imported>PHILA19147: Tigers + Senators Spring Traing dates

2025-05-19T03:39:16Z

Tigers + Senators Spring Traing dates

New page

{{Short description|Athletic venue in Tampa, Florida}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox venue
| name = Plant Field
| nickname =
| fullname =
| logo_image =
| logo_size =
| image = Plant field baseball game 1923.jpg
| caption = The stadium during a baseball game in 1923
| type = [[Multi-purpose stadium]]
| currentuse =
| address =
| city = [[Tampa, Florida|Tampa, FL]]
| country = [[United States]]
| location =
| coordinates =
| broke_ground =
| opened = 1899
| renovated =
| expanded =
| closed =
| demolished = {{end date and age|2002}}
| owner = {{plainlist|
* [[Tampa Bay Hotel]] (1899–1900)
* [[Tampa, Florida|City of Tampa]] (1900–1971)
* [[University of Tampa]] (1971–2002)
}}
| operator =
| surface = [[poaceae|Grass]]
| construction_cost =
| architect =
| project_manager =
| main_contractors =
| former_names = Pepin-Rood Stadium (1971–2002)
| tenants = {{collapsible list|
* '''Spring Training''':
* [[Chicago Cubs]] (1913-16)
* [[Boston Red Sox]] (1919)
* [[Washington Senators (1901–1960)|Washington Senators]] (1920-1929)
* [[Detroit Tigers]] (1930)
* [[Cincinnati Reds]] (1930-1959)
* [[Chicago White Sox]] (1954)
* '''Minor leagues''':
* [[Tampa Smokers]] (1919–1930; 1946–1954)
* '''College Sports''':
* [[Tampa Spartans]] (1933-36)
* '''High school sports''':
* [[Hillsborough High School (Florida)|Hillsborough High School]] (1920s)
* '''Professional teams''':
* [[Tampa Cardinals]] (1926)
}}
| seating_capacity =
| dimensions =
}}
'''Plant Field''' was the first major athletic [[multi-purpose stadium]] in [[Tampa, Florida]]. It was built in 1899 by [[Henry B. Plant]] on the grounds of his [[Tampa Bay Hotel]] to host various events and activities for guests, and it consisted of a large field ringed by an oval race track flanked by a large covered [[grandstand]] on the western straightaway with portable seating used to accommodate a wide variety of uses.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20151208143349/http://www.digitalballparks.com/FSL/TampaPlant_640_2.html Plant Field/Stadium - Tampa Florida - Former home of the Tampa Smokers / MLB Spring Training]}}</ref> Over the ensuing decades, Plant Field drew Tampa residents and visitors to see [[horse racing]], [[car racing]], [[baseball]] games, entertainers, and politicians. The stadium also hosted the first professional [[American football|football]] and first [[spring training]] games in Tampa and was the long-time home of the [[Florida State Fair]].

[[Al Lopez Field]] opened in 1954 and [[Tampa Stadium]] opened in 1967, and they became the preferred venues for most of the events that had long been held at Plant Field. The adjacent [[University of Tampa]] gained ownership of the facility in 1971, and with [[Tampa Spartans football]] games moving to Tampa Stadium and the Florida State Fair moving to a much larger site east of downtown in 1976, Plant Field was primarily used for university events and student recreation.

The university began to gradually convert much of the venue's large footprint to other uses in the 1970s. Much of the seating areas and the race track were removed and several academic buildings and student housing facilities built in their place, while the last portion of the Plant Field grandstand renamed '''Pepin-Rood Stadium''' in 1983. The original grandstand was demolished and replaced with smaller modern bleachers in 2002, and much of the original playing field has been incorporated into multiple new venues for the [[Tampa Spartans|university's athletic programs]].<ref name="UTfacilities">{{cite web |title=Athletic facilities |url=https://www.tampaspartans.com/information/athletic_info/facilities/index |publisher=University of Tampa Spartans Athletics |language=en}}</ref>

== History ==
{{see also|Tampa Bay Hotel|History of Tampa}}
In 1885, the [[Plant System|railroad line]] of [[Henry B. Plant]] reached Tampa, connecting the small town to the nation's railroad system for the first time and helping to stimulate rapid growth and development. Plant's company primarily shipped goods such as cigars and citrus from the area, but to encourage passenger travel, he built several hotels in the greater Tampa Bay area, jump starting the region's tourist industry. The largest of these hotels was the [[Tampa Bay Hotel]], a lavish resort containing over 500 rooms which opened across the [[Hillsborough River (Florida)|Hillsborough River]] from [[downtown Tampa]] in 1892. The resort offered many amenities to visitors, including horse riding facilities on the western side of the resort grounds which included a simple track. These facilities were greatly enlarged and expanded in 1899 and become Plant Field, which was large enough to host a wide variety of sports and other activities.

The Tampa Bay Hotel closed in 1931. The new [[University of Tampa]] took over most of the facilities in 1933, though the city of Tampa retained control of Plant Field.

===Racing===
Henry Plant built a horse track on the grounds east of North Boulevard and south of Cass Street, now the site of the [[University of Tampa]] athletic fields. During the 1898-99 tourist season, races were sponsored by the Tampa Agricultural Racing and Fair Association. When automobile races were added to the [[South Florida Fair]] in 1921, the horse track was converted into a 1/2 mile dirt oval that operated until 1980. Plant Field was also a venue for dirt-track races sanctioned by the [[International Motor Contest Association]] until the mid-1970s

===Baseball===
[[File:Babe's longest Homer at Tampa's Plant field.jpg|thumb|150px|[[Babe Ruth]] hit a 587 foot home run at Plant Field on Friday April 4, 1919]]
Baseball began at Plant Field around 1899 when local teams played at what was then called the Tampa Bay Race Track Diamond. With the lure of travel incentives offered by the city government, it became one of the first facilities used by [[Major League Baseball]] for [[spring training]] when the [[Chicago Cubs]] came to train before the 1913 season. The Cubs conducted spring training in Tampa until 1916. On March 26, 1914, Plant Field hosted the first major league baseball spring training game in the Tampa Bay area when the Cubs defeated the [[St. Louis Browns]] 3–2.

After the Cubs departed, the [[Boston Red Sox]] used the facility next. On April 4, 1919. [[Babe Ruth]], playing in what would be his last season with the Red Sox, hit a home run 587 feet against the [[New York Giants (NL)|New York Giants]] during an exhibition game. A plaque remains to commemorate Ruth's achievement as it was considered the longest home run of Ruth's career and one of the longest in baseball history.<ref>[https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=46601 "Babe's Longest Homer" Marker]</ref>

Over the years, Plant Field was the spring home to many major league teams, including the [[Washington Senators (1901–60)|Washington Senators]] in the 1920s, the [[Detroit Tigers]] in the 1930s, and the [[Cincinnati Reds]] in the 1940s. The [[Chicago White Sox]] were Plant Field's last spring training tenant. They last used the facility in 1954 and moved to newly built [[Al Lopez Field]] in [[West Tampa]] for 1955.

The facility also hosted many [[minor league baseball|minor league]], [[Semi-professional|semi-pro]], [[high school sports|high school]], and other baseball games. In November 1950, the [[Jackie Robinson|Jackie Robinson All-Stars]] played a local black [[semi-professional]] team, the [[Tampa Rockets]], at Plant Field. Robinson's team included major-leaguers [[Roy Campanella]] and [[Larry Doby]] as well as several [[Negro league]] players. Plant Field was the regular home field of the [[Tampa Smokers]] of the [[Florida State League]] and the [[Florida International League]] until the team disbanded after the 1954 season.

===Football===
On New Year's Day 1926, the [[Chicago Bears]], led by [[Red Grange]], defeated the [[Tampa Cardinals]], a traveling pick-up team featuring [[Jim Thorpe]], 17–3. This game marked the first professional football game played in Tampa. A number of other exhibition games involving professional and college players were played at Plant Field through the decades.

Due to the small capacity of their first on-campus home of [[Fleming Field (Gainesville)|Fleming Field]], the [[Florida Gators football]] team usually scheduled one or two "home" games per season at Plant Field in the early years of the program, especially when facing top college opponents that drew larger crowds. The construction of [[Florida Field]] in 1930 reduced the number of Florida football games in Tampa, though the Gators would occasionally schedule "home" games at Plant Field, Phillips Field, or (much later) [[Tampa Stadium]] into the 1980s.

The [[Tampa Spartans football|University of Tampa Spartans]] played their home football games at Plant Field from 1933 until 1936, when they moved to nearby [[Phillips Field (Florida)|Phillips Field]], which they did not have to share with other tenants. [[Henry B. Plant High School]] and [[Hillsborough High School (Florida)|Hillsborough High School]] played their annual rivalry game at Plant Field for decades, usually on Thanksgiving Day. A few other high-interest high school football games were also played at the facility from year to year.

===Other activities===
[[file:Plant field and track 1920.jpg|thumb|View of the stadium and its athletics track in 1920]]
For decades, Plant Field was the location of the [[South Florida Fair]], the precursor to the [[Florida State Fair]]. The fair was almost always scheduled to coincide with Tampa's annual [[Gasparilla Pirate Festival]], and the Gasparilla Parade ended at the Plant Field grandstands from 1905 until 1976.<ref>[http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=46605 Plant Field Marker]</ref>

In 1912, [[Buffalo Bill|"Buffalo Bill" Cody]] performed on the field with hundreds of [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|American Indians]] who traveled with him as part of his show. When Tampa hosted the national reunion of the [[United Confederate Veterans]] in 1927, some of the veterans stayed in quarters under the Plant Field grandstands.

Presidential candidate [[Henry A. Wallace|Henry Wallace]] spoke at Plant Field in February 1948. Wallace insisted that the audience be [[Racial integration|integrated]]. This marked the first political speech in Tampa during which blacks and whites could mix. [[Paul Robeson]] sang at another integrated Wallace rally at Plant Field later that October.

During the [[1952 United States presidential election|1952 Presidential Campaign]], [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] appeared at Plant Field.

==Change of ownership and demolition==
[[File:Pepin Rood Stadium, UT.jpg|thumb|Pepin-Rood Stadium in 2016. The current grandstand was built on the approximate site of Plant Field's original grandstand]]
Plant Field slowly became obsolete as more specialized sports facilities were built around Tampa. Nearby [[Phillips Field (Florida)|Phillips Field]] hosted University of Tampa and the [[Cigar Bowl]] football games beginning in the 1930s, and both Plant and Phillips Fields were made obsolete by the construction of [[Tampa Stadium]] in 1967. Brand-new [[Al Lopez Field]] became the new home of the minor league [[Tampa Tarpons (1957–1988)|Tampa Tarpons]] when they began play in 1957. And in 1977, the Florida State Fair moved to a more spacious location at the intersection of [[Interstate 4]] and [[U.S. Route 301 in Florida|U.S. Highway 301]] in unincorporated [[Hillsborough County, Florida|Hillsborough County]], east of Tampa.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.floridastatefair.com/fair-history |title=History |access-date=2012-03-18 |archive-date=2012-09-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120917003509/http://floridastatefair.com/fair-history |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The University of [[Tampa Spartans football]] program moved to Tampa Stadium immediately upon its completion in 1967, making university-owned Phillips Field obsolete. In 1971, the University of Tampa Board of Trustees sold Phillips Field and gained ownership of Plant Field from the city, as the large facility was directly adjacent to the school's campus.<ref name="spt-2002-05-01">{{cite news |title=Pepin-Rood grandstands going down -- in history |first=Graham |last=Brink |url=http://www.sptimes.com/2002/05/01/TampaBay/Pepin_Rood_grandstand.shtml |newspaper=St. Petersburg Times |date=May 1, 2002 |access-date=2011-11-23}}</ref>

Over the following decades, the university used Plant Field for various school and community events while gradually repurposing some of the land, and the surrounding concrete wall and much of the seating area were demolished and replaced with new facilities in several stages. In 1983, a [[soccer pitch]]-sized section of the field was portioned off and christened '''Pepin-Rood Stadium''', and in 2002, the last remaining section of the Plant Field grandstand was torn down and replaced with smaller modern bleachers.<ref name="spt-2002-05-01"/>

Since then, the school has accelerated its drive to expand inside the defunct venue's huge footprint. [[Dormitory|Dormitories]] and academic buildings have been constructed at the site along with a soccer field (Pepin Stadium), softball and baseball fields, and other athletic and general student recreation space, most of which use the remaining portions of the original playing surface.<ref name="UTfacilities"/>

==See also==
* [[Sports in the Tampa Bay Area]]
* [[Baseball in the Tampa Bay area]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20081024204347/http://www.tbo.com/life/MGB29OJJF7F.html Tampa's Original Field Of Dreams] article (archived)
*[http://www.na-motorsports.com/Tracks/FL/PlantField.html Plant Field] on na-motorsports.com
*[http://floridahistorian3.blogspot.com/2008/05/tampas-plant-field-april-4-1919-spring.html Tampa's Plant Field, April 4, 1919: The spring training home run that changed baseball history...forever!] on Florida Historian blog
*{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20140201162906/http://www.digitalballparks.com/FSL/TampaPlant_-_Aerial_From_1B_640T.jpg Aerial of Plant Field with baseball layout]}}
*[https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3934tm.g3934tm_g013521915/?sp=97 Sanborn map showing portions of Plant Field, 1915]

{{University of Tampa}}
{{Boston Red Sox}}
{{Chicago Cubs}}
{{Chicago White Sox}}
{{Cincinnati Reds}}
{{Detroit Tigers}}
{{Minnesota Twins}}
{{Tampa Spartans football navbox}}
{{coord|27.948524|-82.46710|display=t|type:landmark}}

[[Category:1899 establishments in Florida]]
[[Category:2002 disestablishments in Florida]]
[[Category:Baseball venues in Florida]]
[[Category:Boston Red Sox spring training venues]]
[[Category:Chicago Cubs spring training venues]]
[[Category:Chicago White Sox spring training venues]]
[[Category:Cincinnati Reds spring training venues]]
[[Category:Defunct American football venues in the United States]]
[[Category:Defunct college football venues]]
[[Category:Demolished sports venues in Florida]]
[[Category:Detroit Tigers spring training venues]]
[[Category:History of Tampa, Florida]]
[[Category:Minnesota Twins spring training venues]]
[[Category:Motorsport venues in Florida]]
[[Category:Spring training ballparks]]
[[Category:Sports venues in Tampa, Florida]]
[[Category:Tampa Spartans football]]
[[Category:1900s in Florida]]
[[Category:Sports venues completed in 1899]]
[[Category:Sports venues demolished in 2002]]
[[Category:University of Tampa]]
[[Category:Florida State Fair]]

Plant Field - Revision history

imported>PHILA19147: Tigers + Senators Spring Traing dates