Did you know that St. Pete’s love affair with baseball has its roots in another American burg? (Well, technically, burgh, as Pittsburgh is the only city in the United States that still has the “h” at the end of its burg.)
Back in 1870 a man named Al Lang was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Growing up poor, his family often lived in a rooming house that catered to members of opposing baseball teams in town to play the Pittsburgh Pirates, for whom Lang became a die-hard fan. Lang ran errands for the team, befriended the players, and faithfully attended games with his childhood pal Barney Dreyfuss (who would later come to own the Pirates as an adult.)
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Lang began working in a laundry at the age of 14, a lucrative business in a city famous for the thick black smoke bellowing from its steel factories. By the age of 25 he owned his own facility, the Lincoln Laundry, which grew to be one of the largest laundries in Pittsburgh, making Lang a wealthy man. But the smoke that made the laundry business so profitable wreaked havoc on Lang’s lungs and by the age of 39 doctors told him he only had a year to live. 
Spring Training Comes to the Sunshine City
So Lang fled to the city aggressively marketing itself as the healthiest place on earth, St. Petersburg, Florida, where he entered the real estate business (developing the charming Lang Court, now a local historic district.)
Lang quickly realized that St. Pete’s reliable sunshine made it the perfect place for baseball teams to train in the spring, and tried to lure his old friend Barney Dreyfuss down with the Pirates. Dreyfuss took one look at the small, quiet town of St. Petersburg and said “thank, but no thanks.” Lang had more success with Branch Rickey, the manager of the St. Louis Browns, who took St. Petersburg up on the financial incentive package it was offering.
More than 4,000 people attended the Browns’ first spring training game at Coffee Pot Park in St. Petersburg on February 27, 1914, which they lost to the Chicago Cubs (who trained in Tampa.) While bringing the Browns to St. Pete was a major tourist triumph, the deal was not a financial success and the Browns went elsewhere in 1915.
Undeterred, Lang managed to convince the Philadelphia Phillies to give St. Pete a try. The team came in 1915, and ended up making the postseason for the first time in their history, wining the National League pennant, but losing to the Boston Red Sox in the World Series. Regardless, St Pete was now on the baseball map. The Phillies continued to play in St. Pete for four years.
Mayor Al Lang
Bringing the Phillies to St. Pete turned Al Lang into a local hero and he was elected Mayor in 1916. During his tenure, he focused on beautification efforts, particularly of Central Avenue, requiring crude storefront signs to be removed on “sign pulling down day”, and mandating that the city’s mish-mash of different colored benches all be painted a uniform green. 
In 1921 the city constructed a 2,500 seat ball park, Waterfront Field, a little north of today’s Al Lang stadium. The new stadium lured the Boston Braves to St. Pete; they played here until 1937 when they were replaced by the Cardinals.
But perhaps the biggest baseball news to ever hit St. Pete was in 1924, when Yankees manager and St. Pete winter resident Miller Huggins convinced the team’s owners to move the Yankees to St. Pete. In 1925 Babe Ruth and company arrived, with the Yankees staying until 1961. Al Lang was quoted as saying “The Yankees with Babe Ruth and their stars, meant millions to this town.”
Al Lang Stadium
In 1938, the City began considering options for a new stadium. For months, residents debated whether to renovate the existing stadium or to build a new one. In 1940 a referendum was passed 3 to 1 in favor of the new stadium. Because of World War II, the new stadium did not open until 1947 but when it did, it honored the man who had become known in St. Petersburg as “Mr. Baseball.” The first Al Lang stadium stood until 1977 when it was demolished for the present stadium.
Today 15 Major League Baseball teams host spring training in Florida. Ironically, none of them train in St. Petersburg, the city that started it all. But Al Lang’s name is still connected to sports, as the Rowdies Soccer team now proudly calls Al Lang stadium home.
Pittsburgh aggressively cleaned up its smokey atmosphere in the 1950s, and Al Lang’s former laundry building is now home to sales office of the Beckman Motor Company. Al Lang defied his doctor’s predictions, living 50 years longer than they told him he would. He died in 1960 at the age of 89. The Evening Independent newspaper eulogized Lang, noting that Lang was “given life by the city’s sunshine, and repaid the debt by devoting himself to building the city into something better than he found it.”
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