Spring Training is a baseball ritual that takes place every February and March, most of the time in the South.
With the United States in World War II, the Office of Defense Transportation mandated that baseball teams hold Spring Training near their homes from 1943-45. To conserve rail transportation, the ODT‘s travel restrictions limited teams to areas north of the Potomac and Ohio Rivers and east of the Mississippi River. For the Phillies it meant going to Hershey, Pa., and Wilmington, Del.
Hershey (1943)
Manager Bucky Harris, eight players, the travelling secretary and publicity director boarded a train at the Reading Terminal in Philadelphia at 10:30 a.m. on March 14. At 2 p.m., they arrived in Hershey. Other players went to Hershey directly from their homes.
Hershey had a small, well-kept high school diamond, a training house for use in wet weather and ample locker room facilities in Hersheypark Arena. Housing was split between the Community House and Community Inn.
Rosters were in flux because of the war. Eighteen Phillies were in the military service. Of the 42 who would play for them during the season, only 12 were in uniform the year before. 2B Danny Murtaugh, 3B Pinky May and RF Ron Northey were the only returning regulars.
Before the first workout, Harris laid out his rules: midnight curfew under penalty of $25, no “horseplay,” every hitter must sprint to first during batting practice, pitchers must shag fly balls, no card playing for large stakes, and most of all, he counseled the players to cast off the defeatist complex.
Weather was a constant problem. Rain, hail, snowflakes and the thaw of spring were issues. Because of a muddy diamond, the Phillies were forced to work out on a football field at times. On another occasion, high winds forced the Phillies indoors at Hersheypark Arena.
Exhibition games took place in early April in places like Wilmington, New Cumberland, Pa., Lebanon, Pa., Lancaster, Pa., Hagerstown, Md., and Trenton, N.J.
Wilmington (1944-45)
Following the 1943 season, the Carpenter family of Wilmington bought the Phillies. “We had planned on returning to Hershey for Spring Training,” explained general manager Herb Pennock. “The only reason we’re moving to Wilmington is because Bob Carpenter owns the (Minor League) Blue Rocks and the ballpark.”
Wilmington Park, located at the corner of 30th Street and Gov. Printz Boulevard, was where the Phillies held Spring Training.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported 22 players, including manager Freddie Fitzsimmons, who was still being carried on the roster as a pitcher, were in camp for the March 10 start. The manager laid out the training rules: “Midnight curfew, an 8 o’clock rising hour and orders for the players to be in uniform and ready for duty at 10 a.m. each day.”
Basketballs replaced baseballs because the first day of workouts was canceled by snow. Fitzsimmons moved the workout indoors at the Delaware State Armory. According to clippings from the Philadelphia Record_,_ “Fitzsimmons hustled the team to the armory at 2 o’clock. The previous idea of working out at the rink, a building on the Carpenter estate, was given up because of the lack of transportation. Outside of a session of calisthenics and a brief game of catch, the Phillies devoted themselves to shooting basketballs at the netted hoops and heaving the leathered globules at each other in the same sort of pregame warmups practiced by the court quintets.” The story went on to say the workout was stopped at 4 o’clock.
The Hotel Dupont was the Spring Training headquarters. Fourteen exhibition games were listed on the schedule for Wilmington Park.