List of baseball parks in Tampa Bay, Florida

Last updated April 02, 2022

This is a list of venues used for professional baseball in the region of Florida called Tampa Bay. It includes Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater and neighboring cities. The information shown is a summary of the information contained in the references listed.

Location: Clearwater – Pennsylvania Avenue (west – third base?), Seminole Street (north – left field?), Palmetto Street (south – first base?), Greenwood Avenue (now North Martin Luther King Jr Avenue) (east – right field?) "Home plate was located on Pennsylvania Avenue, which ran south to north along the third base line, near Seminole Street. Left field ran parallel to Palmetto Street, and right field ran parallel to Greenwood Ave. The grandstand was destroyed by fire in April 1956."

Currently: North Greenwood Recreation and Aquatic Complex.

St. Petersburg Athletic Park a.k.a. Waterfront Park (opened 1923)

Home of – spring training:

Boston Braves NL (1921 or 1922–1937)

New York Yankees – AL (1925–1942,1946–1947)

St. Louis Cardinals – NL (1938–1942,1946–1947)

Home of – minor league:

St. Petersburg Saints – Florida State League (1921–1928)

Location: Same as Al Lang Field (see below)

Al Lang Stadium (opened 1947) a.k.a. Al Lang Field

Home of – spring training

New York Yankees – AL (1947–1950, 1952–1961)

St. Louis Cardinals – NL (1947–1997)

New York Giants – NL (1951)

New York Mets – NL (1962–1987)

Baltimore Orioles – AL (1991–1995)

Tampa Bay Rays – AL (1998–2008)

Canada national baseball team (2011–present)

Netherlands national baseball team (2011–present)

Nexen Heroes (spring training) Korea Baseball Organization (2011–present)

Home of – minor league and university

St. Petersburg Saints – Florida International League (1947–1954); Florida State League (1955–1965); St. Petersburg Cardinals – FSL (1965–1997)

St. Petersburg Pelicans – SPBA (1989–1990)

ACC Tournament (1997, 2002)

St. Petersburg Devil Rays – FSL (1998–2000)

C-USA Tournament (2000)

Location: St. Petersburg – Second Avenue Southeast (north – home plate), Bay Shore Drive Southeast and then Tampa Bay (east – left field corner), Fourth Avenue South (south – center field), First Street Southeast (west – right field corner).

Currently: Used for soccer.

Jack Russell Memorial Stadium (1955–2003) org. Jack Russell Field

Home of – spring training:

Philadelphia Phillies – NL (1955–2003)

Home of – minor league:

Clearwater Phillies – FSL (1985–2003)

Location: Clearwater – 800 Phillies Drive (west – third base); Palmetto Street (north – left field), North Jefferson Avenue (east – right field), Seminole Street (south – first base) – one block directly east of the site of Clearwater Athletic Field.

Al Lopez Field (opened 1955)

Home of – spring training

Chicago White Sox – AL (1955–1959)

Cincinnati Reds – NL (1960–1987)

Home of – minor league

Tampa Tarpons – FSL (1957–1988)

Location: Tampa – Northeast quadrant of what is now the Raymond James Stadium complex.

Tropicana Field (opened 1990) previously Florida Suncoast Dome and Thunderdome

Home of:

Tampa Bay Rays – American League (1998–present)

Location: St. Petersburg – 1 Tropicana Drive – Stadium Drive and then Interstate 175 (south), 16th Street South and then Interstate 275 (west), Pinellas Trail and then First Avenue (north), parking lots and then 10th Street South (east). Edge of complex is about 10 block straight west of Al Lang Field.

George M. Steinbrenner Field (opened 1996)

Home of – spring training:

New York Yankees – AL (1996–present)

Home of – minor league:

Tampa Tarpons – FSL (1996–present)

Gulf Coast Yankees – Gulf Coast League (1990–present)

Location: Tampa – 1 Steinbrenner Drive – Immediately northwest of Raymond James Stadium complex, across North Dale Mabry Highway

Bright House Field

Home of – spring training:

Philadelphia Phillies – NL (2004–present)

Home of – minor league:

Clearwater Threshers – FSL (2004–present)

Location: Clearwater – 601 Old Coachman Road – Just east of where Sharky Road T's into Old Coachman Road

Sources

Peter Filichia, Professional Baseball Franchises, Facts on File, 1993.
Phil Lowry, Green Cathedrals, several editions.
Michael Benson, Ballparks of North America, McFarland, 1989.

External links

Related Research Articles

St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census estimate, the population was 271,842, making it the fifth-most populous city in Florida, the second-largest city in the Tampa Bay Area, after Tampa, and the largest in the state that is not a county seat. Along with Clearwater, these cities are part of the Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area, the second-largest in Florida with a population of around 2.8 million. St. Petersburg is on the Pinellas peninsula between Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, and is connected to mainland Florida to the north.

Clearwater Threshers Minor League Baseball team

The Clearwater Threshers are a Minor League Baseball team of the Florida State League and the Single-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. They are located in Clearwater, Florida, and have played their home games at BayCare Ballpark since 2004. They previously played at Jack Russell Memorial Stadium from 1985 to 2003.

The Lakeland Flying Tigers are a Minor League Baseball team of the Florida State League and the Single-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. They are located in Lakeland, Florida, and play their home games at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium.

Tampa Tarpons Minor League Baseball team

The Tampa Tarpons are a Minor League Baseball team of the Florida State League and the Single-A affiliate of the New York Yankees Major League Baseball team based in Tampa, Florida. The Tarpons play their home games at George M. Steinbrenner Field, which is also the spring training home of the New York Yankees and incorporates design elements from old Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, including identical field dimensions. They competed at the Class A-Advanced level from 1994 to 2020 before being reclassified Low Single-A in 2021. Since their inception, the club has won five league championships, in 1994, 2001, 2004, 2009, and 2010.

The Tampa Bay area is a major populated area surrounding Tampa Bay on the west coast of Florida in the United States. It includes the main cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater. It is the 18th largest metropolitan area in the United States, with a population of 3,175,275 as of the 2020 U.S. Census.

Al Lang Stadium is a 7,500-seat sports stadium in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida, United States, that is the current home field of the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the USL Championship. It was used almost exclusively as a baseball park for over 60 years. However, since the Rowdies moved to the facility in 2011, it has been reconfigured to better host soccer.

George M. Steinbrenner Field, is a baseball stadium located in Tampa, Florida across Dale Mabry Highway from Raymond James Stadium, home of the National Football League's Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The ballpark was built in 1996 and holds 11,026 people with an addition in right field built in 2007. This ballpark is the largest spring training ballpark in Florida.

BayCare Ballpark American baseball stadium

BayCare Ballpark is a baseball stadium located in Clearwater, Florida, in the United States. The stadium was built in 2004 and has a maximum seating capacity of 8,500 people.

Al López Field was a spring training and Minor League baseball ballpark in West Tampa, Tampa, Florida, United States. It was named for Al López, the first Tampa native to play Major League Baseball (MLB), manage an MLB team, and be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Al López Field was built in 1954 and hosted its first spring training in 1955, when the Chicago White Sox moved their training site to Tampa from California. Al López became the White Sox's manager in 1957, and for the next three springs, he was the home manager in a ballpark named after himself. The Cincinnati Reds replaced the White Sox as Al López Field's primary tenant in 1960 and would return every spring for almost 30 years. The Tampa Tarpons, the Reds' Class-A minor league affiliate in the Florida State League, played at the ballpark every summer from 1961–1987, and many members of the Reds' Big Red Machine teams of the 1970s played there early in their professional baseball careers.

Tampa Tarpons (1957–1988) Minor League Baseball team

The Tampa Tarpons were a minor league baseball team based in Tampa, Florida. Their home ballpark was Al Lopez Field, and they were a member of the Class A Florida State League (FSL) from 1955 until 1988, mostly as an affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds. In 1988, they were sold, relocated, and renamed the Sarasota White Sox. During their run in Tampa, they won three FSL league championships, in 1957, 1959 and 1961.

Miami Stadium was a baseball stadium in Miami, Florida. It was primarily used for baseball, and was the home field of the Miami Marlins minor league baseball team, as well as other minor league teams. It opened in 1949 and held 13,500 people.

Jack Russell Memorial Stadium is a stadium in Clearwater, Florida. It opened as Jack Russell Stadium in 1955. It had a capacity of 4,744 when it opened; in 2003 seating capacity was 6,942 people. It was the spring training home of the Philadelphia Phillies Major League Baseball team from 1955 through 2003. Since 2017, it has been home to the Clearwater High School and St. Petersburg College baseball teams.

Baseball in the Tampa Bay Area, both amateur and professional, has had a long and storied history, even though the Tampa Bay Rays are one of the two youngest franchises in Major League Baseball.

Sports in the Tampa Bay area Overview of sports opportunities in the Tampa Bay area

The Tampa Bay area is home to many sports teams and has a substantial history of sporting activity. Most of the region's professional sports franchises use the name "Tampa Bay", which is the name of a body of water, not of any city. This is to emphasize that they represent the wider metropolitan area and not a particular municipality and was a tradition started by Tampa's first major sports team, the original Tampa Bay Rowdies, when they were founded in 1975.

Plant Field Athletic venue in Tampa, Florida

Plant Field was the first major athletic venue in Tampa, Florida. It was built in 1899 by Henry B. Plant on the grounds of his Tampa Bay Hotel to host various events and activities for guests, and it consisted of a large field ringed by an oval race track flanked by a large covered grandstand on the western straightaway with portable seating used to accommodate a wide variety of uses. Over the ensuing decades, Plant Field drew Tampa residents and visitors to see horse racing, car racing, baseball games, entertainers, and politicians. The stadium also hosted the first professional football and first spring training games in Tampa and was the long-time home of the Florida State Fair.

Clearwater Athletic Field was a stadium in Clearwater, Florida. It was first used by professional baseball teams for spring training in 1923 and was the Phillies' first spring training ballpark in Clearwater. The grandstand sat approximately 2,000 and bleachers increased capacity to close to 3,000. Home plate was located on Pennsylvania Avenue, which ran south to north along the third base line, near Seminole Street. Left field ran parallel to Palmetto Street, and right field ran parallel to Greenwood Ave. The grandstand was destroyed by fire in April 1956.

The Carpenter Complex is a complex of four baseball fields, training facilities, and offices in Clearwater, Florida. It opened as Carpenter Field in 1967. It is the Florida home of the Philadelphia Phillies baseball operations, spring training site for the Phillies’ minor league players, home to the Florida Complex League Phillies, and adjacent to BayCare Ballpark, spring training home of the Philadelphia Phillies and regular season home of the Clearwater Threshers. While the Complex is now adjacent to BayCare Ballpark, the Phillies, until 2004, played spring training games a short drive away, which gave the Complex its own identity in the Phillies organizational structure and the team's history.

Coffee Pot Park was a ballpark in St. Petersburg, Florida home to the St. Petersburg Saints minor-league baseball team until 1928, and spring training home of the St. Louis Browns and Philadelphia Phillies. Its capacity was approximately 850 for baseball. The park was named for the nearby Coffee Pot Bayou. The field was also used by local high school teams and for amateur softball. The ballpark was replaced in 1922 by Waterfront Park as the home to spring training in St. Pete.

The Fort Lauderdale Yankees, based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, were an American Minor League Baseball franchise that existed from 1962 through 1992. The team was a member of the Florida State League (FSL) as an affiliate of the New York Yankees and won seven FSL championships during its 31 years of existence.

Grant Field was a baseball stadium located in Dunedin, Florida. It was the longtime home of Dunedin amateur baseball and the first spring training home of the Toronto Blue Jays, as well as home to the Dunedin Blue Jays of the Class A Florida State League. It was closed in 1989 and replaced with TD Ballpark built on the same site.

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List of baseball parks in Tampa Bay, Florida

Contents

See also

Sources

External links

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