Clearwater Athletic Field was around long before the Phillies arrived in town. It was first occupied by the Brooklyn Robins (Dodgers) during Spring Training in 1923. Ground was broken in December 1922. Cost of building the park, $25,000. Clearwater's population was about 3,000.

After training at Flamingo Park in Miami Beach, Fla., in 1946, the Phillies settled in Clearwater on the state's west coast the following year.

• Phillies alumni

"The Phillies bid adios to this city and its snow-covered streets this afternoon. It's major league training camp time and the local National Leaguers boarded a B&O train for the sunny southland. The destination is Clearwater, Florida, where the Phils will hold forth for the next two months getting in shape for the baseball season," wrote Ray Kelly in the Feb. 22, 1947, eidition of the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin.

Manager Ben Chapman put pitchers and catchers through their first workout at Athletic Field on Feb. 24, 1947.

"The ballpark is good and bad. The infield, although not tested, appears in fine shape. The outfield is a bucket of sand," reported Stan Baumgartner in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Catcher Andy Seminick was in that first Spring Training camp. "It was nothing but sand and seashells and it was brutal," he said. "We had tough workouts and Chapman ended everyone with 50-75 wind sprints."

The players dressed in a small clubhouse on the third-base side. "It was more like a wooden shack," recalled Seminick. "It looked like it might fall down any minute. It was so cold the city finally agreed to install a pot-belly stove. The shower area was small and the water was mostly cold." Cold was the weather that spring, too according to several newspaper reports. "A man was seen walking the streets this morning with earmuffs on -- honest," one report noted.

Lunch for the players consisted of one sandwich and one small milk. Players stayed at the Fort Harrison Hotel and walked to and from Athletic Field. Following Spring Training, the hotel closed until the following winter tourist season. (According to the 1950 census, Clearwater’s population was 15,581. In the winter it swelled to nearly 100,000.)

The Phillies lost their first Clearwater game on March 11, 13-1, to the Detroit Tigers. Chapman exploded, “I don't intend to take any more 13-1 lickings. We're playing every game as if it counted in the standings. This is not a tryout camp and it's not a resting place for worn-out ballplayers. I've already separated the sheep from the goats and the goats are on the way out." According to newspaper accounts, there were 1,766 paid admissions and almost that number of passes.

While they didn't take any more "lickings," the Phillies finished a dismal 3-12 before embarking on a trip through Florida and up the country's east coast. The exhibition season ended with two games against the Philadelphia Athletics at Shibe Park, a tradition called “The City Series.”