In Major League Baseball, spring training is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to audition for roster and position spots, and gives existing team players practice time prior to competitive play. Spring training has always attracted fan attention, drawing crowds who travel to the warmer climates to enjoy the weather and watch their favorite teams play, and spring training usually coincides with spring break for many college students.

Spring training typically lasts almost two months, starting in mid February and running until just before the season opening day (and often right at the end of spring training, some teams will play spring training games on the same day other teams have opening day of the season), traditionally the first week of April. Pitchers and catchers report to spring training first because pitchers benefit from a longer training period due to the exhaustive nature of the position. A week or two later, the position players arrive and team practice begins.

Spring training by major league teams in sites other than their regular season game sites began in the 1920's. They include the St. Louis Cardinals in Hot Springs, Arkansas and Tulsa, Oklahoma; the New York Yankees in New Orleans, Louisiana 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; and other teams joined in by the early 1940's. While Florida and Arizona (the United States) now host all Major League Baseball teams for spring training, this has not always been the case. The Brooklyn Dodgers trained in Havana, Cuba in 1947 and 1959, and in the Dominican Republic in 1948.

The New York Yankees also trained in the early 1950's in Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Also spring training camps and games were held in Hawaii, Puerto Rico and cities of northern Mexico, sometimes by visiting major league teams in the 1950's and 1960's.

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