1957 – At Los Angeles’s Wrigley Field, Willie Mays belts two home runs to lead the Giants to a 9 – 3 Cactus League win over the Cleveland Indians. Giants general manager Bill Rigney fines Hank Thompson $150 for missing last night’s exhibition win over the Indians in San Diego.
Spring training Bradenton. Fl 1957
Brooklyn Dodgers at spring training. Vero Beach, Florida – 1956.
1956 – Pirates second-year man Roberto Clemente hits Pittsburgh’s inaugural dinger of spring training in an in-house affair, coached by two key figures in Clemente’s career: “Roberto Clemente slammed three hits today,” reports the Associated Press, “including the first homer by a Pittsburgh Pirate, as the ‘Sukeforths’ defeated the ‘Murtaughs’ 9 – 3 in an intra-squad game.”
Billy Loes, Johnny Podres, Karl Spooner and Sandy Koufax at spring training in Vero Beach, Florida – 1955.
1954 – Brooklyn Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella injures his left hand in an exhibition game against the Yankees. Though he will hit two home runs on Opening Day, Campanella will have surgery in early May for the bone chips, returning on May 30th. The injury started earlier when he was hit on the hand in the 1953 World Series.
1954 – Milwaukee Braves outfielder Bobby Thomson breaks his ankle while sliding into a base during a spring training game. The 1951 National League playoff hero is replaced by a promising prospect named Hank Aaron. Thomson will be out until July 14th.
March 27, 1953 – Lew Burdette smacked a ninth-inning home run off Ralph Branca to give the Braves a 3-2 exhibition victory over the Brooklyn Dodgers. “Now I’m as famous as Bobby Thomson,” a jubilant Burdette yelled in the clubhouse after the game. [jetpack_subscription_form title=”Join the Community” subscribe_text=”We bring you cool stories about the game,…
The Dodgers defeat the A’s, 4-2, in the first game played in Holman Stadium, their Grapefruit League ballpark at the team’s spring training complex in Vero Beach, better known as Dodgertown. Fifty-five years later, Carl Erskine, the game’s starting pitcher, will return to play the national anthem on his harmonica as an 81 year-old at the club’s last game at the storied facility.
1952 – Norman Bel Geddes, after designing a 5,000 seat complex for the Brooklyn Dodgers in Vero Beach, Florida, states that team owner Walter O’Malley has asked for a stadium design for the team. It is to have a retractable dome, garage, automatic hotdog vending machines, and artificial turf that can be painted in different colors.