History of baseball in the Tampa Bay area

In 1913, the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians moved their respective spring training sites to Florida, marking the unofficial inception of the Grapefruit League; the Cubs set up their new facility in Tampa.

The Tampa Rockets were a short-lived team in the late 1940s and early 1950s that played in the Florida State Negro League, one of the many Negro Leagues that existed at the time.

St. Petersburg was the home of the St. Petersburg Pelicans in the short-lived Senior Professional Baseball Association in 1989–1990. The league featured former major league players who were age 35 or older. The Pelicans won the only league championship.

Several notable ballplayers have come from the college and university baseball programs in the Tampa Bay Area. Players and managers have reached the Major Leagues^[7] from the University of South Florida, University of Tampa, St. Petersburg College and Eckerd College. Other schools in the area with baseball programs include Pasco-Hernando State College, Saint Leo University, and Hillsborough Community College.

The South Florida Bulls have made 14 NCAA Division I Tournament appearances, winning their region once in 2021.^[8]

The University of Tampa Spartans baseball program has won eight Division II national championships: 1992, 1993, 1998, 2006, 2007, 2013, 2015, and 2019.^[9]

Organized amateur baseball in Tampa is thought to have begun in Ybor City and West Tampa, two neighborhoods founded in the late 1800s by immigrants from Cuba, Spain, and Italy. The neighborhoods were home to many social clubs, many of which sponsored highly competitive teams that inspired much local support.

Little League Baseball teams from the Tampa Bay Area area have made regular trips to the Little League World Series, finishing runners-up in the 1948, 1975, 1980 & 1981 Little League World Series tournaments.^[10] Tampa Bay area teams have won the state Little League tournament in 1967, 1969–1975, 1977, 1980–1981, 1988–1991, 1994, 2006, 2008, 2011, and 2012.^[11] In addition, local teams have won Junior League championships in 1982, 1985, 2004, and 2011.^[12]

Little League Baseball's headquarters for the Southern Region was located in Gulfport until 2009.

Al López, the first area native to play and manage in the major leagues and the first to be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame, came out of the leagues of Ybor City in the early 20th century. Since then, local baseball programs have produced many current and former major league players and managers including Lou Piniella, Fred McGriff, Gary Sheffield, Tino Martinez, Luis Gonzalez, Dwight Gooden, Howard Johnson, Tony La Russa, Chone Figgins, Wade Boggs and Steve Garvey.

The Tampa Baseball Museum, operated by the Ybor City Museum Society, is located in López's former childhood home. The house was moved to its present location across the street from the Ybor City State Museum.