By mid-January, the college town of Princeton, New Jersey, had made its bid, as did the seashore resort city of Wildwood and the eventual spring training home of the New York Giants, Lakewood. Hershey, Pennsylvania, made an attractive bid, but it was initially believed that travel restrictions would make it difficult for the Phils to accept. The Phillies were courted by several towns and cities. However, Nugent had his eye on Swarthmore College, which had a large field house with a dirt floor that could be transformed into a baseball diamond. It was believed that the Phillies would train near their home ballpark, possibly at the University of Pennsylvania’s Franklin Field. To raise funds, he traded his only decent players-Rube Melton, Nick Etten-for bodies and cash. Naturally, Nugent’s predicament had a deleterious effect on the Phillies as they prepared for spring training. Chester Smith of the Pittsburgh Press insisted that the Phillies “didn’t have enough talent to put up more than a fair battle in a class B league.”Finoli, For the Good of the Country, 55. But the Phillies were in a precarious situation, concluding the last five seasons in the basement (with at least 103 losses per year) and their financially strapped owner, Gerald Nugent, heavily in debt to the National League. And God is with us! The Sporting News, March 25, 1943.įinding a spring training site north of the Ohio and Potomac Rivers was difficult for stable major league franchises. But there are good beds and long nights in which to rest in them. There are more aches and muscles that never hurt before, squawks against calisthenics. There are fewer steaks and it is tougher to get up a perspiration. Dan Daniel of the New York World-Telegram penned these eloquent words in March 1943: Teams had to scramble to find northern training camps and were often burdened by harsh weather, fewer exhibition games, inferior training facilities, second-rate playing equipment, depleted rosters, and uncertainty regarding continuation of the game as the ballplayers departing for military service were replaced with 4-Fs, teenagers, old-timers, and career minor leaguers. They adhered to Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis’s edict, which allowed baseball to meet government travel restrictions and promote a positive image in the public mind. In 1943 major league teams were forced to abandon the salubrious conditions of the South. Air corps stunts were observed above Flamingo Park the players inspected fighters and bombers at a nearby base and manager Hans Lobert, who had run the US Military Academy baseball team from 1918–25, persuaded Army officers to lead the squad in military drills preparing them for a patriotic display as they marched with bats on their shoulders before a Grapefruit League game against the Boston Braves. Hershey, as their spring training headquarters.By 1942 World War II was already impacting the Philadelphia Phillies’ spring training activities as they prepared for the regular season in the soft sands of Miami Beach, Florida. With a new owner, the Philadelphia Phillies ultimately and perhaps reluctantly settled on Hershey, a community founded by chocolate king Milton S. Teams had to scramble to find northern training camps and were often burdened by harsh weather, fewer exhibition games, and inferior training facilities. In 1943 major league teams were forced to abandon the salubrious conditions of the South for spring training.
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