According to no less an authority than Wikipedia, the New York Mutuals became perhaps the first baseball team to hold a spring training outside of their home when, in 1869, Boss Tweed sent the Mutuals south to New Orleans to prepare for the season.

The Cincinnati Red Stockings, on the other hand traveled south for the first time in 1870, to Memphis and New Orleans, but they played only games (which were counted as official games), rather than actual “training.” As far as I can tell, the Reds began the practice of pre-season training outside Cincinnati all the way back in 1891. According to Cam Miller (subscribe to his excellent Substack here):

After a fourth place finish in 1890, Cincinnati Reds manager Tom Loftus took his 1891 squad to Hot Springs in hopes that some spring training and the pure mineral water would help improve the team. This was the first official spring camp in Reds history. Unfortunately, neither hydrotherapy nor Tom Loftus was the answer. The team finished in last place and Loftus was fired.
Since 1891, the Reds have had spring training in 24 different out-of-town cities. The team stayed in Cincinnati to train from 1892-1894 and 1901-1902. Tampa, FL has the distinction of being the city to host the Reds for the longest period of time. Cincinnati trained there from 1931-1942 and again from 1946-1987. From 1943-1945, the Reds trained in Bloomington, IN in order to reduce travel expenses during World War II.
In 2010, the Reds left Florida for Goodyear, AZ. It marked the first time since 1945 that a Reds team would not hold spring training in the Sunshine State and the first time since 1922 (Mineral Wells, TX) that they would train west of the Mississippi.

Since we’re all enjoying Reds spring training so much, I thought I would dive into the history of Cincinnati’s pre-season activities. Courtesy of the indispensable Redleg Journal (how I wish this were still in print), here are some highlights of springs past. I don’t know if this is interesting to anyone other than me, but I have to do some of these for ME, right?

April 5, 1917: Ty Cobb joins the Reds…for two days. During a pre-season exhibition tour between Cobb’s Detroit Tigers and the New York Giants, Cobb fought with opposition manager John McGraw and players Buck Herzog and Art Fletcher. To prevent further bloodshed, Cobb was dispatched to Cincinnati to work out with the Reds for two days, before he rejoined the Tigers in Toledo.

1919: A miserable spring for the Reds, who trained at Waxahachie, Texas. When the Reds arrived, they found that the field was flooded. They were forced to work out in a railroad yard, the platform of a cotton mill, and a cemetery. Perhaps they should have continued training in those odd locales, since the club went on to win the World Series that season.

March 7, 1924: At Cincinnati’s spring training camp in Orlando, Reds manager Pat Moran, skipper of the 1919 champs, passed away at the age of 48. He fell ill on March 1, on the train from Cincinnati to Orlando, but complained only of indigestion. On March 4, after showing no improvement, he was convinced to call a physician. Following an examination, he was rushed to the hospital. Moran’s liver and kidneys had all but ceased to function, and after three days of lapsing in and out of consciousness, he was dead.

March 25, 1929: Reds pitcher Roy Meeker dies of a heart attack at the age of 28 in his room at the San Juan Hotel in Orlando. The death occurred two hours after Meeker returned from a spring training workout.

April 14, 1935: After a spring training trial, the Reds returned Johnny Mize to the Cardinals. The Reds had acquired Mize on a conditional basis for $50,000 the previous December, and played well enough in the spring to earn Cincinnati’s starting job at first base. But doctors told the Reds that a groin injury would require surgery and keep Mize out of the lineup for months. The Reds balked, and returned his contract to St. Louis. Mize had the operation, reached the majors with the Cardinals the following season, and went on to hit .312 with 359 home runs in a Hall of Fame career. Oops!

February 7, 1936: Reds players and officials sail from New York to San Juan, Puerto Rico on the SS Borinquen for spring training. The Reds trained in Puerto Rico for one month, then moved to Tampa for the completion of the club’s conditioning process.

April 6, 1939: The exhibition game between the Reds and Red Sox in Florence, SC, is called with the score 18-18 in the ninth inning. The farcical contest that seemed to have been scripted by the Marx Brothers was played in a 50 mph gale on a field with no grass in the infield, causing a game-long dust storm. So many balls were blown into the crowd and out of the ballpark that the game ended because the supply of 54 baseballs on hand was completely exhausted. Most of the players ended the game capless with their uniforms covered in dust because of the wind. Many played in jackets.

Frank Y. Grayson of The Cincinnati Times-Star reported that “infielders and outfielders on both clubs were begrimed from head to foot and if we mistake not, will have to resort to sand-blasting to remove it.” Smith added further that “this writer will probably shudder every time he hears the name of Florence, even if it be a beautiful gal, mentioned.”

February 20, 1942: The Reds become the first major league team to use a mechanical pitching machine during practice as training camp opens in Tampa, Florida. The pitching machine was invented by a St. Louis banker and was capable of throwing a baseball 204 mph when set at top speed. Cincinnati Enquirer reporter Lou Smith described it as “a weird looking thing resembling an anti-aircraft gun.”

February 22, 1946: The Reds open training camp in Tampa, the first held in peacetime in five years. Cincinnati’s spring roster included 33 players who spent the entire 1945 season in the military, including Johnny Vander Meer, Lonny Frey, and Joe Beggs. Of the 34 players who appeared in a game for the Reds in 1945, only ten returned in 1946.

March 24, 1959: The Reds play an exhibition game against the Dodgers in Havana, Cuba — home of Cincinnati’s AAA team from 1955 through 1960 — less than three months after Fidel Castro’s takeover of the Cuban government. Prior to the game, Reds outfielder Pete Whisenant posed with a machine gun flanked by three Castro rebels. One of the rebels wore Whisenant’s outfielder’s glove.

The game was arranged hastily at the instigation of Reds GM Gabe Paul as a “B” game to get in some extra work after steady rain played havoc with the spring training schedule. The Reds and Dodgers were the last major league teams to play in Cuba until the Baltimore Orioles faced the Cuban national team during spring training in 1999.

March 10, 1963: Pete Rose hits two doubles in two at-bats and scores the game’s only run in his first exhibition appearance with the Reds. Rose entered the 1-0, 14-inning win against the Chicago White Sox in Tampa in the ninth, and stayed in the game at third base.

Rose had been a star for the Reds Class A farm team in Macon, Georgia the preview season. But by the end of spring training, he had won Cincinnati’s starting second base job from Don Blasingame and would go on to win the NL Rookie of the Year award.

March 9, 1967: Reds pitcher Ted Davidson is shot twice by his estranged wife, Mary, in an alley alongside the Chicken Delight Restaurant in Tampa, Florida. Davidson was shot twice in the right shoulder and the left side of the abdomen with a .22 caliber automatic. The incident happened after the two had an argument inside the restaurant. Davidson was on the critical list for several days, but recovered and returned to the playing field in June.

March 17, 1972: The Reds open a three-game spring training series against the Pirates in Caracas, Venezuela, home of Cincinnati shortstop Dave Concepcion. The Reds lost all three games by a combined score of 14-1.

March 17, 1978: The Reds don green uniforms, with a shamrock adorning the sleeves, for a St. Patrick’s Day exhibition 9-2 win over the New York Yankees in Tampa. The Reds went so far as to order green catching gear for the occasion. This was a tradition that lasted for several seasons, and the novelty uniforms fetched a premium on the memorabilia circuit.

February 21, 1986: The Reds offer future Hall of Fame pitcher Rollie Fingers a spring training tryout. Fingers refused to sign with Cincinnati, however, because the club wanted him to shave his trademark handlebar mustache. Fingers never pitched another game in the major leagues.

March 2, 1989: Reds owner Marge Schott and outfielder Kal Daniels settled a $25,000 difference in salary negotiations with a coin flip. Daniels wanted $325,000 in salary, while the club was offering $300,000. Schott proposed settling the dispute with a coin flip, and Daniels agreed. The coin flip took place in the parking lot at the Reds training complex in Plant City, Florida, and was carried live by Cincinnati television station WLWT on its 5:30pm newscast. Using a 50-cent piece, Schott called heads and it came up tails, earning Daniels an instant $25,000.

March 23, 1989: After surrendering a game-winning homer in a 7-5 loss to the Tigers at Plant City, Rob Dibble beats on the clubhouse wall with a bat, turns over several picnic tables, and throws metal folding chairs into a pond.

March 30, 1993: Reds 1B Hal Morris injures his shoulder in a fight with opposing pitcher Jose Mesa during a 6-5 win over the Cleveland Indians in an exhibition game in Winter Haven, Florida. After giving up back-to-back homers to Barry Larkin and Chris Sabo, Mesa threw a fastball behind Morris’s head. During the ensuing altercation, Morris landed hard on his shoulder. He would be out of action until June 7.

March 4, 2023: Reds uber-prospect Elly De La Cruz homers and triples in the same spring training game, immediately becoming a Cincinnati legend. De La Cruz would go on to play 17 years for the Reds, and would eventually be elected to the baseball Hall of Fame.

The Riverfront: A Cincinnati Reds Show

It's Academy Awards week (you already know this because I dropped a dumb movie column into your inbox, right?), so Nate and I got together to hand out some trophies: the 2023 Cincinnati Reds Preseason Awards. We also talked Reds Opening Day, answered some Viewer Mail, and talked about why it's okay to be irrationally excited about Reds spring training and the kiddos.

This week, we also saw the debut of Late Night Reds Talk at The Riverfront. The LNR crew has been doing great work, and we’re so happy that they have joined us. I hope you’ll check them out on our video and audio feeds.

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The Riverfront by Chad Dotson

The Ghosts of Spring Trainings Past...