Whether in Arizona or Florida, Fans Can Still Rejoice

My Aunt Phyllis, who passed away earlier this year just short of her 105th birthday, wasn’t far off when she referred to my annual March trip as “spring cleaning.”

Baseball players need six weeks to dust off the cobwebs of winter, while managers have to cleanse their rosters, dropping from nearly 100 invitees at the start to the chosen 25 proscribed for the varsity roster.

Fans need time to dust off, too—to reacquaint themselves not only with their favorite teams but their favorite sport.

The routine is roughly the same at all 30 major-league camps: pitchers report first, along with the catchers needed to handle them, with full squads coming a week later, a series of intra-squad scrimmages, and then up to three dozen exhibition games that don’t count in anyone’s mind but the manager’s.

Although spring training usually runs from Valentine’s Day to April Fool’s Day, give or take a few groundhogs, its echoes persist throughout the summer.
That’s especially true this year, since Vero Beach was suddenly left vacant by the Dodgers in a move locals labeled the second abandonment of Brooklyn. After 60 years, the pristine complex created as Dodgertown in 1948 could have hosted the Orioles, Nationals, or any number of clubs unhappy in their current locales. Its location is both ideal and idyllic, sitting not far from Florida’s Atlantic coast in an Indian River community packed with more oranges than people.

Orlando, with its Mickey Mouse ears, sits northwest, with the tony towns of Palm Beach, Boca Raton, and Fort Lauderdale lined up along I-95 like fans waiting in line for tickets.

Jupiter, at the north end of Palm Beach County, hosts the only ballpark with two resident teams: Roger Dean Stadium, spring home of both the St. Louis Cardinals and Florida Marlins.

That means there’s a game every day, though the Cards are a better draw because the Fish feed on selling tickets to locals who can watch them 81 times a year at Dolphin Stadium, a rain-plagued stadium that should never have been allowed to go topless in the tropical summer.

While the Marlins are the only team to go south from spring training, they’ll soon have lots of company. Unlike spring training, when all teams voice equal optimism, the fortunes of most go south after the passage of several months separates the contenders from the pretenders.

Exhibition games are the big draw during spring training, though attendance was hurt this year by the ill-timed competition of the World Baseball Classic. That event left virtually every team without its top stars well into March. The New York Mets, for example, were missing 16 men when camp opened and half their starting lineup until Team USA and Puerto Rico were eliminated.

Thankfully, that won’t happen again until 2013—unless saner heads switch the tournament to Nov­ember, filling the gap between the World Series and winter meetings.

In the meantime, Florida and Arizona are expected to continue their tug-of-war for teams.

Blessed by better proximity of teams, the Cactus League has created a prickly problem by being so successful at luring teams from the Grapefruit circuit. In 2010, for the first time, each state will have 15 teams, forcing at least two teams per day to split their squads and create an even number of games.

Denizens of Cactus country will include Arizona, both Chicagos, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Colorado, Kansas City, both Los Angeles clubs, Milwaukee, Oakland, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and Texas.

Getting the squeeze in the Grapefruit League will be Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Detroit, Florida, Houston, Minnesota, both New Yorks, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Tampa Bay, Toronto, and Washington.

Since spring training means millions to each local economy, Florida won’t continue to lose business without a fight. In 2007, for example, fans attending Cactus League games spent $310,775,015—and that was before the Reds, Indians, and Dodgers arrived on the scene.

Cleveland left Winter Haven, Fla., when the town of Goodyear offered to house it in a $75 million complex called Ballpark Village. The Dodgers, wanting to be closer to their Los Angeles fan base, agreed to share a new complex in Glendale with the Chicago White Sox, moving north from Tucson. That move left Tucson with the D’backs and Rockies, with everybody else in the Valley of the Sun network anchored by Phoenix and Scottsdale.

Fans love spring training because of the relaxed, casual atmosphere. Games are played in compact parks where access to players is easy and autographs are as plentiful as hot dogs. Heroes of the past, including such Hall of Famers as Yogi Berra and Sandy Koufax, show up as special instructors. Best of all, food and tickets carry minor-league price-tags.

Public address announcers delight in giving the current temperature as well as the temperature at the home team’s regular-season stadium. Even the music is tongue-in-cheek, with Roger Dean Stadium airing Darth Vader music when the umpires make their initial appearance.

Fields have natural grass, most games are played in daylight, and nobody cares who wins or loses. What could be better?

Spring training, almost a secret ritual before official baseball discovered a potential gold mine, has become such a hot travel destination that many vacationers are already planning for 2010.

That includes those who plan to combine Disney World, spring break, and baseball with a stay in Kissimmee, Lake Buena Vista, or other Orlando suburbs.

Since renting a house is far more economical than renting a room, families and friends are already calling a half-dozen house rental companies near Disney. The best of them, All-Star Vacation Homes, offers houses of various sizes and descriptions. Most have heated pools and Jacuzzis, game rooms, computers with WiFi, in-home movie theaters, multiple bedrooms, several TVs, DVD and CD players, large kitchens, and car rental discounts and mid-stay housekeeping upon request.

For more information, see www.allstarvacationhomes.com or call 800-692-5568 or 407-997-0733.

Former AP newsman Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, New ­Jersey, has covered baseball spring training since 1971. A ­nationally published travel writer, he is also the author of 34 baseball books. See more on spring training at ­www.baseballbits.com, one of Dan’s Web sites.

PHOTO: BILL MENZEL