Spring Training in the Snowflakes
Bygone baseball
By C. Philip Francis
One of the many baseball traditions is the gathering of ballplayers in a warm climate for the purpose of strengthening their bodies into keen and lean athletic machines. It is called spring training and has been around almost as long as professional baseball itself. New Orleans became the first site for early training when a semi-pro team called the Chicago White Stockings went south to take off the winter weight, and be in better shape to beat the Cincinnati Red Stockings who had gone undefeated in 1869.
In the next few years other teams found their way south, but the first ballclub to follow the practice for a period of time was the same Chicago White Stockings (they became a charter member of the National League in 1876) who went to Hot Springs, Arkansas in 1886. Manager Cap Anson had chosen the area in order to sweat out the excess flab and fat in the hot, therapeutic baths so prevalent there, and the opponents did not overlook the fact that Chicago won the pennant that year.
Since then such warm spring locales have been in Augusta, Georgia; Galveston and San Antonio, Texas; and Catalina Island, off the Los Angeles coast. The New York Yankees became the first team to travel outside of the United States for pre-season training when they went to Bermuda in 1913. Some other foreign locales used were Mexico City, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba.
There was a time, however, when the sixteen big league teams were forced to move their practice quarters north and exchange palm and cactus for ice and snow. After Japan attacked the ships and military installations at Hawaii on December 7, 1941, the country went to war. Gas, tires, rubber, food, and many other items were rationed or unavailable to the public, and automobile factories changed over to tanks and airplanes. Railroad passenger cars were needed for troop movement and freight cars for military material.
In an effort to ease the overcrowded railroads, baseball was asked to forget spring training in the south and take their gloves, bats, and spikes closer to their parent cities, or north of the Potomac and Ohio Rivers, and east of the Mississippi River with exception. The Chicago and St. Louis clubs would be allowed to set up camp in Missouri, Illinois, or Indiana. By government decree the ballplayers now had to forego the balmy breezes for cold and drafty field houses and airplane hangers during the springs of 1943, ’44, and ’45.
Even at best the weather was far from the southern warmth. Brooklyn Clyde King was once asked to describe those unusual days, “We wore turtlenecks and more than one sweatshirt, sometimes heavy long sweatshirts. I don’t remember long johns. I do know that there wasn’t a lot of complaining even though it was cold. They had great food there.”
The most northern team was the Brooklyn Dodgers at Bear Mountain near the United States Military Academy at West Point. The Dodgers were given permission to use the West Point field house three times a week that they used on the worst days. King added, “The cold really doesn’t stand in my mind as a discomfort; maybe my enthusiasm for the game made me overlook that.”
The Detroit Tigers did their conditioning at Evansville, Indiana. When government travel rules appeared to cancel all Tiger spring games in 1945, general manager Jack Zeller came up with a “good idea” – they could walk the mere 112 miles to Terra Haute to play the Chicago White Sox. Zeller said his ballplayers were in good condition, and could easily carry their bats, balls, and uniforms, far less than what the soldiers have on their backs. Zeller thought the men could do the hundred miles in less than a week although some were not too excited about the long hike including Tiger manager Steve O’Neill who said, “If they walk, they’ll have to go without their manager. I can’t walk that far.”
Pitcher Dizzy Trout, born and raised on a Indiana farm, suggested he ask some of his local friends for a few haywagons, find a hillbilly band for the trip, and each could take their own lunch box. Second baseman Eddie Mayo said that he had a better idea, “Let’s meet the White Sox half way, and play the games in a farmer’s field.” Neither solution was used as the 112-mile stroll was forgotten when the Detroit team was allowed to travel to Terra Haute by train, and then also on to St. Louis where they opened the season with the Browns.
The war came to an end in August of 1945, baseball completed the entire scheduled season, and the Detroit Tigers barely beat out the Washington Senators for the American League pennant. The Motor City club downed the Chicago Cubs in the World Series although there had been serious thought of canceling the post-season games. When asked who would win the Series one wag responded with, “Neither team will win” considering the poor quality of the players available at the time. But the men were returning from overseas including Detroit’s Hank Greenberg who hit a home run in his first game back.
The resilient game of baseball survived, and by the following spring most of the players had returned from their military service. They were again able to do their pre-season training in a more tropical climate while the three spring wartime adventures became a bizarre chapter in the long history of baseball.
Tiger pitcher Virgil Trucks summed up those unusual times, “…nobody complained about it, we all went about our jobs.”
Spring Training in the Snowflakes
Bygone baseball by C. Philip Francis
Part 2
Introduction: During the three World War years of 1943, ‘44’ and ’45 the major league baseball teams were forced to move their spring training facilities closer to their parent cities in the north. In Part 2 we continue with the training conditions involving some of the 16 teams.
Eight of the 16 teams were located in Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, and the others were scattered around New Jersey, New York, Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Delaware. The most northern ballclub was the Brooklyn Dodgers at Bear Mountain, New York, and on the other end of the spectrum the St. Louis Cardinals did their training at Cairo, Illinois very close to the state of Kentucky.
Every team had to cope with the situation. When the Pittsburgh Pirates first assembled at their accommodations in Muncie, Indiana, manager Frankie Frisch told his men, “If you can see your breath when you walk out of the hotel in the morning, don’t go to the field; go to the high school gym. We’ll play basketball instead of baseball.” The Pittsburgh clubhouse was a stone building with a large fireplace. The team trainer had one important job other than keeping the aches and pains to a minimum. He was to keep wood available at all times and make sure the fireplace was constantly ablaze.
In the early months of 1943 Pirate pitcher, Rip Sewell, was seen sitting under a palm tree with his hair moving about in the breeze. But wait, it was not Florida, Rip was in the lobby of Hotel Roberts in Muncie, Indiana. The palm was not a palm tree, it was actually a potted plant. The wind was not off the Gulf, it was manager Frisch waving a towel.
Even though there were some warm spells, the players often worked out under winter conditions. The Philadelphia Phillies began their ’43 spring training in Delaware with a snowball fight.
Sometimes there was a problem other than snow and ice. The Cardinals found their Cairo, Illinois playing field under four feet of water that had seeped over the levees adjoining the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. They went back to St. Louis and finished the spring at their home stadium, Sportsman’s Park.
Although the teams were much closer to their home cities to lessen needed railroad equipment, they did travel by train for exhibition games. The Pirates went to one game in an unheated baggage car as the coaches were packed with soldiers. If they did have a dining car, it was usually full of hungry servicemen so the players went without. There was very little complaining by the ballplayers although the many soldiers in uniforms made a strong impact on them.
The Detroit Tigers did their conditioning at Evansville, Indiana. When government travel rules appeared to cancel all Tiger spring games in 1945, general manager Jack Zeller came up with a “good idea” – they could walk the mere 112 miles to Terre Haute where they could play the Chicago White Sox. Zeller said that the ballplayers were in good condition, and could easily carry their bats, balls, and uniforms, far less than what the soldiers have on their backs. The general manager thought his men could do the hundred miles in less than a week although some were not too excited about the long hike including Tiger manager Steve O’Neill who said, “If they walk, they’ll have to go without their manager. I can’t foot it that far.”
Pitcher Dizzy Trout, born and raised on a Indiana farm, suggested he ask some of his local friends for a few haywagons, find a hillbilly band for the trip, and each could take their own lunch box. Second baseman Eddie Mayo said he had a better idea, “Let’s meet the White Sox half way, and play the games in a farmer’s field.” Neither solution was used as the 112-mile stroll was forgotten when the Detroit team went to Terre Haute by train, and then on to St. Louis where they opened the season with the St. Louis Browns.
The war came to an end in August of 1945, baseball finished the entire scheduled season, and the Detroit Tigers barely beat out the Washington Senators for the American League pennant. The Motor City team downed the Chicago Cubs in the World Series although there had been serious thought of canceling the Fall Classic. When asked who would win the Series one wag responded with, “Neither team will win” considering the poor quality of the players available at the time. But the players were returning from overseas including Detroit’s Hank Greenberg who hit a home run in his first game back.
The resilient game of baseball was somehow able to survive World War I, the Chicago Black Sox scandal, and now World War II, and by the following spring most of the ballplayers had returned from the service. The ballplayers could now do their pre-season training in a more tropical climate while the three spring wartime adventures became another bizarre part of baseball history. Tiger pitcher Virgil Trucks summed up those unusual times, “…nobody complained about it, we all went about our jobs.”