Spring Training

Spring Training
In Major League Baseball, spring training is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to audition for roster and position spots, and gives existing team players practice time prior to competitive play. Spring training has always attracted fan attention, drawing crowds who travel to the warmer climates to enjoy the weather and watch their favorite teams play, and spring training usually coincides with spring break for many college students.

Spring training typically lasts almost two months, starting in early February and running until just before the season opening day, traditionally the first week of April. Pitchers and catchers report to spring training first because pitchers benefit from a longer training period due to the exhaustive nature of the position. A week or two later, the position players arrive and team practice begins.

While Florida and Arizona now host all Major League Baseball teams for spring training, this has not always been the case. The Brooklyn Dodgers trained in Havana, Cuba in 1947 and 1959 and in the Dominican Republic in 1948. During World War II, most teams held abbreviated spring training within easy reach of their cities. Before big league baseball reached the West Coast, a number of teams trained in California.

In order to conserve rail transport during World War II, the 1943 Spring Training was limited to an area east of the Mississippi River and north of the Ohio River. The Chicago White Sox held camp in French Lick, Indiana, the Washington Senators in College Park, Maryland, and the New York Yankees in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

In modern training, the other Florida-training teams in their exhibition games, play regardless of regular season league affiliations. Likewise, Arizona-training teams play with other Arizona teams. These have been nicknamed the Grapefruit League and Cactus League respectively, after the plants that are typical of the respective states. The teams can play colleges (Georgia Tech vs. Atlanta), minor league baseball clubs, intra-squad games (members of the same team play against each other), split-squad games (games when one team is scheduled for two games in one day, so the team splits into two squads and each squad plays in each of the games), and B Games (unofficial Spring Training games where statistics and standings are not counted).

Statistics are recorded during spring training games, but they are not combined with the listed statistics for regular season games, and unusual performances which would have broken records if accomplished during the regular season and are considered to be unofficial.

Although spring training statistics are commonly viewed with a jaundiced eye, teams still frequently use players' spring training performances as a way of assigning starting roles and roster spots on the club.