Spring training 2021 is over and while the exhibition games lacked intensity, were meaningless and the stats didn’t count, they were nonetheless eagerly devoured by baseball fans everywhere who endured the long winter because they knew, come April 1st, the game will come alive again in earnest. Not since World War II have fans so anxiously awaited the return of the national pastime. Mostly due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the idea of the Boys of Summer ushering in a new beginning has never been more important to the American psyche.
Spring training baseball was the brainchild of Chicago White Stockings (today’s Chicago Cubs) team President Albert Spalding and Hall of Famer Cap Anson. In 1886, the White Stockings traveled to Hot Springs, Arkansas to prepare for the upcoming season. After holding spring training at the Hot Springs Baseball Grounds, the White Stockings went on to have a successful season and other teams took notice. Soon the Cleveland Spiders, Detroit Tigers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Red Stockings, Brooklyn Dodgers, and Boston Red Sox joined Chicago and joined spring training in Hot Springs.
The Philadelphia Phillies were the first of the current major-league teams to train in Florida, when they spent two weeks in Jacksonville in 1889. Spring training in Florida began in earnest in 1913, when the Grapefruit League was born. The Detroit Tigers are credited with being the first team to conduct spring training camp in Arizona back in 1929. Today, 16 major league teams call Florida home while 14 play in the Cactus League in Arizona. Seems like every baseball fan has a spring training story or memory. An unknown phenom who made a big splash in the spring boxscores and was never heard from again, a wacky story about a bonehead play or a ridiculous at bat that could only happen during spring training.
In March of 2019, I wrote a spring training story about Tito Francona hitting a 350-foot home run out of Hi Corbett Field located in Tucson, Arizona. When the ball stopped rolling, it came to a dead stop beside a dead body. But as they say, THAT was another story. (You can find it on the Weekly View Web site should you care to.) That spring, I traveled to Washington DC for research on a Lincoln book. I found myself in the library at the Surratt tavern in northern Maryland speaking with a Lincoln scholar who was working on a book of her own. Lincoln scholars can be, well, imposingly scholarly. As she left the room, she turned and said, “By the way, I was a Tito Francona fan as a kid.” I was understandably shocked that an article from the eastside of Indianapolis would make its way all the way to Clinton, Maryland, yet unsurprised at the depth of feeling for spring training baseball. So, in that continued spirit, here are a few random memories, some good, some bad, and some just plain bizarre, from spring training’s past.
After an MVP caliber season in 1924, New York Yankees slugger Babe Ruth had a miserable 1925 campaign, which, legend states was due to carousing during spring training. The Babe was the most famous athlete in the world in 1924 and when word began to circulate that the 260 pound, out-of-shape Ruth was ailing, reporters chalked it up to an upset stomach, likely from downing too many hot dogs and soda pops during those spring exhibition games. The press dubbed it the “bellyache heard ‘round the world.” As the illness progressed, Ruth was hospitalized after collapsing in Asheville, North Carolina as the team headed north. One rumor circulated that the great Bambino had died and a British newspaper printed a premature obituary. Back in New York, Ruth collapsed again and was found unconscious in his hotel bathroom. He was taken to a hospital suffering multiple convulsions.
Historians and physicians claim that the Babe’s symptoms are consistent with alcohol poisoning most likely brought on by drinking illegal bathtub gin on a single crazy night in Florida during Prohibition. In 1925 Ruth “struggled” to his worst season as a Yankee — .290 BA, 25 HR, 66 RBI in 98 games — a good season for most players but a massive slump by Ruthian standards. The exact cause of Ruth’s ailment has never been confirmed and remains a mystery to this day. The Yankees finished next to last in the AL with a 69–85 record, their last season with a losing record until 1965.
In 1936, Yankees rookie Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio hadn’t even played his first Major League game when he suffered what should have been a minor foot injury in Spring Training. The Yankee Clipper went for treatment using something called a diathermy machine, a high-frequency electromagnetic current device used to produce heat deep inside a targeted tissue. But the machine was too hot, and DiMaggio’s foot emerged red and blistered. It took about two weeks to heal. DiMaggio made his major league debut on May 3, 1936, batting ahead of Lou Gehrig in the lineup. The Yankees had not been to the World Series since 1932, but after DiMaggio healed up, they won the next four Fall Classics.
During World War II, Americans on the homefront sacrificed many of their usual luxuries for the good of the American war effort. Sugar, meat, butter, milk, oil and gasoline were strictly rationed. Likewise, Major League baseball teams were required to conduct spring training in northern states to cut down on travel. Cold weather Indiana towns became spring training sites for big league teams: The Chicago Cubs at French Lick, the Chicago White Sox at Terre Haute, the Cincinnati Reds at IU Bloomington, the Cleveland Indians at Lafayette, the Detroit Tigers at Evansville, and the Pittsburgh Pirates in Muncie. These teams formed an informal circuit they called “the Limestone League.”
During World War II the Brooklyn Dodgers held their spring training in Havana, Cuba. The 1942 team workouts and games were attended by the island’s most famous resident, author Ernest Hemingway. One night, Hemingway invited some Dodgers over to his home for drinks and some target shooting. Afterwards, he posed for pictures and handed out autographed copies of his book For Whom the Bell Tolls. As the hours passed and the liquor continued to flow, Hemingway challenged relief pitcher Hugh Casey to a boxing match. Casey, 14 years younger and in much better shape than the author, tried to beg off. Hemingway insisted on boxing the ballplayer. So the two laced up their gloves and, although both were equal in size (6 foot 200+ pounds), Casey ended up destroying Hemingway (and one of his bookcases) in the sparring session. Ironically, the two men’s lives ended in the same sad fashion. On July 3, 1951, after a groupie accused him of fathering her child, and a court agreed with her, Casey killed himself with a shotgun while talking to his estranged wife Kathleen on the phone. Likewise, a decade later, one day short of that ten year anniversary, Hemingway would end his life with a shotgun.
However, not all spring training stories are as heavy as that one. There was that time back in the age of Watergate when two New York Yankees players swapped families. On March 4, 1973, New York Yankees starting pitchers Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich announced to the press that they traded lives. And of course, both were left-handers. It all started at a party at sportswriter Maury Allen’s home the previous summer. Kekich, who played for the Yankees from 1969 to 1973, won 30 games and lost 31 during his stint in pinstripes. Peterson, who played for the Yankees from 1966 to 1974, fared much better, winning 109 games and losing 106 during his 9-year stint.
While Kekich’s career in Gotham is mostly forgotten, Peterson was an ace for those awful Mantle-less/Maris-less Yankees teams. His career peaked in 1970 when he finished 20–11 and pitched in the All-Star game. In 1969 and 1970, the hard-throwing southpaw had the best strikeout-to-walk ratio in the AL. Peterson also led the league in fewest walks per 9 innings pitched 5 years in a row, 1968–1972. The last pitcher to accomplish that feat was Cy Young. Peterson is also credited with a couple Yankees milestones, no mean feat for a storied team as the Bronx Bombers. Fritz had the all-time lowest earned run average (2.52 ERA) at old Yankee Stadium, just ahead of Hall of Famer Whitey Ford (2.55 ERA). And Peterson was the starting pitcher for the Yankees in the last game played at the “House That Ruth Built,” which was completely renovated after the final game of the 1973 season. He is ninth on the Yankees all-time games started list and tenth on the innings pitched list.
But back to that “swap.” In the summer of 1972, Peterson moved in with Kekich’s wife Suzanne and their two daughters; Kekich with Peterson’s wife Marilyn and the couple’s two sons. The lefties even swapped the family dogs. The two families had been close friends since 1969. As you might expect, New York Sportswriters had a field day with the news. Peterson told the media that he hoped they wouldn’t “make anything sordid out of this.” And Kekich added, “Unless people know the full details, it could turn out to be a nasty type thing. Don’t say this was wife-swapping, because it wasn’t. We didn’t swap wives, we swapped lives.” Yankees GM Lee MacPhail joked, “We may have to call off Family Day.” Kekich and Peterson’s wife did not last very long, some reports state that the couple had already split by the time the players made the announcement. By June, the Yankees had traded him to Cleveland. Peterson and Suzanne married in 1974, are still together, and by all reports, are as happy as a pair of newlyweds.
And of course, you can’t talk about the Yankees with mentioning George Steinbrenner. Lou Piniella, Yankees outfielder from 1974-1984 (and Cincinnati Reds 1990 World Series Champion manager) recalled a 1974 spring training story that is sure to bring a smile to any baseball fan’s face. “When I was traded to the Yankees, I was a little nervous so I showed up to Spring Training the day before. I wanted to put my uniform on, get my workout in and get a head-start. There was no uniform in my locker. I asked clubhouse manager Pete Sheehy about my uniform. He said Mr. Steinbrenner would like to see you. He saw you walking in the parking lot. I went to ‘The Boss’ and introduced myself. I told him I’m ready to work out and there’s no uniform. He said, ‘Your hair is long. We have a strict haircut policy. You need to cut your hair.’ I told him, ‘Look, I don’t see the difference between my hair being long and being able to play baseball. In fact, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ had long hair and was the greatest person to walk this Earth.’ He didn’t say a word but asked me to follow him. He led me across the street to the Fort Lauderdale swimming pool and said, ‘If you can walk across that water, you can wear your hair anyway you want.’ Baseball is back friends. A full 162 game season awaits us all. Enjoy!
Al Hunter is the author of the “Haunted Indianapolis” and co-author of the “Haunted Irvington” and “Indiana National Road” book series. His newest books are “Bumps in the Night. Stories from the Weekly View,” “Irvington Haunts. The Tour Guide,” and “The Mystery of the H.H. Holmes Collection.” Contact Al directly at Huntvault@aol.com or become a friend on Facebook.
