When the Boston Red Sox spring training camp opened in Winter Haven, Florida, in late-February 1967, nobody was talking about an American League pennant or humming Broadway show tunes in the team’s honor. The 1966 Red Sox had finished in ninth place, a distant twenty-six games behind the World Champion Baltimore Orioles, and the team had lost a total of one [...]
Spring training is a time of renewal for players and fans. But spring training in Sarasota, Florida, in 1946, was more than a renewal; it was a reunion of Red Sox players who had been away for as long as three seasons while they served their country during World War II. The 1946 Boston Red Sox spring training roster included 28 players who had spent the 1945 [...]
When the 2015 Boston Red Sox reported to Fort Myers, Florida, for spring training, state of the art facilities, a battery of instructors, and a full staff of physical training specialists awaited them. JetBlue Park at Fenway South includes Major and Minor League operations, training and rehabilitative facilities, and six practice fields. Every effort is made [...]
For the past 67 years the Boston Red Sox have trained under the sunny skies of Florida, or from 1959 to 1965, in the desert warmth of Scottsdale, Arizona. But from 1943 through 1945, World War II travel restrictions required the Red Sox to hold their spring training camps north of the Mason-Dixon Line.
In the spring of 1954, when folks watched television through black-and-white picture tubes and many radios were the size of a loaf of Wonder Bread, the Red Sox fan in me went deep and true.