Spring Training Trip to Florida Gulf Coast

Regular season baseball in Florida didn’t arrive until relatively recently, but teams have been making the springtime sojourn down to the Gulf Coast since the early part of the last century.

The Chicago Cubs were the first team to conduct an official spring training in Central Gulf Florida – they commenced the annual tradition in February 1913 after the Tampa mayor’s office sweetened the deal by subsidizing team expenses to the tune of $100 per player.

The plan worked – the Cubs first spring training game saw a crush of curious onlookers and the rest, as they say, was history.

The Cleveland Indians also trained in Florida that year, up the coast in Pensacola, and soon after, the good vibrations from the Sunshine State spread to other northern, winter-weary baseball teams.

These days you can choose from an array of games from Tampa to Clearwater to Bradenton and Ft. Myers, so plan your itinerary carefully and maximize your southern exposure.