Official site of the Cactus League

From Dust to Diamonds: The Evolution of the Cactus League

Origins of Spring Training

The recognized start of the Cactus League is 1947 when the Cleveland Indians and New York Giants set up training bases in Arizona. The evolution that led to the establishment of the Cactus League began much earlier.

Most sources cite 1886 as the beginning of organized spring training. Cap Anson took the Chicago White Stockings of the National League to Hot Springs, AK to train before the start of the season. Others say that the Boston Beaneaters started the practice in 1884 in New Orleans. The New York Mutuals and Cincinnati Red Stockings went north for training in 1869. The definition of spring training is where the confusion lies. Were these early trips nothing more than revenue generating tours that took advantage of warmer climates, or were they designed to prepare the teams for the regular season? In any case we know that teams began these pre-season excursions around the turn of the century.

Early spring training sites were selected on a year-to-year basis. The first permanent site was established in Marlin Spring, TX in 1908 when John McGraw took his New York Giants there to train. They came back for ten more springs before moving to Gainesville, FL in 1919.

Largely because of the efforts of St. Petersburg Mayor Al Lang, Florida became a popular spring training destination.

Arizona Beginnings

Spring training once consisted of a couple of weeks practice at a spring training site followed by a series of exhibition games en route home to open the season. Train routes determined where these exhibitions would be played. Because they happened to be on the route, Yuma, Bisbee and Tucson became popular stops for clubs training in California as they barnstormed back home. As Phoenix grew and gained a direct train route to the coast, they were added to the spring training itinerary. The first of these exhibition games occurred in 1909 when the Chicago White Sox, who trained in San Francisco, made late March stops in Yuma and Tucson. This practice continued for decades as The White Sox, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates, Philadelphia Athletics, New York Giants and St. Louis Browns all stopped in Arizona to play spring exhibitions.

Arizona's First Major League Spring Camp

In the spring of 1929, the Detroit Tigers chose Phoenix as their spring training base. They held camp at Riverside Park, located at Central Avenue and the shores of the Salt River. A few years earlier, the City of Phoenix had raised $10,000 to erect a wooden grandstand and re-do the park's diamond. The Cubs and Pirates played a couple of games there and in 1929, at the urging of Phoenix resident and Pirate infielder George Grantham, the Tigers decided to train there. A new direct train route to the coast had just opened and the Tigers took full advantage. They trained for a couple of weeks at Riverside Park before heading to the coast to play a series of exhibitions against teams training in California. They returned to Arizona and the Cubs and Pirates made stops in Phoenix to play exhibitions against the Tigers. Detroit split the games and all three teams headed east for their openers. The following year, the Tigers decided to move their camp to Tampa Florida and never returned to Arizona.

California's Orange League

California, a natural warm weather site for spring training, hosted teams nearly every year from 1903-1953. The "Orange League" as it was informally known, was instrumental in the eventual establishment of the Cactus League.

At any one time, there were usually four teams training in California. They provided spring competition for each other as did the teams of the minor's Pacific Coast League. War restrictions forced teams to train closer to home from 1943-45 as western spring training was suspended.

Following the war, spring training resumed in California with the Cubs, White Sox, Pirates and Browns returning in 1946. In 1947, the Cleveland Indians and New York Giants began training in Arizona and became defacto members of the Orange League. The Giants and Indians would start training in Phoenix and Tucson respectively, play a few exhibitions against each other, and then go on extended trips to the coast where they would play games against teams training in California and against PCL teams. They would then return to their Arizona camps for another week where the California teams would make stops on their return trips east So went the schedule for about five years.

In 1952 the Pacific Coast league became a quasi major league when they were granted open classification. That is they were above AAA, but somewhat below being a bonafide major league. This new status gave the PCL authority to enact some territorial rights and limit access to big league teams. The new rules prohibited Major League games in PCL cities the week before the coast league season started. This meant that there were about three weeks of the spring in which no MLB games could be played there. The rule led to the demise of the Orange League. The Cubs moved to Mesa, Arizona in 1952 and the Pirates fled to Florida in 1953. In 1954 the White Sox relocated to Florida as well, and Browns, who became the Baltimore Orioles, moved camp to Yuma Arizona. By 1954, all 16 teams were training in either Florida or Arizona.

Beginnings of the Cactus League

In 1946, Bill Veeck sold the Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association and bought a ranch in the Tucson area. That summer, Veeck and his group of investors purchased the Cleveland Indians. An oft repeated myth spun by Veeck in his autobiography, leads one to believe that Tucson was selected as a spring training site because the city had a more tolerant racial environment than the club's 1946 site in Clearwater, FL. There is no evidence, other than Veeck's post de facto claims, that either Doby or a better racial climate had anything to do with the Indians setting up spring training in Arizona. Unfortunately, as is often the case when a story is repeated often enough, it becomes accepted as fact. The reality is that Doby wasn't even signed by the Indians until July, 3, 1947 and spent his first spring in Arizona the following year. By then, the Indians had already spent one spring in Tucson. When Doby arrived, he found that he was not allowed to stay at the team hotel but instead had to live with a local black family. Other Cactus League teams faced similar circumstances. The Boston Red Sox, the last major league team to integrate, trained in Arizona when their barrier breaker, Pumpsie Green came to camp in 1960. They found that he was not allowed to live at the Safari Hotel in Scottsdale with the rest of the team and was forced to live alone at a cheap motel in Phoenix. The fact is that Arizona faced segregation issues until the civil rights movement of the 1960's. Most likely, the truth is that Veeck, as many owners before and after have done, chose Tucson based on personal preference. After all Veeck's home was near Tucson and as he admitted, he wanted to be near his children as much as possible. It was easy to convince Giants owner Horace Stoneham to train in Phoenix as he had a home it that city. It was a logical pairing as the Giants and Indians had been spring barnstorming partners since 1934. The series would become the longest running spring rivalry in baseball. By the time the Indians broke the pairing by moving to Florida after the 1992 season, the two teams had played more than 500 exhibition games against each other.

The first game between two teams with spring training bases in Arizona came on March 8, 1947 at Tucson's Randolph Park (later renamed Hi Corbett Field). The Indians won, 3-1. The Indians played seven home games in Tucson while the Giants had eight openings at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. Thus the Cactus League was born.

Beginnings of the Cactus League

In its early years, the Indians and Giants combined with the four teams training in California to make up western spring training. During this time, the remaining 10 teams trained in Florida. In 1951 the Giants and Yankees were involved in a unique trade. The two New York based clubs swapped spring training sites. The arrangement came at the request of Yanks owner Del Webb who wanted to show off his club to his Arizona neighbors. The Yankees trained in Phoenix and the Giants held camp in St. Petersburg, FL. Arizona fans were treated to Mickey Mantle's first spring training and Joe Dimaggio's last. The following year both clubs returned to their previous spring homes.

The Chicago Cubs joined the Indians and Giants in Arizona in 1952. The Cubs had trained on Catalina Island off the coast of California since 1921, except for the three years that war restrictions forced them to train in Indiana. They had been a frequent visitor to Arizona for exhibition games and it seemed that they were ready to move their camp to Mesa in 1943 when war restrictions sidelined their plans. Instead, they returned to Catalina in 1946. A few years of cold, rainy weather and pending restrictions from the PCL convinced the Cubs to move to Mesa for the spring of 1952. Once again, the club owner had local ties. The Wrigley family owned the famous Biltmore Hotel and the Wrigley mansion in Phoenix.

In 1954 the St. Louis Browns became the Baltimore Orioles and headed to Yuma for spring training. Bill Veeck was again the catalyst in bringing a team to Arizona to train. Veeck, who had sold the Indians and later purchased the Browns, had signed an agreement to move the club's spring headquarters from San Bernardino, CA to Yuma for 1954. In the period between the end of the 1953 season and before spring training, 1954, Veeck sold the club to Baltimore interests. The Orioles honored the deal and spent 1954 training in Yuma.

With four teams training in Arizona and none in California, the informal Cactus League moniker for the collective group began to become more institutionalized. The Cactus League name had been around for many years. As early as 1909 a minor league in Texas considered the use of the name. In the 1920s the Arizona League considered using Cactus League instead. Even before the Indians and Giants established camps in Arizona, the term was used in newspapers to describe western spring training. In 1954, the American Legion created the Cactus Cup to be awarded to the winner of the Cactus League. The Orioles, with a 16-12 record, were the winner of the cup. Although newspapers still reported spring training standings collectively as Grapefruit League well into the 1960s, the Cactus League name became more popular. Today, the leagues are clearly defined; the Grapefruit League consists of teams training in Florida and the Cactus League is made up of teams training in Arizona.

Free from the contract signed by Veeck, the new owners moved the Orioles to Daytona, FL in 1955. The following year however, they were back in Arizona at newly constructed Scottsdale Stadium. Their three year run there ended in 1958 as they returned to Florida for the 1959 spring season.

Scottsdale didn't stay long without a tenant as Horace Stoneham called his friend, Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey and explained that Arizona needed four teams for scheduling purposes. The Red Sox were in a dispute of their own with Sarasota, FL over the condition of their facilities. Yawkey agreed to move the Sox to Scottsdale and they began a seven year stay in 1959. Fans were able to witness the final years of Ted Williams' career and the first of Carl Yastrzemski's.

Expansion Grows the Cactus League

In 1961 expansion brought spring training back to California. The Los Angeles Angels set up camp in Palm Springs and joined the Cactus League circuit. The following year the league grew to six teams with the addition of another expansion team, the Houston Colt 45s. Houston owners, hoping to create a spring training boom town, set up camp in remote Apache Junction at newly constructed Geronimo Park. The honeymoon didn't last long for the Colts however. After just two seasons of battling the rattlesnakes and enduring tiny crowds, the club bolted to Florida for the 1964 spring season.

It wasn't all bad news that spring however. The Giants opened beautiful new Phoenix Municipal Stadium replacing the ancient park of the same name. Willie Mays christened the new park with its first home run as the Giants played to huge crowds.

The league would soon find itself shrinking again. In 1966 the Red Sox headed for Winter Haven Florida. The club said that Arizona was just too far for their fans to visit spring training and the time difference caused problems for the press getting coverage into their afternoon editions. That wasn't the end of the bad news. The Cubs accepted an offer to move their spring base back to California. The community of Escondido offered to build a spring complex for the Cubs that would accommodate both the club's major and minor league operations. The new facility was to be ready for spring, 1967. The Cubs agreed to spend 1966 in Long Beach while the new facility was being built. That left Arizona with only their two original teams--the Indians in Tucson and the Giants in Phoenix. May feared the worst for the Cactus League.

Escondido couldn't close the deal on a new facility and the Cubs returned to Arizona in 1967. This time they took up residence at Scottsdale Stadium while Mesa continued to go dark.

Western Expansion Grows the Cactus League

By the start of spring training 1967, the Cactus league was reaching a crossroads. Although the Cubs had returned to Arizona from a one year stint in California, only the three anchor teams remained; the Cubs, Giants and Indians-- the same group that populated the league in 1952. The Angels were the fourth Cactus League team but they called Palm Springs, CA home. The Orioles, Red Sox and Colt 45s had all come and gone. Sixteen of the 20 Major League teams trained in Florida and the future of the Cactus League was in question. Then came 1969 and the Major League's western expansion. Four new teams came into being; the San Diego Padres, Seattle Pilots, Kansas City Royals and Montreal Expos. The two western clubs chose to train closer to home in Arizona. The Padres selected Yuma, just a few short hours drive from San Diego, and the Pilots picked Tempe where they would move into a new spring training facility that also had a minor league complex. To add to the league's rejuvenation, the Oakland Athletics, who had relocated from Kansas City in 1968, moved their spring training to Mesa which had been vacant since the Cubs left.. The infusion of three new teams doubled the number of clubs training in Arizona and brought Cactus League membership to seven--its largest ever.

For the next two decades the Cactus League enjoyed tremendous stability and growth in popularity. Although several teams played musical chairs with stadium sites, the seven Cactus League teams would remain together until 1993 when a new chapter would be written in the league's history. In 1977, expansion would again bring new blood to the league as the Seattle Mariners moved into Tempe Diablo Stadium. The original tenant, the Seattle Pilots played there for two seasons. Their second spring, 1970, was filled with drama. They arrived in bankruptcy and had to borrow money from the American League to cover spring training expenses. In the last days of spring training, they were being sold to Bud Selig and his Milwaukee group. The deal wasn't finalized until the truck had been loaded to head home for the start of the season. The moving vans were headed out and then parked in Utah while they waited for instructions on whether to head to Seattle or Milwaukee. An eleventh hour deal sent them to Milwaukee where the patches were torn from the Pilots uniforms an replaced with Brewer's logo.

Milwaukee spent two years at the Tempe training site before escaping an unfavorable lease that they inherited from the Pilots. In 1973 they moved on to a new stadium in Sun City that was built by Del Webb. They would become the most traveled Cactus League team when the moved again to a new stadium in Chandler in 1986 and yet another new ballpark in Maryvale in 1998. The expansion Mariners brought spring training back to Tempe in 1977 where they trained for 16 years.

In Mesa, old Rendezvous Park was razed 1976 and replaced by Hohokam Park just a few blocks away. The new park opened in 1977 for the Oakland A's. The A's had enjoyed incredible success on the field in winning three straight World Series from 1972-74. In spite of their success, they never were quite able to capture the fancy of Mesa where many Chicago transplants lived and Midwestern snowbirds wintered. In 1979 Mesa's prodigal sons returned as the Cubs and A's swapped sites. All seemed right with the world as the Cubs were back in Mesa and the swinging A's were in the west's most western town. For the A's their stay in Scottsdale proved to be a short one. After just three years, Oakland swapped sites again, this time with their bay area companion San Francisco Giants. The A's moved into Phoenix Municipal Stadium in 1982 and the Giants ended their 35 year relationship with the city of Phoenix by becoming Scottsdale Stadium's fifth tenant. Despite the internal movement of teams, the Cactus League remained a stable eight team unit that would stay in place until the Cleveland Indians upset the balance in 1992.

Florida Raiders Threaten Cactus League Survival

By the 1980s the nature of spring training had changed. Once a casual, low-key affair in which teams sought only to recover expenses, spring training had grown into a multi-million dollar proposition in which ball clubs and communities have much at stake.

Florida was the first to recognize this changing environment and they were proactive. The Sunshine State enacted legislation to allow state and county bed tax revenues to be used for the development of professional sports facilities. Sales taxes could also be earmarked for helping counties to attract teams and provide facilities. The Indians, Cubs and Mariners were all investigating options in Florida.

Recognizing the threat and the economic implications to Arizona, Governor Rose Mofford appointed a special task force on Cactus League Baseball. The task force findings concluded that the Cactus League provided $160 million to the Arizona economy. They also recognized that "the future of Cactus League baseball is tenuous because teams are being offered lucrative proposals to relocate to Florida." The Governor and the task force were too late to prevent the Indians from accepting a package to move to Florida after the 1992 spring season. However, their efforts were successful in leading to the creation of a public-private partnership between state, county and city governments and private participation. This partnership model led to the creation of a funding mechanism for the renovation and construction of Cactus League facilities. In 1992, Scottsdale opened their new state-of-the-art ballpark designed by famed architect HOK. Construction was funded by the sale of bonds.

Cleveland left for Florida in 1993 but was immediately replaced in Tucson by the arrival of the Colorado Rockies in 1993 thereby preserving the eight team circuit. The Angels moved their spring base from Palm Springs to Tempe as every CL team now trained in Arizona. Diablo Stadium underwent an extensive facelift for their new tenants. Meanwhile, the displaced Mariners became road warriors in playing all away games as they awaited construction of a new two-team complex in Peoria.

In 1994 the Padres left Yuma and joined the Mariners at the new $32 million Peoria Sports Complex. Mesa updated the Cubs facilities with a new $15 million, 12,632 seat ballpark in 1997.

The Florida threat had been headed off and order preserved as teams enjoyed new facilities and record crowds.

Explosive Growth

After twice avoiding possible extinction, the Cactus League had been able to remain a viable eight team unit. From 1969-1997 they had grown by only one team. In 1998 baseball would expand again and the Cactus league would grow to 10 teams as Arizona finally got a team of its own. The expansion Diamondbacks selected Tucson where they would train with the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox, were enticed to join the Diamondbacks at new $37 million Tucson Electric Park and the adjoining Kino Sports Complex. At the same time, the Brewers left Chandler for their new $23 million park in Maryvale.

Five years later, the Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers deserted Florida for the latest and greatest state-of -the-art facility in Surprise. The new complex cost $48 million. The league wasn't done expanding. In 2006 the White Sox and Dodgers announced that they would move their spring training operations to a new complex to be built in Glendale. The clubs opened up there in 2009 as the Dodgers turned their back on a 60-year spring training history in Vero Beach, FL. The White Sox move triggered events that would see both the Diamondbacks and Rockies also leave Tucson. With just two teams left in Tucson, the city was no longer a viable option because of the lack of proximity to other big league competition. The Rockies and Diamodbacks would soon relocate to the Phoenix area as well.

The Cleveland Indians, one of the Cactus League's original clubs, retuned in 2009 after a 16-year absence. The town of Goodyear has an Ohio connection as it was founded in 1917 by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company of Akron, OH. It seemed natural then for the Indians to accept an invitation to return to Arizona and new Goodyear Ballpark. They were back for the 2009 season and the following season the tribe was joined by the Cincinnati Reds. This brought Cactus League membership to 15 teams, half of all Major League clubs. In 2011 the Diamondbacks and Rockies moved from Tucson to a new spring palace at the Salt River Indian Community in Scottsdale.

The Future

The wave of new stadiums isn't complete however. The Chicago Cubs have reached an agreement with the City of Mesa to build yet another new ballpark which is scheduled to open in 2014. In the past dozen years, Cactus League membership has nearly doubled. With the survival of the league ensured, it is likely that the coming years will bring further growth. For scheduling purposes, Major League Baseball would like to see an even number of teams in both the Grapefruit and the Cactus Leagues.