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  Al López Field Location in Florida Show map of Florida Al López Field Location in the United States Show map of the United States | |
| Location | Tampa, Florida |
|---|---|
| Owner | Tampa Sports Authority |
| Operator | Tampa Sports Authority |
| Capacity | approximately 5,000 |
| Field size | Left - 340 ft. Center - 400 ft. Right - 340 ft. |
| Surface | Grass |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | 1954 |
| Opened | March 1955 |
| Closed | 1988 |
| Demolished | Spring 1989 |
| Construction cost | "$287,901 (equivalent to $3,379,350 in 2024)" |
| Tenants | |
| MLB Spring Training Chicago White Sox (1955–1959) Cincinnati Reds (1960–1987) Minor Leagues Tampa Tarpons (FSL) (1957–1988) College USF Bulls (NCAA) (1966) | |
Al López Field was aspring training andMinor League baseball ballpark inWest Tampa,Tampa, Florida, United States. It was named forAl López, the first Tampa native to playMajor League Baseball (MLB), manage an MLB team, and be enshrined in theBaseball Hall of Fame. Al López Field was built in 1954 and hosted its firstspring training in1955, when theChicago 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. TheCincinnati Reds replaced the White Sox as Al López Field's primary tenant in1960 and would return every spring for almost 30 years. TheTampa Tarpons, the Reds'Class-A minor league affiliate in theFlorida 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.
Al López Field was constructed as the first phase part of a planned community sports complex, withTampa Stadium built adjacent to the ballpark in 1967. When theTampa Bay area began seriously pursuing aMajor League Baseball expansion team in the 1980s, the site of Al López Field was widely regarded as a prime location for a potential major league ballpark. With the city of Tampa unwilling to offer a new long-term lease due to the facility's uncertain future, the Reds decided to move their spring training home to nearbyPlant City in1988. The Tarpons moved toSarasota a year later, leaving Al López Field without a tenant.
The ballpark was razed in 1989 to facilitate faster construction of a major league replacement. However, MLB choseSt. Petersburg'sTropicana Field as the home for the expansionTampa Bay Devil Rays, leaving the site vacant and Tampa without a professional baseball team.Legends Field opened nearby in 1995 as the new spring training home of theNew York Yankees and summer home of the minor leagueTampa Yankees. In 1998,Raymond James Stadium, a replacement for Tampa Stadium, was built at the former location of Al López Field.
Tampa was one of the first spring training locations in Florida. Beginning with theChicago Cubs in1913, a series of major league teams trained atPlant Field, a multipurpose facility neardowntown Tampa. Plant Field was also the home ballpark of the minor leagueTampa Smokers, who were a charter member of theFlorida State League. While theCincinnati Reds were still training at Plant Field into the 1950s, the facility was old (it was built in 1898) and had to be shared among many different teams and events. City leaders decided that a new baseball-only facility would insure that Tampa could continue to host spring training and professional baseball into the future.
In 1949, the city ofTampa bought 720 acres (2.9 km2) of open land nearWest Tampa from the federal government. The large, grassy parcel had once been the perimeter ofDrew Field, a World War II-era airfield which was the precursor toTampa International Airport, and was purchased with the idea of building a large community sports complex.[1][2] The construction of Al López Field in 1954 was the first phase of this project. It was located east ofDale Mabry Highway (US Highway 92) and north of Tampa Bay Boulevard, near the center of the land parcel purchased in 1949.Tampa Stadium, a much larger football stadium, was constructed beyond the baseball park's left field wall in 1967.
Much like the original Tampa Stadium, the design of Al López Field was functional and minimalist. The grandstand was primarily constructed from concrete and featured a high, curved aluminumoverhang with no obstructing columns, a design similar to that ofMiami Stadium.
Construction on Al López Field was not quite complete on October 6, 1954, when it was officially dedicated as part of "Al López Day" in Tampa.[3] It was, however, ready forspring training in March1954, when theChicago White Sox used the place as a training base while playing exhibition games at Plant Field.[4] After the White Sox went north for the beginning of the regular season, their newFlorida State LeagueClass-A team, theTampa Tarpons, took the field.[5] Al López became the White Sox manager in1957, putting him in the unusual position of managing in his hometown in a stadium that bore his name. During one ballgame, Lopez got into an argument with umpire John Stevens and was ejected. As Lopez said later, "The umpire threw me out of my own ballpark!"[6]
The White Sox moved their spring training home toPayne Park inSarasota, Florida in1960, and theCincinnati Reds (who had continued to train at Plant Field) moved their spring operations across town to become Al López Field's new tenants. The Reds would become the major league club most associated with the ballpark, as they used the stadium and the adjacent training facilities (nicknamed "Redsland") as their spring home for almost 30 years. As part of the agreement, the Tampa Tarpons became the Reds' Florida State League affiliate in 1960 and would remain in their minor league system until 1987. Consequently, several members of Cincinnati's championship-winning "Big Red Machine" of the 1970s, includingPete Rose.Johnny Bench, andDave Concepción, played some of their first professional baseball in Tampa with the Tarpons and later returned for spring training with the big league club.[7]
The Reds hosted theNew York Yankees at the park on March 17, 1978. In honor ofSaint Patrick's Day, Reds general managerDick Wagner had green versions of the Reds' uniforms made. This was the first time a major league team wore green trimmed uniforms on March 17, a practice adopted in subsequent years by multiple major league teams for Spring Training games that fall on St. Patrick's Day.[8]
TheSouth Florida Bulls baseball team played at Al López Field during their inaugural season in 1966, but moved to the on-campusRed McEwen Field the following year.
Besides professional baseball, Al López Field regularly hosted amateur and semi-pro baseball games, including many Florida high school baseball championships, and occasionally hosted boxing and wrestling matches.[9]
Al López Field was the site of several large civic events, particularly beforeCurtis Hixon Hall was built downtown in 1965. During a visit to Tampa in November 1963, PresidentJohn F. Kennedy delivered his last major speech to an overflow crowd of 10,000 people at the ballpark only days before being assassinated in Dallas, Texas.[10]
By the 1980s, theTampa Bay area was widely discussed as a possible home for either a major league expansion team or a relocated existing team, and the site of Al López Field was considered a prime location for a new major league ballpark if Tampa received a team.[11] With the uncertainty about the future of the site, the Tampa Sports Authority would only offer the Reds a series of short-term leases for the continued use of the ballpark and the adjacent training facilities. The team responded by building a new facility in nearbyPlant City, Florida. The1987 season was the last in which the Cincinnati Reds held spring training in Tampa and the Tampa Tarpons were a Reds minor league affiliate.
The Tampa Tarpons reached an affiliation agreement with the Chicago White Sox for the1988 season. However, various local groups continued to pursue a major league team and announced various plans for large stadiums at the Al López Field site,[12][13] leading the Tarpons' local owners to sell the minor league team to the White Sox in November 1988. The Tarpons moved to Sarasota in 1989 and were rechristened theSarasota White Sox, leaving Tampa without professional baseball for the first time in over 70 years.[14][15]
With no tenants and with a sense that the city would have to move quickly to build a major league stadium, the Tampa Sports Authority decided to demolish AL Lopez Field in early 1989. Al López himself had retired to Tampa and lived only a few miles from the ballpark that bore his name. In a 1992 interview, Lopez said that the razing of the stadium "wasn't very disappointing. I saw a diagram of the new stadium, and I didn't feel bad because I thought they were going to build a bigger one and a better one. After that, something happened, and they never built the ballpark. Then it was a disappointment."[16] Horizon Park, a public park just north of Tampa Stadium, was renamed Al López Park in his honor in 1992.
While Tampa waited to build a new ballpark until it was guaranteed a major league team, St. Petersburg went ahead with construction on the domed stadium that is now known asTropicana Field. It was completed in 1990, and St. Pete was awarded the expansionTampa Bay (Devil) Rays in1995.[17] Meanwhile, Tampa resumed its long affiliation with professional baseball in 1994, when theNew York Yankees agreed to move their spring training home and Florida State League affiliate (theTampa Yankees) to Tampa if the city built a new ballpark for their use. The city builtGeorge M. Steinbrenner Field (originally known as Legends Field) across Dale Mabry Highway from Tampa Stadium, about a quarter mile northwest of the former site of Al López Field. The city of Tampa also upgraded the nearby training facilities formerly known as Redsland for use by the Yankees.
The former site of Al López Field was a parking area for Tampa Stadium until 1998, whenRaymond James Stadium was built on its footprint.
