By JEFF LAHURD, correspondent
SARASOTA -- Nearly 8,400 fans showed up for the first game of Sarasota’s 2015 spring training season. By all accounts a rousing opening-day success, even though the Baltimore Orioles lost a close one to the Detroit Tigers. It was a perfect, sunny day for baseball and everything went off without a hitch in beautiful Ed Smith Stadium.
Early aerial of Payne Park baseball field in Sarasota. (Photo courtesy Sarasota County Historical Resources)
In all ways a far cry from days of yore when Sarasota’s first Spring Training team came to town at the end of February of 1924 to train and entertain the locals and snowbirds.
Sarasota was on the cusp of the storied ‘20s land boom, which saw the transformation of a backwater town into a desirable city, fueled to a degree by the arrival of the mighty New York Giants.
Sarasota had broken away from Manatee County in 1921 and among the “must have” items on the newly formed county’s wish list was a spring training team. The hunt began shortly thereafter and in September of 1923, at the request of Mayor Everett J. Bacon, the citizens of Sarasota turned out to build a baseball diamond, grandstands and a county fair facility on land purchased at a reduced rate from Calvin and Martha Payne. A wide-angle photograph shows the locals hard at the task. It is labeled “Building fair grounds in one day. September 27, 1923.” The baseball field was named Payne Park.
There were several false starts — the Chicago White Sox, Philadelphia Athletics and New York Yankees had all expressed interest — but thanks to the intercession of John Ringling, Sarasota secured the New York Giants, a powerhouse team and a major contender for the 1924 Pennant. The Giants played under the thumb of Manager John J. McGraw, whose no-nonsense style of rule could be summed up with his quote, “Don’t ever speak to me. I speak to you and you just shut up.”
Enough said.
While Sarasota’s road to baseball was paved with good intentions and high expectations, the reality proved to be distressing, at least initially. For one thing, accommodations for the team were substandard — the proposed hotel had but nine bathrooms for 75 players. While new quarters were being arranged, the players stepped off the train at 7:30 Friday morning, suitcases in hand, to wander aimlessly around a town in which not much was happening.
Hardscrabble players
Then the problem of where to feed the Giants surfaced. Lodging was changed from the lowly Hotel Hunton to the luxurious and newly built Mira Mar Hotel on Palm Avenue, and the management wanted the Boys of Spring to eat in a small room used by staff. Fortunately, the dilemma was resolved by the evening’s meal time and the full dining room was opened to them.
Building a baseball field in one day, September 27, 1923. (Photo courtesy Sarasota County Historical Resources)
There was worry about practicing on Sunday. Would the local sheriff be inclined to arrest players for violating the Blue Laws? It was noted that golf was allowed, why not baseball? In any case, Sheriff Leon D. Hodges, usually a strict, by-the-book lawman, turned a blind eye and the local jail population was not increased with ballplayers. The first workout was “liberally attended by the native population and the Northern visitors...”
Big league baseball was primitive in those days, made up of rough-nosed, hardscrabble players, with McGraw once observing, “Sportsmanship and easygoing methods are all right, but it’s the prospect of a fight that brings out the crowds.” And McGraw knew how to fill the bleachers. Thus it was understandable that local parents were apprehensive about their daughters fraternizing with the Giants. Underscoring their concern, McGraw had once observed: “One percent of baseball players are leaders of men. The other ninety-nine percent are followers of women.” This led to the nasty business of a full Ku Klux Klan parade along Main Street as the local men in sheets demonstrated their concern.
Sarasota Sheriff Leon Hodges turned a blind eye to any violation of the Blue Laws that baseball practice on Sunday might have violated in 1924. (Photo courtesy Sarasota County Historical Resources)
Lastly, the community-made field of dreams was given mixed reviews. While Giants groundskeeper Henry Fabian said the nicely sodded infield was the best he had seen, and the clubhouse was given high marks, the outfield was several inches thick with white sand; a “horrible discovery” as “McGraw had struck sand in Gainesville and still swears softly when he thinks of it.”
All of this drama played out before McGraw, who was vacationing in Cuba, finally arrived in high style aboard the yacht of John Ringling on March 2.
'Play Ball!'
Whatever consternation the team was feeling about the miscues, McGraw was not there to win a popularity contest. His first act was to ban his players from playing golf. Team focus should be on the diamond, not the links. “Golf is a great game,” he said, “and I’m for it, but... it can be overdone...for it sometimes grips a ball player so tightly that he gives more attention to perfecting his mid-iron shots than he does to polishing off his batting style.” Ty Cobb of the Tigers also banned golf.
Manager John J. McGraw with slugger Roger Hornsby who played with the New York Giants in 1927. Hornsby did not care for golf, saying, "When I hit a ball, I want someone else to chase it." (Photo courtesy Sarasota County Historical Resources)
Preparing for the first game McGraw slapped an in-bed by 11, and up at 8 schedule for some hard workouts. There had been some intrasquad games, and the University of Florida sent a team down to play the Giants, losing 17-0. (As The New York Times put it, “The sympathy of the crowd naturally was with the home state boys, and the collegians needed plenty of sympathy.")
Spring training began in earnest on March 15, 1924, with the Giants hosting the St. Louis Cardinals. After the Sarasota Municipal band played some rousing tunes, John Arnold Heydler, the president of the National League, threw out the ceremonial first pitch, which split home plate. He was described as “Tastefully attired in a stunning sartorial combination of white duck trousers, blue coat and natty straw hat. The costume did much to give the season a proper send-off.”
As each player went to bat, he was introduced to the cheers of the crowd, who “rooted for the home boys with might and main.” At the end, the Giants triumphed 6-4. The weather cooled and “Mr. Heydler’s straw hat and natty trousers were not so appropriate as they had been in the first inning.”
On March 30, promising to return in 1925, the Giants were given a grand send-off with handkerchiefs waving, and the team headed north. All in all it was a successful season, and indeed, the Giants went on to win the Pennant that year, but lost the World Series to the Washington Senators.,4-3.
The Giants would play in Sarasota three more seasons, ending their stint in 1927. McGraw had taken his eye off the ball in favor of Sarasota real estate and after his heavily promoted Pennant Park development struck out, he decided it was prudent to practice elsewhere.