Category: Uncategorized
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Hall of Famers That Trained in the Region
Part 8: 1946 – 50 Boston Braves ’48 – 50 Bradenton – City Park Boston Red Sox ’46 – 50 Sarasota – Payne Park Cincinnati Reds ’46 – 50 Tampa – Plant Field Cleveland Indians ’46 Clearwater – Athletic Park (Green) Detroit Tigers ’46 – 50 Lakeland – Henley Field New York Yankees St. Petersburg…
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Brooklyn Attempts to Depart Clearwater
Homosassa Springs Comes Courting Charles Ebbets one of the owners and president of the Brooklyn Dodgers/Robins/Superbas, after coming to Florida for many years to hopefully improve his health decides to make camp in Clearwater. In 1922 he convinces the Clearwater doers to secure a lot, pass a referendum for funding and build a $25,000 facility…
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March Madness in Clearwater
The Phillies seemed to have a particular affinity for basketball players. While today’s game likes to feature very tall pitchers, the Phillies looked for tall guys early on. The starting five, a sixth man, and a coach for the squad are presented here. Center: Neil Johnston 6’8”. Pitcher in Clearwater, 1949-51 Johnston is the most…
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Hall of Famers That Trained in the Region
Part 7: 1940 – 42 Note: No team trained in Florida during the war years ’43 – ’45 Boston Braves ’40 Bradenton – City Park Boston Red Sox ’40 – 42 Sarasota – Payne Park Brooklyn Dodgers ’40 Clearwater – Brooklyn Field Chicago Cubs ’41 Spent one week on West Fl. coast Detroit Tigers ’40…
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Two I Coached
I was a head high school baseball coach in Pinellas County with three different schools for ten seasons. At my first two stops I had the pleasure of coaching future major leaguers. I got a first-hand view of what some of these guys look like when they are younger. Although both are big and strong…
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Two I Played With
I played baseball at Murrah High School in Jackson, Ms. If the name Murrah rings a bell maybe you read the novel or watched the movie The Help. The title character graduated from Murrah. Kathryn Stockett, the author of The Help graduated from Murrahten years after I did. Obviously very intelligent, she also graduated from…
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MLB Players Born in the Region
The Top 10 by WAR The Tampa Bay region has been the birthplace of 195 major league players thus far. This number includes a handful of Negro League players added to the rolls this year (2024) by MLB as well as a handful from Pasco and Hernando counties. Thus far three Hall of Famers were…
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Spring Training in the Region
In the Beginning… While Spring Training made it to Florida (Jacksonville) in 1888, it did not reach central and west Florida until 1913. The reason? Transportation. The East Coast teams had a choice of taking a steamer or a train to Jacksonville while inland teams could get there via train. Neither way was practical below…