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Tribe, Winter Haven happy to part ways
Published on Saturday, Mar 22, 2008
LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLA.: The Indians got a vision of their spring future Friday.
Not on the field, but in the ballpark where they played the Atlanta Braves in the dwindling days of spring training.
Disney has done things right at its Wide World of Sports facility, and next year the Indians will join the 21st century by moving into a brand new ballpark in Goodyear, Ariz.
That means the Indians will be leaving their spring home of 16 years, Winter Haven, Fla., a town of 31,000 that time seems to have forgotten.
The Indians and this town in Central Florida had a unique arrangement: The Indians were ready to go somewhere else a few years back, and the town was ready for them to go.
Despite the fact neither wanted each other, the arrangement lasted 16 years.
The Indians wound up in Winter Haven by accident. The team had committed to moving to Homestead in 1993, but Hurricane Andrew devastated that town on the southern end of Florida's peninsula.
The Indians went to Winter Haven for a year, and when Homestead could not recover, they stayed the next 15.
The Chain O' Lakes complex is located on the road to Cypress Gardens, and the stadium is just past the big orange ball of a building that is visible beyond left field.
About five years ago, Winter Haven seemed stuck in the 1950s.
Now, though, it has advanced to the late '60s —
complete with a Wal-Mart.
The Indians have some warm feelings for the time they spent there — players and coaches watched their kids grow up in the area as they brought them south year after year — but not for the facility itself.
Chain O' Lakes Park was home to the Boston Red Sox in the '70s, and it has not been updated a whole lot since then.
Last year, a line drive hit a water pipe in the visitors' dugout, breaking the pipe and sending water gushing.
Folks decided to fix the break with rags and duct tape — apparently they were out of caulk — and the repair lasted about four minutes before water started spraying again.
The main clubhouse sits just across the road from Lake Lulu, home to some of Florida's native animals.
Tales forever will be told of the time one of the grounds crew guys — a Florida local — caught a 3-foot-long alligator, taped its mouth shut and rigged a way so it would be stuck in Wayne Kirby's locker.
Kenny Lofton saw it and scampered out of the clubhouse faster than he ever ran to second on a stolen base. He then wanted this prank pulled every year on a player.
This same grounds crew member liked to try to wrestle larger gators a la Steve Irwin, the crocodile hunter.
Last year, ESPN made him famous the time a snake took residence on press row. He grabbed the 5-foot-long black snake by the tail, and swung it around over his head, apparently to keep the nonpoisonous snake from biting.
There also are tales of the haunted house where Indians' folks stayed. One year, the sound of people walking, and other noises, prompted a member of the media to depart his spring residence at 4 a.m. He went back only to get his stuff — two days later.
Two of the Indians' clubhouse guys stayed in the same place and also were driven out by the sound of people walking. The guys would return from work to find the shower on or previously closed windows open — folks swear this is true — so they moved to the clubhouse.
The clubhouse is typical of those built a generation ago, which means good for the time but aged now.
The minor-league clubhouse was notorious for . . . ummm . . . water backing into the showers. One team representative remembers seeing brown, murky water several inches deep in the showers with players wading through as they showered.
A couple of years ago, the team cleared everyone out of both clubhouses to do some ''updates.''
Those updates were caused by hurricanes that raised lake levels and drove the rats from their homes near the lakes. The rats decided Chain O' Lakes was a nice home.
And when the team started seeing chewed wires and rodent droppings, it knew it had a problem.
The ''updates'' meant extermination, and almost 200 rats were killed in the two clubhouses.
Some years back, the Indians asked Winter Haven folks to upgrade so they could stay, but the town balked. So the Indians cast about Florida for years for a place to land.
They came close to moving to Disney with the Braves, but Osceola County officials declined to spend $400,000-$500,000 on annual upkeep.
Enter Goodyear, a town 20 minutes (they say) west of Phoenix, and named because the Goodyear Tire and Rubber company bought the land where the town sits in 1917 to grow cotton for its rubber.
When cotton prices dropped, the land eventually was used to build blimps, and after World War II as an aerospace industry site.
The town of Goodyear was incorporated in 1946. Ground was broken on the new spring training site in September 2007.
Because it will be new, the facility will have all the comforts the site in Winter Haven lacks: a plush clubhouse, seating for 8,000 in the stands with an additional 1,500 sitting on grass hills in the outfield, a party suite for groups — all that stuff.
The stadium will be the focal point for a development that will include stores, residences and businesses. The team's practice fields and clubhouse will be one-half mile from the main park, and will be available for team use year-round.
It's easy to tell quirky stories about Winter Haven as the Indians prepare to leave, but set aside status and symbols and accept the town for what it is and Winter Haven is, well, a winter haven.
It's part of old Florida, the slower Florida, away from the glitz of Boca Raton and South Beach. It's a town of lunch counters and folks lining up early to get the ''early bird'' dinner specials.
Everyone who visits suggests going to Andy's for the world's greatest milkshake, a claim that is not exaggerated. A sign in the window of Andy's states ''we support our Indians.''
Winter Haven is located amid a chain of lakes where the fishing is plentiful. Disney's park has concocted towers and a homemade square — Disney at its create-it-from-scratch best. Winter Haven is real.
It's what Orlando might have been had some famous company not decided to park its mouse ears there.
Near the ticket office at the stadium are two oak trees, planted in memory of Steve Olin and Tim Crews, the Indians who died in the tragic boating accident of 1993. That memorial will live forever.
Progress will take the Indians from Central Florida, and there will be some negatives that go with the many positives.
Flying time for fans going to spring training will double, as will the cost.
The time difference also will affect broadcasts back home.
But the feeling among the team and Winter Haven is that it's time to part ways.
Way back in the early '90s, after the Indians had just departed Tucson, Ariz., I happened to be at a college basketball tournament there.
A city official was present, so I asked if he was sorry to see the Indians go.
''Heck no,'' he said. ''We're glad they're gone. That just wasn't working.''
So the Indians left for Homestead, but left there before setting foot in the facility.
Now they depart Winter Haven.
Say this for the Indians: They sure know how to leave a place.
Patrick McManamon can be reached at pmcmanamon@thebeaconjournal.com.
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