Baltimore Orioles Spring TrainingBaltimore Orioles Spring Training opens in Sarasota Florida in mid February.Orioles Find New Spring Training Home in Sarasota in 2010With a new home and a new deal, including a 30 year lease and the promises of a refurbished Ed Smith Stadium after the 2010 season, along with a new stadium name of the Oriole’s choosing, the Orioles spring training camp moved from Ft. Lauderdale to Sarasota in 2010.
But the two concerns finally came together when it looked like all hope had dissolved in the negotiations...or as an avid fan would put it: "it's two outs, bases loaded, tied score, full count in the bottom of the 9th." Both sides came out winners. Some longtime Orioles fans may remember, however, that this is not the first time the O’s have held their spring training rites in Sarasota.   Baltimore Orioles Spring Training in Sarasota Florida The O's spring training entourage called Ed Smith Stadium home for a whopping big 3 games in 1991 when they shared the stadium with the White Sox. They also shared McKechnie Field with the Pirates that spring training season and earlier, in 1989, the O’s began training at what is now Twin Oaks Park, east of I-75 off Clark road, back when it was the Kansas City Royals Academy.  Baseball Spring Training: Years of Travel for the Orioles For some reason it seemed like the O’s could not find a permanent home and were the vagabonds of the Grapefruit League. The Baltimore Spring Training Camp has bounced around the state of Florida: in ’89 at Miami’s Biscayne College, in ’91 they took up spring residence at Sarasota’s Twin Lakes Park again while hoping for a permanent home in Naples, which fell through. The O’s spent spring training’s last week and a half in 1991 at Pompano Beach before moving to Port Charlotte, Florida. Spring training camp locations for the O’s also included: Al Lang Stadium in St. Pete and of course since 1996, Ft. Lauderdale. Baseball Spring Training History is Made Again in Sarasota The O’s and Sarasota have “flirted” with each other through the years. And now,the O’s have found a permanent home, at last, as Baltimore Spring Training has come to Sarasota. Not such a bad deal. The O’s get a new, permanent home with upgrades and Sarasota gets to remain a traditional home to baseball spring training, as it has been since the early 20th Century. Sarasota welcomes the Baltimore Orioles Spring Training Camp to town. Go O's! Return from Baltimore Orioles Spring Training to Baseball Spring Training Sites main page.
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The team had been on a year-to-year retainer with Ft. Lauderdale since 2004 and talks between the O’s and Sarasota officials were on & off several times over the course of 2008-09. 