Journey through spring:
Spring training game dates to know as first pitches arrive
Joe Mock of BaseballParks.com takes you on a highlight tour of what you can see and experience with every team at every spring training park.
While spring training exhibition games don’t count in the regular-season standings, don’t tell the fans who flock to Arizona and Florida every spring that they aren’t important.
This is the time they get to bask in weather that’s invariably better than back home while getting to meet their favorite stars and up-and-coming prospects.
But the early start of spring training is catching fans by surprise.
“Before 2018, with the exception of the World Baseball Classic years, few exhibitions were played before March 1,” says Graham Knight, operator of the Spring Training Connection website (springtrainingconnection.com). “Now that the regular season annually starts well before the end of March, the new normal is February 21.”
Fans need to plan carefully if they intend to spend their mornings on the back fields of their favorite team’s complex and their afternoons and evenings at exhibition games.
To help you decide when to travel and what games to target, here is our summary of highlights for each team from this year’s Cactus League and Grapefruit League schedules.
Keep in mind that Daylight Savings Time (DST) starts in Florida on Sunday, March 8, but the Phoenix area doesn’t recognize DST. The game times listed are local and are subject to change.
On Pages 8 to 37, we preview every major league team and provide camp info, its 40-man roster and its spring schedule. Times on those pages are listed in Eastern time.
St. Patrick’s doubleheader
Fans of the Arizona Diamondbacks can celebrate St. Patrick’s Day by attending two games on March 17 at the team’s spring home at Salt River Fields near Scottsdale. At 1:10, the D-backs will host a split squad of the Chicago White Sox and at 6:10 they’ll play the Grand Canyon University baseball team. Tickets start at $15 for the evening game.
This will be the first year the Atlanta Braves will spend the entire spring at their new complex in North Port, after playing only a single exhibition there last year. March 10 will be a fun day, when the Braves’ split squad will host last year’s World Series runner-up, the Astros, at 1:05, then that evening they’ll face the Orioles in Sarasota at 6:05.
Sarasota’s Ed Smith Stadium, spring home of the Baltimore Orioles, was named the best facility for exhibitions in a 2018 study of online reviews. In an interesting change of pace, all fans 60 and over are invited to run the bases following the 6:05 O’s-Braves game in Sarasota on March 10.
A pair of Sox games
The Boston Red Sox sold out all of their home exhibitions last year, so if you’re heading to Fort Myers to see them, buy your tickets early. A good chance to catch them twice in the same day will occur March 20. Their split squads play the Twins at Hammond Stadium on the other side of Fort Myers at 1:05 and against the Orioles in Sarasota at 6:05.
The Chicago Cubs are the perennial attendance leaders in spring training because their fans pour into Mesa from all around the Midwest. Those fans can see their team play twice on March 2 without leaving Mesa, when the Cubs split their squad to host the Angels at Sloan Park at 1:05 and play the A’s in nearby HoHoKam Stadium at 7:05.
The two biggest draws in the Cactus League visit the Chicago White Sox in Glendale on consecutive days. The Cubs come on March 13 and the Dodgers, who share the Camelback Ranch complex with the White Sox, on the following day. Both start at 1:05.
Fans of the Cincinnati Reds can head to the bright lights of Las Vegas to see their team face divisional rival the Cubs on March 7 and March 8. Both games are at 1:05. If those fans like to avoid the desert heat, the Reds play evening games at home in Goodyear on consecutive days, March 13 against the Rockies and Saturday March 14 versus the Giants. Both contests start at 6:05.
The Reds and Cubs aren’t the only two teams heading to Las Vegas this spring.
The Cleveland Indians will face the Athletics at 1-year-old Las Vegas Ballpark on Feb. 29 and March 1. Both games are at 1:05.
Twin twinbills for the Rockies
The Colorado Rockies’ schedule features two dates with day-night doubleheaders. One is March 13, when their split squads host the Padres at Salt River Fields at 1:10 and travel to Goodyear to face off against the Reds at 6:05. Then on March 21, they again split their squad to play the Padres in Peoria at 1:10 and host the Brewers at 6:10.
Highlights of the Detroit Tigers’ exhibition schedule include back-to-back days against the Yankees on Saturday, Feb. 29 in Tampa and March 1 in Lakeland (both games are at 1:05) and facing the 2019 World Series combatants on consecutive afternoons in West Palm Beach. The Tigers face the Nationals at 1:05 on March 8 and the Astros at the same time the following day.
Since coming up short in the World