Officially spring arrives on today at precisely 1:26 P.M. EST, the Sun will cross directly over the Earth’s equator. Unofficially spring arrived to baseball fans the day pitchers and catchers reported early and Arod waffled on which team he would grace with his presence.
As far as I can tell the Cincinnati Reds in the early 1920’s were the first team to have their pitchers arrive earlier than the position players to prepare for the season.
In light of the Reds recent pitching staffs (lack of) success it’s somewhat ironic that a tradition in attaining an edge founded during the franchises most dominant pitching era is now embraced by all of the western hemisphere as the ultimate symbol of winters impending demise.
If I was feeling Boswellian and awash in the sun of Florida or Arizona I would perhaps fill the page with descriptions of movement, placement and wood whipping through the air, or of leather, and the grunting of a pitcher getting his running in. But I’m not feeling that way at all, so instead I’ll just sit to the sound of the cold rain of March in the PNW and patiently wait for the feeling of spring to reach here, so far it’s lagging behind the WBC and you know who done in Arizona.
The Thrill of the Road
The origins of spring training have always been debated, some say it was the Red Stockings New Orleans trip of 1870 with Cincinnati winning 5 games and outscoring opponents 220 runs to 31. Others claim it could have been Hot Springs in 1888 with Cap Anson and the boys stopped in to get the winter starch out and regain their form after falling from 2 straight championships to 3rd in 1887.
training; one thing is for certain it was the Reds first spring training and it was at the same time the White Stockings where airing it out in Arkansas.
Enter Gus Schmelz manager of the Reds,who had the same idea as Anson in the late winter of 1887-1888 and approached the Reds owner proposing a team trip through Texas, Louisiana, and Alabama in an attempt to generate income for the team and prepare them for the 1888 season.After finishing in second place in 1887. Schmelz only planned on turning over 3 players from the 1887 squad.
The team made a little money on the six week trip ($76 per man) however the trip did improve the teams play that season good enough to come in with a .597 winning percentage the 4th best winning percentage in the first 58 years of the team (19th overall in team history)
But alas that was only good enough for fourth place in the league. The next spring no trip was planned. Gus also was the only MLB manager to ever have a beard, he later managed Columbus in the American Association in fact Gus is now a life long Columbus resident and can be found in Green Lawn Cemetery, drop by and pay your respects if you are ever in the neighborhood.
After the trip south in 1888 the Reds kept close to home prior to each season, it was Manager Buck Ewing’s idea to change that when he and Business Manager Frank Bancroft arrange for the team to get their game in line in New Orleans in 1896 From then on the Reds could be counted on to congregate at some point prior to the season and get ready for the annual race to what most often was the bottom half of the standings. Spring Training for the Reds was held at the following sites.
- New Orleans – 1896 – 97, 1900
- Cincinnati (1901-1902);
- Augusta, Ga. (1903)
- Dallas (1904)
- Jacksonville (1905)
- San Antonio (1906)
- Marlin Springs, Texas (1907)
- St. Augustine (1908) – Cincinnati’s first trip to Florida
- Atlanta (1909)
- Hot Springs, Ark. (1910-1911)
- Columbus, Ga. (1912)
- Mobile, Ala. (1913)
- Alexandria, La. (1914-1915)
- Shreveport (1916-1917)
- Montgomery, Ala. (1918)
- Waxahachie, Texas (1919)
- Miami (1920)
As mentioned before many teams hoped to make some cash from their spring trip, for the Reds it was never more so than in 1920 following the teams first World Championship, dubious as it may be the players who achieved it wanted some payback. The Reds began a long Barnstorming trip north in Miami as the 1919 World Series champs, they scheduled 18 games in hopes of generating $72,000 in salary increase due to their success. After the glamour of Miami and the cheers of being the champs the Reds returned to Texas the following year in hope of improving on their 3rd place finish in 1920.
- Cisco, Texas (1921)
- Mineral Wells, Texas (1922);
Mmmm Grapefruits
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Orlando (1923-1930)
The original 1,500-seat wooden Tinker Field was built in 1923 and served as the
spring-training home of the Cincinnati Reds from 1923 through 1930, then was the
Senators spring time home for many years and the Twins AA affiliate played there.
The Reds arrival in Florida was paralleled by the rise of the southern real estate boom, the emergence of golf as the baseball player’s favorite legal hobby. Former Reds manager Bob O’Farrell was said to care more about getting his game in than the team, after the ninety-first game of the 1934 season he didn’t have to worry about it anymore.
