The Florida State League (FSL) is a Minor League Baseball league based in the state of Florida. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 until its demotion to Single-A following Major League Baseball's 2021 reorganization of the minor leagues. The league temporarily operated for the 2021 season as the Low-A Southeast before reassuming its original moniker in 2022.
Hendry County is a county in the Florida Heartland region of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 39,619, a 1.2% increase from 39,140 at the 2010 census. Its county seat is LaBelle.
Lee County is a county located in southwestern Florida, United States, on the Gulf Coast. As of the 2020 census, its population was 760,822. In 2022, the population was 822,453, making it the eighth-most populous county in the state. The county seat is Fort Myers, with a population of 86,395 as of the 2020 census, and the largest city is Cape Coral, with an estimated 2020 population of 194,016.
Fort Myers is a city in and the county seat of Lee County, Florida, United States. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 95,949 in 2022, ranking the city the 370th-most-populous in the country. Together with the larger and more residential city of Cape Coral, the smaller cities of Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel, and Bonita Springs, the village of Estero, and the unincorporated districts of Lehigh Acres and North Fort Myers, it anchors the Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL metropolitan statistical area (MSA) which comprises Lee County and has a population of 834,573 as of 2023.
The Fort Myers Mighty Mussels are a Minor League Baseball team of the Florida State League and the Single-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins. They are located in Fort Myers, Florida, and play their home games at the Lee County Sports Complex at Hammond Stadium, which has a capacity of 7,500 and opened in 1991. The park is also used as the Minnesota Twins' spring training facility.
City of Palms Park is a baseball stadium in Fort Myers, Florida. It served as the spring training home of the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball (MLB) from its opening in 1993 to 2011. It has hosted college baseball games for Florida SouthWestern State College since 2014. The stadium's name is taken from the city's official nickname.
Southwest Florida is the region along the southwest Gulf coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is known for its beaches, subtropical landscape, and winter resort economy.
The Silver Palm was a daily passenger train route operated by Amtrak between Miami and Tampa in the U.S. state of Florida. Service began in 1982 and ended in 1985.
The Senior Professional Baseball Association, referred to commonly as the Senior League, was a winter baseball league based in Florida for players age 35 and over, with a minimum age of 32 for catchers. The league began play in 1989 and had eight teams in two divisions and a 72-game schedule. Pitchers Rollie Fingers, Ferguson Jenkins, and Vida Blue, outfielder Dave Kingman, and managers Earl Weaver and Dick Williams were the league's marquee names; and former big league outfielder Curt Flood was the circuit's first Commissioner. At age 54, Ed Rakow was the league's oldest player.
The Breakers Palm Beach is a historic, Renaissance Revival style luxury hotel with 534 rooms. It is located at 1 South County Road in Palm Beach, Florida. The current structure, opened in December 1926, is the third version of The Breakers, as the previous hotel buildings on the site burnt down in 1903 and 1925. During the 1895-96 winter season, business tycoon Henry Flagler opened the first Breakers resort, then the only oceanfront lodging south of Daytona Beach, to accommodate additional tourists due to the popularity of his Royal Poinciana Hotel. Known as the Palm Beach Inn upon its original opening, the hotel was renamed The Breakers in 1901 after guests requested rooms "over by the breakers." Although the Royal Poinciana Hotel permanently closed in the 1930s due to the Great Depression, The Breakers instead became a primary resort in Palm Beach, hosting many famous guests throughout the years.
The Terry Park Ballfield is a historic site in Fort Myers, Florida, United States. The park is named after the family who donated the land in the 1920s. For years the stadium hosted Major League Baseball spring training, as well as a dozen years of Florida State League baseball. The stadium hosted the Philadelphia Athletics, Cleveland Indians, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Kansas City Royals spring training through the years. Terry Park was also home to some early minor league baseball, most notably the Fort Myers Palms and Fort Myers Royals, both belonging to the Florida State League. Hall of Famers Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Roberto Clemente, Jimmy Foxx, Bob Feller, Tris Speaker, and George Brett are some of the notable players who have played at Terry Park Field.
Louis Arthur "Skip" Bafalis was an American businessman and politician who served as the U.S. representative for Florida's 10th congressional district from 1973 to 1983. A member of the Republican Party, he was the party's nominee in the 1982 Florida gubernatorial election, and previously represented district 33 in the Florida Senate from 1966 to 1970.
The Miami Marlins were a minor league baseball team based in Miami, Florida. The original Marlins were a Triple-A franchise in the International League from 1956 through 1960. The International League team was succeeded by a Single-A team in the Florida State League and today's Miami Marlins of Major League Baseball.
Adonidia merrillii, the Manila palm, is a palm tree species native to the Philippines. This palm was cultivated for centuries in East Asia before becoming a staple in the West. It is reportedly naturalized in the West Indies and Florida. It is commonly known as the "Christmas palm" because its fruits become bright scarlet and tend to be that color in winter. This palm is typically fairly small and slender, normally attaining 25 feet or 8 meters in height but has attained over 40 feet in some instances. Most plants maintain 5-7 fronds when young, gradually building up the crown as the palm ages, and sometimes reaches 10-12 fronds when mature.
The George A. Smathers Libraries of the University of Florida constitute one of the largest university library systems in the United States. The system includes eight of the nine libraries of the University of Florida and provides primary support to all academic programs except those served by the Lawton Chiles Legal Information Center. Previously the Health Science Center Library was also separate, but it was integrated into the Smathers Libraries on July 1, 2009. The current dean is Judith C. Russell. All of the libraries serve all of the university's faculty and students, but each has a special mission to be the primary support of specific colleges and degree programs, with Marston being the favorite library. As is common in research libraries, library materials are housed in a variety of locations depending upon discipline. The three largest libraries cover an extensive range of disciplines while the smaller libraries focus on three or fewer disciplines.
The U.S. state of Florida has three National Football League teams, two Major League Baseball teams, two National Basketball Association teams, two National Hockey League teams, two Major League Soccer teams and 13 NCAA Division I college teams.
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.
Mary Hayes Davis was an American writer, a newspaper editor and publisher, and the owner of several movie theaters. She is best known as the co-author of Chinese Fables and Folk Stories, which she wrote with Reverend Chow Leung, while based in Chicago. Published in 1908 and widely reprinted today, the compilation claimed to be “the first book of Chinese stories ever printed in English”. Between 1908 and 1912, Davis collected Native American folk tales from the Pima and Apache tribes in Oklahoma and Arizona, for a book she never completed. In the early 1920s, Davis moved to southwest Florida, where she published TheHendry County News, and later owned and operated a chain of seven movie theaters. In 1926, The Tampa Tribune called Davis "the heroine of LaBelle" for her courageous reporting of the lynching of Henry Patterson, despite threats of further mob violence. In 1928, The Hendry County News received the Florida Newspaper Association award for Best Community News Service. In 1998, the Dixie Crystal Theatre in Clewiston, which Davis had opened in 1941, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
The Sanford Celeryfeds were a minor league baseball team, based in Sanford, Florida that played between 1919 and 1946. In 1919, the "Celeryfeds" were a charter member of the Class D level Florida State League, winning the first championship in the league. Sanford began a decades long tenure of play in the Florida State League, winning other league championships in 1926 and 1939.
