<P> Famously, a young pitcher named Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox was playing an emergency game at first base on St. Patrick's Day, 1918, his first time playing the field . Ruth would hit two home runs that day in Hot Springs, and the second was a 573 - foot shot that landed across the street from Whittington Park in a pond of the Arkansas Alligator Farm and Petting Zoo . Soon he was playing the field more often . Over 130 Major League Baseball Hall of Famers, including such names as Ruth, Cy Young, Cap Anson, Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Walter Johnson, Rogers Hornsby, Mel Ott and Jimmie Foxx were involved in Hot Springs Spring Training games . The First Boys of Spring is a 2015 documentary about Hot Springs Spring Training . The film was narrated by area native, actor Billy Bob Thornton, and produced by filmmaker Larry Foley . The documentary began airing nationally on the MLB Network in February, 2016 . </P> <P> Early training sites include the St. Louis Cardinals in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma; the New York Yankees in New Orleans and later Phoenix, Arizona, when the team was owned by Del Webb; the Chicago Cubs in Los Angeles when owned by William Wrigley Jr.; the St. Louis Browns and later the Kansas City Athletics in San Diego then in West Palm Beach, Florida; the Pittsburgh Pirates in Honolulu and other teams joined in by the early 1940s . The Detroit Tigers are credited with being the first team to conduct spring training camp in Arizona . They trained in Phoenix at Riverside Park at Central Avenue and the Salt River in 1929 . </P> <P> The Philadelphia Phillies were the first of the current major - league teams to train in Florida, when they spent two weeks in Jacksonville, Florida in 1889 . Spring training in Florida began in earnest in 1913, when the Chicago Cubs played in Tampa, and the Cleveland Indians in Pensacola . One year later, two other teams moved to Florida for spring training, the real start of the Grapefruit League . Except for a couple of years during World War II, when travel restrictions prevented teams training south of the Potomac and Ohio rivers, Florida hosted more than half of the spring training teams through 2009 . Since 2010, major league teams have been equally divided during spring training, with 15 teams in Florida and 15 teams in Arizona . All but six of the major league teams have gone to spring training in Florida at one time or another . Many of the most famous players in baseball history (Ruth, Gehrig, Musial, Cobb, Mays, DiMaggio, Berra, Mantle, and many more) have called Florida home for 4--6 weeks every spring . </P> <P> According to the autobiography of former Cleveland Indians owner Bill Veeck, the avoidance of racism was one reason the Cactus League was established . In 1947, Veeck was the owner of the minor league Milwaukee Brewers and the team trained in Ocala, Florida . Veeck inadvertently sat in the Black section of the segregated stands and engaged in conversation with a couple of fans . According to Veeck's book, the local law enforcement told Veeck he could not sit in that section, and then called the Ocala mayor when Veeck argued back . The mayor finally backed down when Veeck threatened to take his team elsewhere for spring training and promised to let the country know why . </P>

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