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Speaking of Spring Training….

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The Pittsburgh Pirates held their spring training in the town of Dawson Springs, Kentucky from 1914-1917 playing at Riverside Park. The original stadium was washed away in a flood but the field was still there and the town rebuilt the stadium in 1999 to the original specifications from back in 1914 which meant building an all-wood stadium. Years ago online I found a group of photos from a site called digitalballparks.com which shows the recreation of the original stadium where Honus Wagner spent the end of his playing career getting ready for the upcoming season. The Pirates went 51-103 in 1917 so it is of little surprise they decided to move the following season, although the real reason they left was because of a harsh winter in 1917 that put them behind in their training and forced them to play indoors to get ready.

Pictures of the new park can be found here

 

The team played spring training at Barrs Field in Jacksonville, Florida the following season and that field also still exists although the stadium had to be rebuilt due to fire in 1936 and has been renovated numerous times since.

John Dreker
John Dreker
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball. When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.

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