Spring training
The Spring Training is the pre-season in baseball -Profiligen.
Major League Baseball
Spring training is carried out for Major League Baseball and Minor Leagues . After the end of the season in September, the World Series in October and a three to four-month winter break, the clubs move their players together in training camps. Spring training usually begins in the first week of February and lasts until the end of March or early April, depending on the first match day in the MLB. The camps are located in the warm states of Florida and Arizona . The teams compete against each other in preparatory and test games, the game results are documented in league form. The major league teams play in the Cactus League in Arizona and the Grapefruit League in Florida. The division of the teams into American League and National League in the regular season has been changed in Spring Training. The spring training serves to build up the form and to warm up the teams. In addition to the players who have been added through transfers, players from the farm teams are also tested. In addition to the players who are already under contract, free players, known in baseball as non roster invitee free agents , have the opportunity to recommend themselves to the MLB team, which is limited to 25 players, through good performances in spring training. In the course of spring training, the number of squads will be reduced, young players will be assigned to the farm teams according to their performance and non-roster invitees , i.e. players not belonging to the organization, will be released. In this way, a core of players is formed by the opening match day, which usually includes the best of the respective franchise . In addition to the major league camp, each franchise also runs a minor league camp to which the players switch when they leave the MLB camp. From there they are assigned to the AAA, AA, Single-A or other junior leagues.
Teams and venues
Grapefruit League (Florida)
- Atlanta Braves : Champion Stadium , Lake Buena Vista at Disney World
- Boston Red Sox : City of Palms Park , Fort Myers
- Baltimore Orioles : Ed Smith Stadium , Sarasota
- Detroit Tigers : Joker Marchant Stadium , Lakeland
- Florida Marlins : Roger Dean Stadium , Jupiter
- Houston Astros : Osceola County Stadium , Kissimmee
- Minnesota Twins : Hammond Stadium , Fort Myers
- New York Mets : First Data Field , Port St. Lucie
- New York Yankees : George M. Steinbrenner Field , Tampa
- Philadelphia Phillies : Bright House Field , Clearwater
- Pittsburgh Pirates : McKechnie Field , Bradenton
- St. Louis Cardinals : Roger Dean Stadium , Jupiter
- Tampa Bay Rays : Charlotte Sports Park , Port Charlotte
- Toronto Blue Jays : Dunedin Stadium , Dunedin
- Washington Nationals : Space Coast Stadium , Viera
Cactus League (Arizona)
- Arizona Diamondbacks : Tucson Electric Park , Tucson
- Chicago Cubs : HoHoKam Park , Mesa
- Chicago White Sox : Camelback Ranch , Glendale
- Cincinnati Reds : Goodyear Ballpark , Goodyear
- Cleveland Indians : Goodyear Ballpark , Goodyear
- Colorado Rockies : Hi Corbett Field , Tucson
- Kansas City Royals : Surprise Stadium , Surprise
- Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim : Tempe Diablo Stadium , Tempe
- Los Angeles Dodgers : Camelback Ranch , Glendale
- Milwaukee Brewers : Maryvale Baseball Park , Phoenix
- Oakland Athletics : Phoenix Municipal Stadium , Phoenix
- San Diego Padres : Peoria Sports Complex , Peoria
- San Francisco Giants : Scottsdale Stadium , Scottsdale
- Seattle Mariners : Peoria Sports Complex , Peoria
- Texas Rangers : Surprise Stadium , Surprise
Japanese professional baseball
After the end of the season in October and the Nippon Series , the Japanese professional baseball clubs pull their players together in training camps, the " autumn camps " ( 秋季 キ ャ ン プ , shūki kyampu ). After the winter break, the spring training camps usually follow in February ( 春季 キ ャ ン プ , shunki kyampu ).
The separate camps of the first and second teams - whose composition does not yet have to correspond to that of the regular season - of the twelve franchises are today in the warm, southern Japanese prefectures of Okinawa , Miyazaki , Kagoshima and Kōchi . Some teams use two camps for the first team in a two-part spring training session. The teams have been competing in international test matches against Korean professional baseball teams in Asia Spring Baseball since 2011 .
In earlier decades, spring training camps were also held in more northerly prefectures, the US states and territories of Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Guam, and Saipan, and Australia. Sometimes the teams trained there together with major league teams; so after the Japan tour of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956, at the invitation of the Dodgers, first the Yomiuri Giants and later other Japanese teams made several appearances in Vero Beach.
Teams and venues
The venues for the first teams in 2011 were:
- Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks : Miyazaki ( Miyazaki )
- Saitama Seibu Lions : Nichinan (Miyazaki)
- Chiba Lotte Marines : Ishigaki ( Okinawa )
- Hokkaidō Nippon Ham Fighters : Nago (Okinawa)
- Orix Buffaloes : Miyakojima (Okinawa) and Kōchi ( Kōchi )
- Tōhoku Rakuten Golden Eagles : Kumejima (Okinawa)
- Chūnichi Dragons : Chatan (Okinawa)
- Hanshin Tigers : Ginoza (Okinawa) and Aki (Kōchi)
- Yomiuri Giants : Miyazaki (Miyazaki) and Naha (Okinawa)
- Tōkyō Yakult Swallows : Urasoe (Okinawa)
- Hiroshima Tōyō Carp : Okinawa (Okinawa)
- Yokohama BayStars : Ginowan (Okinawa)
Web links
- Official website of the Cactus League (English)
- Official website of the Grapefruit League (English)
- League tables of spring training (English)
- History of spring training (English)
- Various articles on the history (English)
- Japanese baseball team spring training camps (Japanese)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Walter O'Malley Website: International Relations, 1956 Japan Tour Postscript ( Memento of the original from June 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
