
The start of spring training gives hope to my northern friends that warm days will eventually return there.
Yeah, in baseball, there’s a lot of hope mixed with nostalgia.
In Florida, though, it’s no game. It’s big business and vital to communities where teams come to get ready for the long season. According to the Florida Sports Foundation, spring training had a $687.1 million impact on the state last year.
People escaping the cold, frozen North book more hotel rooms and fill restaurants.
The New York Yankees averaged 9,882 fans for 16 exhibition games in Tampa, the highest per-game average. The Boston Red Sox attracted 165,688 fans for 17 games in Fort Myers.
And where the Reds of my youth trained at rickety old Al Lopez Field, since demolished, the spring training complexes of today costing amounts that couldn’t be imagined even 15 years ago.
The Atlanta Braves, for instance, will move full-time next spring into CoolToday Park in North Port. It cost more than $110 million to build.
Clearwater city officials are working with the Philadelphia Phillies on a $79 million upgrade to Spectrum Field.
The Toronto Blue Jays expect to complete by next year an $81 million upgrade to Dunedin Stadium and the team’s Englebert training complex. The team will pay only $20 million of that cost, plus overruns.
The original stadium opened in 1990 and cost $2.4 million.
Why are cities willing to pay so much to keep an industry that stays only a few weeks every spring? Because even in that brief time, baseball has a significant impact. The Florida Sports Foundation estimated spring training generated more than $296 million last year in direct spending.
This spring should be more of the same.
With every report of ice and snow blanketing northern cities, the likelihood of baseball fans trying to escape those frigid climes increases. What better way to do that than a trip to Florida?
Trades are part of baseball, right?
So, people trade snowbanks for shirtsleeves and box seats. They swap iced-over rivers and streams for sunny afternoons at the ballpark. Baseball gloves replace fur-lined gloves.
All it takes to draw them here is those magic words: pitchers and catchers report.
Play ball.
