Florida Spring Training History: Wrestling Alligators and Cash

The Florida Grapefruit League, otherwise known as the annual baseball spring training ritual, has been a part of the history and tradition of central Florida for more than 120 years.
According to numerous history accounts, including a Florida publication, Spring Training Online:

“Spring training is almost as old as baseball itself. The best evidence points to spring training first taking place in 1870, when the Cincinnati Red Stockings and the Chicago White Stockings held organized baseball camps in New Orleans… Other baseball historians argue that the Washington Capitals of the National League pioneered spring training in 1888, holding a four-day camp in Jacksonville.”

Above and beyond the obvious fact that February in Florida is a whole lot warmer than Maryland, Pennsylvania and the frozen north, many folks have asked

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