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.
The Florida Complex League (FCL) is a rookie-level Minor League Baseball league that operates in Florida, United States. Before 2021, it was known as the Gulf Coast League (GCL). Together with the Arizona Complex League (ACL), it forms the lowest rung on the North American minor-league ladder.
Bradenton is a city in and the county seat of Manatee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city's population is 55,698. Downtown Manatee is along the Manatee River and includes the Bradenton Riverwalk. Downtown Bradenton is also home to the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature.
The Tampa Tarpons are a Minor League Baseball team of the Florida State League and the Single-A affiliate of the New York Yankees. They are located 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 metropolitan area surrounding Tampa Bay on the Gulf Coast of Florida in the United States. It includes the main cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater. It is the 17th-largest metropolitan area in the United States, with a population of 3,175,275 as of the 2020 U.S. Census.
LECOM Park is a baseball field located in Bradenton, Florida. It is the spring training home of the Pittsburgh Pirates and is named after a 15-year naming rights deal was signed with the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, which has its main campus in Erie, Pennsylvania, and also a campus in Bradenton. It was formerly known as McKechnie Field, named for Bradenton resident and Baseball Hall of Fame great Bill McKechnie, who led the Pirates in 1925 and the Cincinnati Reds in 1940 to World Series titles. He was also a coach with the Cleveland Indians in 1948.
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.
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.
Lastings Darnell Milledge is an American former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Mets, Washington Nationals, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Chicago White Sox and then in Nippon Professional Baseball for the Yakult Swallows. He was the youngest player in MLB's National League during his rookie season in 2006.
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 1957 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.
Richard Avina Renteria is a Mexican-American former professional baseball infielder and former manager of the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox of Major League Baseball (MLB). Renteria played in parts of five seasons between 1986 and 1994 with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Seattle Mariners, and Florida Marlins. He then coached and managed in the Marlins organization until 2001, and in the San Diego Padres organization until 2013. He was the manager of the Chicago Cubs in 2014. Renteria was also the bench coach for the Chicago White Sox in 2016.
Jeffrey Alan Locke is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He previously played for the Miami Marlins and Pittsburgh Pirates, where he was an All-Star in 2013.
The Bradenton Marauders are a Minor League Baseball team of the Florida State League and the Single-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates. They are located in Bradenton, Florida, and play their home games at LECOM Park, which also serves as the Pirates' spring training facility.
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, the other being the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Jorge Anthony Sanchez is an American former Major League Baseball (MLB) catcher who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Atlanta Braves between 2013 and 2017.
Stefan Robert Welch is an Australian professional baseball first baseman for the Adelaide Bite of the Australian Baseball League. He Had played for the New York Mets, Pittsburgh Pirates and Boston Red Sox organisations.
Avery Bryan Morris is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Miami Marlins and San Francisco Giants.
The Bradenton Growers were a professional baseball team based in Bradenton, Florida. A charter member of the Florida State League, they played from 1919 to 1926. The ballclub was founded by team president and majority owner Robert M. Beall, Sr., founder of the department store Bealls. The Growers originally played their home games at Ninth Street Park and moved into McKechnie Field, then known as City Park, when it was constructed in 1923.
Tito Luis Polo Gonzalez is a Colombian professional baseball outfielder for the Bravos de León of the Mexican League.
