cover image The Baseball Fan's Guide to Spring Training

The Baseball Fan's Guide to Spring Training

Michael Shatzkin, Mike Shatzkin. Addison Wesley Publishing Company, $10.66 (270pp) ISBN 978-0-201-13234-2

Baseball fans planning a spring-training camp trip would do well to peruse this comprehensive guide. The authors provide a history of spring training (the first camp is attributed to Cap Anson, who took his Chicago White Stockings to Hot Springs, Ark., in 1886; 1988 is the centennial of spring training in Florida). The authors divide the training camps of the 26 major-league teams into three groups in Florida (Southeast, Gulf Coast and theme amusement parks like Boardwalk & Baseball) and one in Arizona. Included are maps, parking facilities, seating capacity, game times, addresses and phone numbers for tickets and information, hotels and leisure spots where the players can be found, previous spring-training locations, hottest 1988 prospects and top spring-training rookies dating back to 1960. Also provided are other area attractionszoos, museums, boat tours and batting cages. Appendixes list spring-training and regular-season standings since 1960 and the chambers of commerce in Florida and Arizona. Shatzkin runs spring-training tours and Charlton is a freelance writer. Photos not seen by PW. (March)