page_title: Al Lang
section_title: Early years
hierarchical_section_title: Al Lang / Early years
caption_attribution_description: English: Pete Norton, Al Lang and Will Harridge at the Governor's Baseball Dinner - Tampa, Florida. Photo taken March, 1951.
context_page_description: Albert Fielding Lang, better known as Al Lang, was an American businessman and politician who served as the mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida from 1916 to 1920. Lang was an active mayor who took steps to beautify the city and increase its popularity especially among northerners who would come to Florida in the winter. However, Lang is best known for his work in bringing baseball spring training to the St. Petersburg area.
context_section_description: Lang was born in 1870 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. During his childhood, Lang was a well known Pittsburgh Pirates fan and associated with the players before and after the games even though he was of school age. Ignoring parental reprimands, Lang often attended games with his boyhood friend, Barney Dreyfuss  As a young adult, Lang established a laundry business that became the largest in city. At the time, Pittsburgh was a city that had an economy focused on steel and smelting businesses and was known for its poor air quality. In 1910, at the age of 39, Lang suffered from respiratory ailments and was told by his doctors that his condition was terminal if he stayed in Pittsburgh. Subsequently, Lang sold his laundry business and moved to St. Petersburg. As a result of the move, Lang's health improved and he began to extol the virtues of his new home town. At the same time, Dreyfuss had become a successful baseball executive and in 1913 bought the Pirates. Lang traveled back to Pittsburgh and asked Dreyfuss to consider moving the Pirates to St. Petersburg for spring training, but Dreyfuss was already using Hot Springs, Arkansas, for spring training and did not want to move his team. Dreyfuss also saw no value in traveling to such a small town unfamiliar to most. Convinced that St. Petersburg would make a good spring training site, Lang eventually convinced the St. Louis Browns to make St. Petersburg their spring training home for the 1914 baseball season. Branch Rickey, the Browns' parsimonious general manager, was attracted to the city's financial package that included payment for the team's travel expenses. The following year, Lang convinced the Philadelphia Phillies to make the same move.
caption: Photo of Pete Norton, Al Lang and Will Harridge at the Florida Governor's March 1951 Baseball Dinner - Tampa, Florida
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