Spring Training in Indiana? It Happened and in More Unusual Places, too!

Florida and Arizona Have Not Always Been Spring Training Centers

While all thirty major league baseball teams currently train in either Arizona or Florida that was certainly not always the case. As recently as 1992 the Angels trained in Palm Springs, California, but since then everyone has stayed in either Florida or Arizona.


The latest trend has more teams leaving Florida for Arizona. For years there were twice as many clubs in Florida. Now the difference is down to four.


Earlier this week I wrote of the many Texas cities that once hosted major league teams in the spring. Marlin Springs hosted the Giants for eleven years and San Antonio had several teams train over the years. A total of 33 camps were held in the Alamo city, most of any Texas town. Only the Cubs and Dodgers never trained in Texas.


This state was hardly the only one other than Arizona and Florida to welcome the major leaguers. During the World War II years when travel was restricted there were some unusual choices. Most clubs found the closest locations to their home cities that had gyms or field houses for indoor work.


The Braves, then based in Boston, trained in Wallingford, CT in 1943 and 1944 and in Washington, DC the next year. The Cubs went down to Larry Bird’s hometown—French Lick, Indiana. The Reds trained at Indiana University in Bloomington. It was there that head groundkeeper Matty Schwab discovered a big football player who could hit the ball a mile. The Reds were happy he did. The player was Ted Kluszewski who would star for the Reds in the 50s and hit 40 or more home runs twice.


The Brooklyn Dodgers went upstate to the Bear Mountain Resort in New York. The Phillies set up camp in nearby Wilmington, Delaware and the Pirates went all the way to Muncie, Indiana.


The St. Louis Cardinals crossed the Mississippi and worked out at Cairo, Illinois while the American League Browns used Cape Girardeau, Missouri just a few miles away.


The New York Giants trained during the war in nearby Lakewood, New Jersey while the Yankees tried both Asbury Park and Atlantic City. In fact, in 1945 the Red Sox also moved to Atlantic City from Medford, Massachusetts. That would have made a great opportunity for Joe and Dom DiMaggio of the Yankees and Red Sox respectively to get together. Alas, both were serving in the U.S. military and not in camp for a reunion.


The Chicago White Sox, like the Cubs tried French Lick for a couple of springs then moved on to Terre Haute, Indiana in 1945. The Indians stayed in Indiana as well by using Purdue University’s field house as home and the Detroit Tigers were also part time Hoosiers when they trained in Evansville. The original Washington Senators trained just a few miles from home on the campus of the University of Maryland at College Park. The Philadelphia A’s used both Wilmington, Delaware and Frederick Maryland.


During World War II Indiana hosted more teams than any other state which might win some bar bets. Only Florida, Arizona and Texas have hosted more.


Yet, before Florida and Arizona claimed major league baseball a number of other widely disparate locations had teams working out in advance of the season.


Hot Springs, Arkansas was popular. So was New Orleans and several cities in the Carolinas, Georgia and California. Three teams trained on islands. The Cubs were a fixture on Catalina Island off the California coast when William Wrigley owned it. The Pittsburgh Pirates once trained in Honolulu, Hawaii. The Dodgers call two islands spring homes—Cuba and the Dominican Republic. In 1947 and 1948 much of the reason was because the club was integrating and living conditions were more favorable.


When major league baseball moved into Florida and Arizona neither state had major league baseball. Spring training has gotten bigger and better even so. The days of Indiana and New Jersey serving as substitute spring homes is a foot note from the past and won’t likely ever happen again.