Spring Breakers
A historic attribute to all the different locations the Yankees have called home for Spring Training during every era from Babe Ruth to Aaron Judge.
The catalyst to the historic franchise was their inaugural season in 1903 when the team who was then known as the New York Highlanders christened their franchise at Hilltop Park in Washington Heights as their initial home ballpark. But prior to the opening season in 1903 as well as 1904 the Highlanders trained during the spring in Atlanta. In 1905 they moved to Montgomery, Alabama and the following year they trained in Birmingham, Alabama at Slag Pile Field. The location of the park was on property that the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company owned, and the field received its name due to the piles of furnace slag bordering the outside of the outfield fences.
They returned to Atlanta for the 1907 and 1908 seasons calling Ponce Del Leon Park home for their spring warmups then the following year went to Macon, Georgia then the season after that Athens, Georgia for 1910 and ’11 then back to Atlanta the year the Titanic sunk in 1912 which was coincidentally the same year Fenway Park opened.
The Highlanders changed their name to a nickname unbeknownst to no living individual as the New York Yankees in 1913 and they trained at Hamilton, Bermuda that year then West End Park in Houston (1914), Savannah, Georgia (1915), then back to Macon, GA for the 1916, 1917, and 1918 seasons. In 1918 Miller Huggins, notorious for managing Murderer’s Row, became the Bombers manager. 1919 and 1920 the Yanks Spring warmups took place in Jacksonville, Florida at Rose Field while on January 5th, 1920, the Yankees purchased the contract of George Herman “Babe” Ruth for $125,000 and the rest is history. In 1921 the Bronx Bombers were in Shreveport, Louisiana. Then the following three seasons New Orleans calling Pelican Park their Spring home and I can assure you that in New Orleans during the prohibition era Babe Ruth was very fortunate that social media did not exist.
The Yanks found a Spring Training home for the long haul in 1925 in St. Petersburg, Florida at Crescent Lake Field and they were at that residence until 1942. The ballpark was renamed Miller Huggins Field in 1931 after the manager’s untimely death then years later combined the honor for The Old Professor to honor the greatest manager of all time (Casey Stengel) and the manager that managed the greatest team of all time (Miller Huggins) calling the park Huggins-Stengel Field and the field still exists today. Witnessed during that span of almost twenty years of Yankees dominance was the greatest team ever in 1927, Ruth’s called shot at Wrigley in 1932, four World Series titles in a row from 1936-1939, and Joe DiMaggio’s 56 game hit streak in 1941.
In 1943 to conserve World War II resources the spring training venue was very close by at Asbury Park on the Jersey Shore where it was frigid and the temperatures averaged from the low 20’s to the upper 40’s and due to the glacial conditions they decided to move indoors to train in 1944 at 112th Field Artillery Armory in Atlantic City for practices and played exhibition games at Bader Field until 1945. They returned to St. Petersburg at Miller Huggins Field in 1946 then in 1947 moved to a different diamond called Al Lang Field and were there until 1950.
In DiMaggio’s final season and Mantle’s rookie year in 1951 the Yanks took a quick detour to train in Phoenix for one year because MLB teams headed out to the West Coast for Spring Training for the first time ever that season and post 1951 Florida has been their permanent Spring Training home. They were at Al Lang Field from 1952 to 1961 and post ‘61 after a classic home run chase, a World Series victory over the Reds, Whitey Ford earning MVP honors and The Chairman of the Board also taking home the Cy Young merit all in one season they moved their Spring residence to Fort Lauderdale and stayed there over three decades till 1995.
1996 to present day the Yankees have been calling Tampa their home for spring tune-ups. It was originally called Legends Field but was renamed George Steinbrenner Field in 2008 in honor of The Boss.
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Wow. A lot of research went into this article. I learned a lot. Never knew they moved all over like that for spring training.
The Yankees stayed at the Vinoy Hotel in St. Pete during Spring Training. They were much loved and are still celebrated in that resort. Bank in 1998, I saw Bobby Murcer and met Orlando Hernandez in the elevator there, just weeks after arriving in the bigs. Very cool. (Nice writeup, thanks!)