page_title: Al Lopez Field
section_title: Closing and aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Al Lopez Field / Closing and aftermath
caption_attribution_description: Sign at entrance of Al López Park, Tampa, Florida
context_page_description: Al López Field was a spring training and Minor League baseball park in West Tampa, Tampa, Florida, United States. It was named for Al López, who was the first Tampa native to play Major League Baseball, manage an MLB team, and be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Al López Field was built in 1954 and hosted its first spring training in 1955, when the Chicago White Sox moved their training site to Tampa from California. Al López became the White Sox's manager in 1957, and for the next three springs, he was the home manager in a ballpark named after himself. The Cincinnati Reds replaced the White Sox as Al López Field's primary tenant in 1960 and would return every spring for almost 30 years. The Tampa Tarpons, the Reds' Class-A minor league affiliate in the Florida State League, played at the ballpark every summer from 1961–1987.
  In 1988, the Reds moved their spring training home to a new facility in nearby Plant City, Florida, and Al López Field did not host spring training for the first time since 1955. The Tarpons became an affiliate of the Chicago White Sox for the 1988 season and played one more summer at the ballpark.
context_section_description: By the 1980s, the Tampa Bay area was widely discussed as a possible home for either a major league expansion team or a relocated existing team, and the site of Al López Field was considered a prime location for a new major league ballpark if Tampa received a team. With the uncertainty about the future of the site, the Tampa Sports Authority would only offer the Reds a series of short-term leases for the continued use of the ballpark and the adjacent training facilities. The team responded by building a new facility in nearby Plant City, Florida. The 1987 season was the last in which the Cincinnati Reds held spring training in Tampa and the Tampa Tarpons were a Reds minor league affiliate.
  The Tampa Tarpons reached an affiliation agreement with the Chicago White Sox for the 1988 season. However, various local groups continued to pursue a major league team and announced various plans for large stadiums at the Al López Field site, leading the Tarpons' local owners to sell the minor league team to the White Sox in November 1988. The Tarpons moved to Sarasota in 1989 and were rechristened the Sarasota White Sox, leaving Tampa without professional baseball for the first time in over 70 years.
  With no tenants and with a sense that the city would have to move quickly to build a major league stadium, the Tampa Sports Authority decided to demolish AL Lopez Field in early 1989. Al López himself had retired to Tampa and lived only a few miles from the ballpark that bore his name. In a 1992 interview, Lopez said that the razing of the stadium "wasn't very disappointing. I saw a diagram of the new stadium, and I didn't feel bad because I thought they were going to build a bigger one and a better one. After that, something happened, and they never built the ballpark. Then it was a disappointment." Horizon Park, a public park just north of Tampa Stadium, was renamed Al López Park in his honor in 1992.
  While Tampa waited to build a new ballpark until it was guaranteed a major league team, St. Petersburg went ahead with construction on the domed stadium that is now known as Tropicana Field. It was completed in 1990, and St. Pete was awarded the expansion Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays in 1995. Meanwhile, Tampa resumed its long affiliation with professional baseball in 1994, when the New York Yankees agreed to move their spring training home and Florida State League affiliate (the Tampa Yankees) to Tampa if the city built a new ballpark for their use. The city built George M. Steinbrenner Field (originally known as Legends Field) across Dale Mabry Highway from Tampa Stadium, about a quarter mile northwest of the former site of Al López Field. The city of Tampa also upgraded the nearby training facilities formerly known as Redsland for use by the Yankees.
  The former site of Al López Field was a parking area for Tampa Stadium until 1998, when Raymond James Stadium was built on its footprint.
caption: Entrance to Al López Park
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