Back to Spring Training

The fans are back at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium for spring training.

It was good to be back. Back in Lakeland where downtown still looks like downtown even though the Maas Brothers department store is long gone along with all the other shops that used to line its streets. Where the swans are the main attraction still in the donut-shaped park that surrounds Lake Morton. Where 50 years ago, I graduated from Florida Southern College and learned so much, not just in class, but from day-to-day immersion in the architectural brilliance of Frank Lloyd Wright’s buildings.

And it was good to be back in the stands at Joker Marchant Stadium, now known formally as Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium. I saw it brutally hyphenated as Publix-Marchant Stadium on one sign. Fans still turn off Lakeland Hills Boulevard onto Al Kaline Drive to get to the parking lots. There were a lot of them at the first game of spring training for the hometown Detroit Tigers vs. the Philadelphia Phillies. The line of cars was so long that I thought I might miss the first pitch, so I darted around the traffic to a freelance lot across the street.

It had been two years since I was at a spring training game, I managed to catch a handful of games in 2020 right before the pandemic arrived and shut down everything. Spring training returned in 2021, but with limits on crowd size. It was almost impossible to find tickets. This year, it looked like the major league contract dispute was going to mean another year without spring training for me, The schedule had been cancelled, but a new one was slapped together after the owners and players settled their differences.

The Tigers have been training in Lakeland for 84 years and by the time their current lease runs out, it will be over 100 years. The Tigers owns the minor league Lakeland Flying Tigers, a partnership that has lasted 52. They are tied with the Phillies and their AA team, the Reading Fightin’ Phils for the longest major league affiliation. 

Where to take in a spring training game in Florida.

I’ve been to a few games in Lakeland recently since the big 2017 renovation that transformed the stadium into one of the best among spring training and minor league facilities. I’ve only been to spring training games, but not any Flying Tigers games. I’ll have to see if I can fix that one of these days.

I don’t remember anyone ever mentioning the minor league team when I was going to school and working in Lakeland. Back then, they were called the Lakeland Tigers and in the early years they played at Henley Field, a ballpark down the road from Joker Marchant. Some college games were played at Henley as well, some high school football too, but I never went to any games there. 

A variety of caps for the minor league Lakeland Flying Tigers.

When I was in college, I saw our team, the Florida Southern College Striking Moccasins, when they played at Joker Marchant. They were a good team, winning several small college national championships. Back then the space behind the wooden bleachers was dirt and grass, which was a good thing on that day a friend talked me into trying chewing tobacco. Let’s just say the experiment did not end well.

Although I was at school in Lakeland four years, taught at FSC one year and lived and worked in town another year and a half, I don’t remember going to a Tigers spring training game back then. Once I went to the annual Tiger Barbecue, an all-you-eat-and-drink extravaganza set up under a tent. I can still see the row of wall-to-wall tables piled high with boiled shrimp, and I still have the smallish glass beer mug that was included in the price of your ticket. 

A squad of Tigers players working out during the game on a practice field beyond the outfield scoreboard. The same thing was happening on three or four other practice field.

The new stadium has a lot of the amenities found at other modern ballparks. There’s a 360-degree concourse that includes the Runway, a wide terrace from center to right field with a long rail shelf for your snacks and drinks. There’s also a grassy berm under the scoreboard on the left field side and a bar and a number of party areas for group rental. The Runway and the Flying Tigers are named as a tribute to the fighter pilot school that was located here during World War II.

It’s too bad the concessions are still located behind the stands, which means you miss some of the game if you need to get food or drink. But the concourse under the stands is spacious and it’s easy to navigate, even when there are long lines at the food stalls. I found a delicious chili dog at Coney Dogs, where there was almost no line, and I grabbed a big iced tea at an express drinks line. 

It's a good thing the Tigers didn't paint over this mural. Florida State League
and other historic minor league names are back in 2022. And class Low-A is now
Single A. No more Low-A Southeast. An update might be needed.
The Florida Firefrogs and the Charlotte Stone Crabs no longer exist.

How was the game? Well, it’s spring training, so we saw a lot of players including some of the big league stars. The highlight was back-to-back home runs for the Tigers with Miguel Cabrera on deck. He grounded out, but for a few moments, all eyes were ready for liftoff. The lead changed several times during the game, but the Phillies tied it up for good at 6 runs apiece with a two-run homer in the 7th. That’s how the game ended after 9 innings. No winner, no loser, just a good day of baseball under the Central Florida sun.