Spring Training Online

In his annual spring meeting with reporters, Cubs Chairman Crane Kenney admits the team’s days at Mesa’s HoHoKam Park are numbered and says the team is looking at a new spring-training home. The issue: the team practices at Fitch Field and plays at HoHoKam Park. While HoHoKam Park is a perfectly fine facility and the […]

The only team that entered February games selling out every fixed seat for every spring-training matchup? Not the Red Sox. Not the Yankees. It was the Tampa Bay Rays, who sold out every fixed seat at Charlotte County Sports Park well in advance of the team’s first game of 2009. The Rays have kept up […]

Spring-training attendance is down some 20 percent this spring when compared to 2008, as teams struggle with smaller crowds. Teams in the Cactus League are averaging 4,472 fans per game, down from 5,719 in 2008. It’s still relatively early, of course; we’re still not to the point where any schools are out for spring break, […]

We all knew this would be a rough spring in Vero Beach, the first for the community after the departure of the Dodgers from Dodgertown. Now Indian River County is scrambling to bring back baseball, but the chances are amateurs, not pros, will on the field. Today, the storied Dodgertown complex sits empty, locked to […]

We are already planning the next version of Spring Training Online for 2010. And as we do so, we’d like to hear from you. By all measures, the revamping of the site was a tremendous success: we doubled site traffic and the number of unique visitors to the site. The site and our book, The […]

Spring-training games begin on Wednesday, and we’ll be there, as Kevin Reichard signs copies of The Complete Guide to Spring Training at the Astros spring opener. Reichard will be in the concourse of Osceola County Stadium from 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m., signing the second edition of The Complete Guide to Spring Training. Drop by, say hi […]

Anyone visiting Vero Beach’s Dodgertown knows one of the joys of that historic complex was the ability to wander around and view the whole gamut of player development, ranging from scrimmages at bareboned practice fields to games at Holman Stadium. That power to wander around in mimicked in the impressive new Camelback Ranch spring-training complex […]

With Goodyear and Glendale dramatically raising the bars when it comes to new Cactus League spring-training facilities, many expect the new owners of the Chicago Cubs to opt out of its HoHoKam Park contract and seek upgrades. Our sister site, Ballpark Digest, is reporting the Cubs’ lease for HoHoKam Park and the training base at […]

With two new ballparks slated to open this month and next in the Cactus League, spring-training fans making the trip to Phoenix will have yet more options for fun in the sun. Today we look at Goodyear Ballpark, the new home of the Cleveland Indians; Monday we’ll look at Camelback Ranch, the new home of […]

Spring Training Online’s Kevin Reichard will be live on Phoenix’s KPNX-TV 12’s morning show Saturday morning, around 8:45 a.m. He’ll be on to discuss — what else? — spring training. Also, don’t forget about his appearances in Phoenix and Las Vegas this weekend to sign copies of The Complete Guide to Spring Training, Second Edition. […]