Take Me Out to a Florida Grapefruit League Baseball Game
Take Me Out to a Florida Grapefruit League Baseball Game
By Nick Gandy
Happy Pitchers and Catchers Report Day to all Baseball fans!
Baseball fans rejoice because today the 2026 Major League Baseball season unofficially begins today when pitchers and catchers will take the field in two Florida Spring Training locations (Braves, North Port and Red Sox, Fort Myers). Nine more teams follow on Wednesday and the final four hit the field on Thursday.
By the end of this week, all 13 locations will be abuzz with players on the field. The most ardent fans will wander through for pre-season practices, seeing players in uniform for the first time since late-September. The “back fields” often provide surprises to those who seek them out.
The 2026 Florida Grapefruit League season, with 33 glorious days of games, begins on Friday, February 20 with a game between New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles, at Ed Smith Stadium, in Sarasota. In Fort Myers, the season begins with the annual pros vs college players when the Minnesota Twins host the Minnesota Golden Gophers and the Boston Red Sox host the Northeastern Huskies. On Saturday, February 21, it’s a full slate of games that continues to fill the calendar daily through March 24.
The reason today is such a milestone for baseball fans is because it’s a new start for fans of the 15 teams in Florida Spring Training sites.
Everyone is in first place. The promising young talent is hitting the field for the first time in front of new fans. The new players attained through off-season deals are wearing their new uniforms for the first time.
MLB Florida Spring Training was one of the state’s first sports tourism opportunities, dating back to the 1920s when Al Lang, a prominent St. Petersburg businessman and Mayor from 1916-20, lured four teams to the Tampa Bay area for pre-season workouts. His biggest catch was the New York Yankees, who trained in St. Petersburg in their glory years of 1925-61
The majority of Florida Spring Training games have a 1:05 p.m. first pitch. The mid-afternoon games leave fans plenty of time to check out the scenes of the 12 Florida host communities before and after games.
Thirty-five different Florida sites have held spring training. All but six of today’s major league teams trained in Florida (Los Angeles Angels, Milwaukee Brewers, Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres, Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks).
The Florida cities with the most years of spring training are St. Petersburg and Tampa (107 years), Bradenton and Clearwater (96 years), Lakeland (95 years), Sarasota (94 years), Fort Myers (85 years) and West Palm Beach (73 years).
Besides the annual rites of spring that baseball fans annually enjoy, there’s a few other nuances worked into the 2026 Florida Grapefruit League schedule.
After a week and a half of regular games between Major League teams, the big leaguers will the field against National teams preparing to play in the 2026 World Baseball Classic.
On March 3-4, look for games against eight teams in the 20-team WBC field. MLB teams and National teams from Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Columbia, Nicaragua, Panama, Israel, Canada and The Netherlands will play.
The games in Florida will be a tune up for the pool play games in San Juan, Tokyo, Houston and Miami. The Semifinals and Championship Game will be played in Miami’s loanDepot Park, March 15-17.
As the month of March progresses and the season is winding down, Spring Breakout Games return, for a second season, March 20-21. Stars of the Future for all 15 Florida Grapefruit League will showcase their talents against one another.
Many of the players who were standouts during the Spring Breakout Games in 2025 made significant contributions in the regular season and post-season.
Trey Yesavage made his unofficial Toronto Blue Jays debut in a March 15, 2025 Spring Breakout Game. He worked his way through the minor leagues and became household name among baseball fans, striking out 12 Los Angeles Dodgers through seven innings in the 2025 World Series.
Also turning heads in 2025 Spring Breakout Games, who ended up in starting lineups in the regular season were Roman Anthony, of the Boston Red Sox and the Pittsburgh Pirates Bubba Chandler.
Baseball and Florida under the March sun. It don’t get no better.
For more information about the 2026 Florida Spring Training season, visit www.floridagrapefruitleague.com
Nick Gandy is a 40-year sports communications professional who has worked with the Florida Sports Foundation, the state of Florida’s lead sports promotion and development organization, since 1998.