It's That Time Again

This is the week the sports calendar flips -- less than 10 days after the Super Bowl, baseball players begin reporting to training camps in Florida and Arizona.

Can you believe that 25 years ago, reporters didn't watch Grapefruit League games from the press box, but from foul territory in right field just past the grandstand of the small and simple ballparks (in this case, Clearwater's old Jack Russell Stadium)?

As an industry, spring training has mushroomed in size, the close-up intimacy reporters enjoyed in the 1980s replaced by massive campuses with less direct access to the players and more distance from the games.

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