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The Cincinnati Reds Spring Training Camp in Sarasota, FloridaCincinnati Reds Spring Training camp opens every year in late February. In 1997 the Cincinnati Reds assumed the lease of Ed Smith Stadium and Sarasota then became their official spring training site.
A Brief History of Baseball Spring Training in SarasotaHow did “little, sleepy” Sarasota become one of the nation’s baseball spring training sites?There are a couple of sides to this story; The New York Giants began Sarasota's love affair with Major League Baseball in 1924 after a group of local citizens banded together and built what became Payne Park just behind the old courthouse building at Ringling and Washington Streets.
The larger story: The New York Giants were brought to Sarasota by the Giants’ John McGraw in a roundabout way due to McGraw’s friendship with Bobby Jones. Jones had some holdings in the Sarasota area and was one of the original partners in Sarasota’s Sara Bay Golf Club.
McGraw began coming to Sarasota during the Land Boon of the ‘20s and was convinced by the City Fathers to bring his club to train in Sarasota. So, the Giants came to town in 1924 and remained in Sarasota for spring training for a few years.
Then in the 1930's the Boston Red Sox arrived and trained in Sarasota through 1958, except during the World War II years when spring training was suspended altogether.
Sarasota hosted a few Los Angeles Dodger games in 1959 and then the Chicago White Sox moved from Tampa to Sarasota in 1960. The White Sox were the ”home” team for more than 35 spring training seasons in Sarasota, before the Cincinnati Reds came to town in 1997. The Cincinnati Reds spring training schedule for baseball season 2008 finds pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report to the City of Sarasota Sports Complex at Ed Smith Stadium on February 16, 2008 and position players are due in on February 19, 2008. An intra-squad scrimmage tentatively is scheduled for February 26, 2008 at Ed Smith Stadium. (Dates and times are deemed to be correct, however they were provided by the Red's office and are subject to change without notice, according to the Reds.)
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