Tag: spring training

March 15: Spring Training Muncie?

FRENCH LICK, INDIANA, MARCH 15, 1945. Several spring training camps opened on this date in 1945, but not in the hot-spots you’d expect. The country was still in the midst of World War II. Travel restrictions forced teams to train close to home. Indiana became a hot-spot:

New York Yankees – Atlantic City, NJ
Cleveland Indians – LaFayette, IN
Chicago White Sox – Terre Haute, IN
Boston Red Sox – Pleasantville, NJ
The Detroit Tigers in – Evansville, IN
The St. Louis Cardinals – Cairo, IL
The Chicago Cubs – French Lick, IN
The Pittsburgh Pirates – Muncie, IN

… Just to name a few.

Major League Baseball also drastically limited exhibition games at the urging of The United States Office of Defense Transportation. Teams could only play games with other teams if they were on a direct route to their home city. Side trips were not allowed. Some teams played very few exhibition games against other teams that spring. But there is always Indiana.

Contributing sources:
Spring Training Notes, Los Angeles Times, March 15, 1945
United Press, March 16, 1945
The Baseball Guru

MARCH 5 – YANKS SWAP WIVES

MARCH 5, 1973 |FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA – On this date New York Yankee pitchers Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich dropped a bombshell on spring training camp on this date. They announced to the world that they had swapped wives… and kids and a poodle and a terrier. “It wasn’t a wife swap,” they said, “It’s a life swap.” It was no joke.

America had lived through the turbulent, permissive 1960’s, but this was a shock on so many levels, not the least of which was that the swap was announced to the world.

Just like in baseball; you win some, you lose some and some get rained out. Peterson and Kekich had been close friends for years. They said there was nothing sordid about the “affair.” They and their wives began discussing the switch the previous summer and put it in effect in October, 1972.

Fritz Peterson was still living with Susanne Kekich and her two daughters, aged 4 and 2, at the time of the press conference, but Mike Kekich and Marilyn Peterson‘s relationship had already gone south. Their living arrangement with her two sons, aged 5 and 2, had been on-again/off-again. It also became apparent that the two left-handers had had a falling out over one affair working and the other not. Murray Chass wrote in the next day’s New York Times that, “…it was obvious they had bitter feelings toward each other.”

Fritz Peterson and the former Susanne Kekich eventually married and had four children of their own. The last that was heard they were still married and living outside Chicago. Peterson attended a Yankees charity event in Fort Lauderdale in January of 2013. The Mike Kekich and Marilyn Peterson affair was over before it started. Kekich eventually remarried and at last report was living in New Mexico.

Both achieved some success on the mound, but neither saw their careers flourish after the swap. Kekich finished his 12-year major league career with a 39-51 record. Peterson had career record of 133-131 over an 11-year career. He also did better on the domestic front.

There are rumblings that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck may make a movie about the “affair.” No joke.

Contributing sources:
The New York Times, March 6, 1973, pages 51-52, by Murray Chass
The New York Times, September 9, 2009, Fritz Peterson writes a book
Washington Times, March 7, 2005
The Palm Beach Post, January 26, 2013   
Jackson, MS Clarion Ledger, by Rick Cleveland, August 29, 2000

FEB 28: BUSINESS OF SPRING TRAINING

Spring training 2018 is in full swing, so is the business of spring training. At one time it was mostly a Florida experience, commonly called the Grapefruit League. It began when the Chicago Cubs moved their training from New Orleans to Tampa in 1913. According to the Tampa Bay Rays, more spring training games have been played in St. Petersburg than any other city.

Jump ahead to 2018…

Half the major league teams have been lured to the Cactus League in Arizona, mostly the Phoenix area. Suburbs such as Glendale and Peoria have gone all-out to lure teams to “The Valley of the Sun,” in hopes that “snow birds” from the Midwest and East Coast will follow their favorite teams there.

Sharing facilities has become more common. After training in Florida for decades, the Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers now share an elaborate state-of-the-art complex in Glendale (owned by the City of Glendale) called Camelback Ranch. It has fully equipped training, exercise, weight-room facilities for each team, in addition to 16 diamonds. And that’s the business of spring training.

Contributing sources:
The Official Site of the City of St. Petersburg, Florida
Tampa Bay Rays
The business of spring baseball

Feb 26: Spring games predictable?

FEBRUARY 26, 2021 | ARIZONA & FLORIDA – Baseball is stirring in spring training camps in Arizona and Florida. Fans are filled with nervous anticipation. Besides the routine questions, there’s one they’ve never had to ask in late February;  Will they be able to see their team play in-person?

Probably not.

But they’ll be paying attention to spring training games regardless, agonizing over a loss – even in Cactus and Grapefruit League play –  punching their fists in the air for a win, even if the venue is Fort Myers or Scottsdale.

The question is, do spring training won – loss records matter? If the ultimate goal is to win the World Series, let’s see how the last ten World Series champions did in the spring of that year, as compiled by baseball-reference:  

Season   World Series champ      Spring record/Details
2020        Los Angeles Dodgers        13-7: Best record in Cactus
2019        Washington National       17-12: 3rd best in Cactus
2018         Boston Red Sox                 22-9: Best in MLB
2017         Houston Astros                  15-15: 17th best in MLB
2016         Chicago Cubs                      11-19: Only Padres worse
2015         Kansas City Royals            20-10: Only A’s won more
2014         San Francisco Giants        8-15: 6th best in the Cactus
2013         Boston Red Sox                  17-17: 6th best in Grapefruit
2012         San Francisco Giants        18-15 5th best in Cactus
2011         St Louis Cardinals             14-16: 19 teams did better

Most teams play around .500 ball in the spring. Then you have the Red Sox who out-did everyone in the spring of 2018, kept it going into the regular season culminating into a World Series championship. Don’t forget the 2016 Cubs who staggered out of Arizona with the second worst record in the Cactus League. That fall they won their first World Series in over 100 years.

Contributing sources:
MLB Spring Training won/loss records

 

 

 

 

 

 

A STORY FROM FEB 15 IN BASEBALL HISTORY – BASEBALL PROSPECTUS PICKS NL DIVISION WINNERS FOR 2018

SPRING TRAINING 2018 IS UNDERWAY IN FLORIDA AND ARIZONA. THE NL DIVISION WINNER PREDICTIONS ARE COMING OUT TOO. Among the most eagerly awaited are the predictions from Baseball Prospectus (BP). Check out their in-depth analysis of every team and player in baseball. Here’s who BP predicts will win the National League divisions in 2018.

NL PREDICTIONS FOR 2018
EAST – Washington Nationals
CENTRAL – Chicago Cubs
WEST – Los Angeles Dodgers

How accurate was BP last year? As it turned, pretty accurate. Below are the teams Baseball Prospectus picked to win the National League Divisions in 2017 and who actually won (See Feb 13, 2018 story for AL 2017 predictions):

NL PREDICTIONS FOR 2017 
EAST – Washington Nationals (CORRECT)
CENTRAL – Chicago Cubs (CORRECT)
WEST – Los Angeles Dodgers (CORRECT)

It’a quite remarkable that Baseball Prospectus batted 1000 in correctly predicting all six MLB division winners in 2017.

Contributing Sources:
Baseball Prospectus, February 3, 2018
Baseball Reference