Under the March Sun: The Story of Spring Training

336 Pages·2009·0.97 MB·english

by  Charles Fountain

UNDER THE MARCH SUN
This page intentionally left blank
UNDER THE
MARCH SUN
THE STORY OF SPRING TRAINING
CHARLES FOUNTAIN
1
2009
1
Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further
Oxford University’s objective of excellence
in research, scholarship, and education.
Oxford New York
Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi
New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto
With offi ces in
Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece
Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore
South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam
Copyright © 2009 by Charles Fountain
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
www.oup.com
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fountain, Charles.
Under the March sun : the story of spring training / Charles Fountain.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-537203-8
1. Spring training (Baseball) I. Title.
GV875.6.F69 2009
796.357'64—dc22 2008052713
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
for bob and betsy
No father has ever been more proud.
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Prologue: Under the March Sun 1
1. Myths, Madcaps, and Misbehavior:
Spring Training in the Nineteenth
Century 10
2. St. Petersburg’s Mr. Baseball 22
3. Spring Training Takes Root 35
4. A Sportswriter Helps to End Separate
but Hardly Equal 49
5. Mr. O’Malley’s Dodgertown 67
6. The Bottom Line Crowds Out
the Box Score 78
7. Red Sox Nation Flies South 89
8. “Let the Tourists Put in Their
Two Cents” 102
9. Changing the Dynamic:
Lee County and the Twins 115
10. Fields of Broken Dreams 127
11. Breathing Braves Air 147
12. The Chief Big Ho and Car Rentals:
The Cactus League Comes of Age 163
13. How the Dodgers Almost Left
Vero Beach the First Time 177
14. The Oasis League: Las Vegas
Ups the Ante 190
15. A Tale of Three Cities 205
16. St. Pete Bids Spring Training Adieu 222
17. Camelback Ranch 233
18. Bottom of the Ninth in Vero Beach 244
Epilogue:“Go Team, Go!” 253
Appendix:Major League Baseball Spring
Training Sites, 1901–Present 261
Acknowledgments 275
Selected Bibliography 279
Source Notes 283
Index 313
viii • CONTENTS
Under the March Sun