Although Spring Training has left St. Petersburg for Port Charlotte and other venues, those magical March games played an instrumental part in the growth of the Sunshine City.
Starting with the arrival of the St. Louis Browns in 1914, who played in basically a sandlot field in the Coffee Pot area, St. Petersburg experienced 100 years of professional baseball on our waterfront and transformed us into a baseball town. When the New York Yankees arrived in 1925, baseball fans from Boston to Chicago were introduced to our warm, sunny paradise. The Phillies, Braves, Cardinals, Mets and Orioles later joined the party.
As the city's baseball reputation grew, civic leaders moved forward on constructing a baseball stadium on our waterfront, opening Waterfront Park in 1922. Eventually, a dated Waterfront Park made way for Al Lang Field in 1947 and later Al Lang Stadium, named after the former mayor who is credited for playing a major role in the arrival of Major League Baseball to St. Pete.
From the St. Petersburg Museum of History. To learn more, visit spmoh.com
