Chain of Lakes Park - 1966 -2024

[BravesField]

Our old spring training home from Winter Haven is currently being demolished.

This was our Florida home from 1966 to 1992. I for one have very fond memories of watching the Sox train there.

Another era, another time....

Demolition of historic Florida stadium underway (msn.com)

 

[Trapaholic]

Thank you for finding this and posting it. I played baseball at a small D3 school in Massachusetts, and our "spring break" was a trip to Florida to start our season. My team and I played at Chain of Lakes several times in my 4 years. We never got to play on the main field (I think that was reserved for the better D1 teams haha). We usually played on the backfields which were still well kept and perfectly groomed. This was in the late 00's.

That place really was a time capsule. I remember we took pre-game batting practice at in old indoor cage. It had those old lights that took about 10 minutes to fully turn on. The place had charm, and as a baseball fan, it was a pleasure to play there.

 

[TDFenway]

If you are an older Red Sox fan Winter Haven was a part of our DNA.


https://www.springtrainingonline.com/rip-chain-of-lakes-park/

Some sad news to pass along from Winter Haven: Chain of Lakes Park, former spring-training home of the Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians, has been torn down–but the site will be redeveloped for youth baseball and tournaments.

Chain of Lakes Park opened in 1966 as the spring home of the Boston Red Sox, who trained there until 1992, departing for Fort Myers and City of Palms Park. The BoSox were replaced by the Cleveland Indians, who trained there until 2008 and a departure for the Cactus League and Goodyear Ballpark.

Winter Haven was 'quirky' but for fans who traveled south to see the Sox it wasn't that bad. The old Crimson Travel cashed in big time selling Red Sox and Disney World packages as the Magic Kingdom was only an hour away.

I have a lot of memories of that ballpark.

 

[trs]

Wow. Winter Haven. I only made it there a few times because it was deemed "too far" when I would go down with my parents to visit my grandparents in Indian Rocks Beach and then Largo. Instead, my grandfather would take me to St. Pete to see the Cardinals and, of course, the singing (hot dog?) vendor.

"Chain of Lakes Park" was such a great name for a ballpark.

Anyway, thanks for the news and a fun bit of subsequent reminiscing.

 

[TDFenway]

Personal observation

Winter Haven was a good fan experience as I used to call it Saugus with palm trees.

After the Bucky Dent game, I said I was done with the team and my then-girlfriend listened to me all winter.

The following March my GF invited me to spend time with her aunt and uncle in a Tampa suburb and one morning we were going to Disney World which I had never been to.

We head east on I-4 and about an hour from Tampa, I saw this sign...............

My hands started shaking on the steering wheel and sweat poured out of me.

Annie deadpanned, they are playing the White Sox at 1 PM and I already bought the tickets.

I had never been to Winter Haven and then after the game we went to the Holiday Inn where both the Globe and Herald were available and Cliff and Claf were doing their show in the lobby.

Poor Annie thought I was now stabilized and then she had to deal with this a few weeks later.

Pénalité de Boston - 2 minutes pour trop d'hommes sur la glace

A year later she told me I was able to buy hockey tickets for a 5 PM game on February 22nd in Lake Placid along with skating tickets she wanted.............. The 2 hockey tickets were $56 each which in 1980 was a lot and I figured we would see 2 European teams - instead, we hit the lottery.

We never married but we are still friends.

 

[AB in DC]

Amazing story.

 

[koufax32]

For the nostalgic types, a coworker told me that they’re selling/auctioning off some of the old seats.

 

[zenax]

I've only been to Chain of Lakes for one game, probably the late '80s when a couple from Chicago invited us to spend a week with them at their timeshare in Florida and we went to a game there against the White Sox. Somewhere I have a photo of our friend with Minnie Minoso as he was leaving the stadium.

 

[CarolinaBeerGuy]

Personal observation

Winter Haven was a good fan experience as I used to call it Saugus with palm trees.

After the Bucky Dent game, I said I was done with the team and my then-girlfriend listened to me all winter.

The following March my GF invited me to spend time with her aunt and uncle in a Tampa suburb and one morning we were going to Disney World which I had never been to.

We head east on I-4 and about an hour from Tampa, I saw this sign...............

My hands started shaking on the steering wheel and sweat poured out of me.

Annie deadpanned, they are playing the White Sox at 1 PM and I already bought the tickets.

I had never been to Winter Haven and then after the game we went to the Holiday Inn where both the Globe and Herald were available and Cliff and Claf were doing their show in the lobby.

Poor Annie thought I was now stabilized and then she had to deal with this a few weeks later.

Pénalité de Boston - 2 minutes pour trop d'hommes sur la glace

A year later she told me I was able to buy hockey tickets for a 5 PM game on February 22nd in Lake Placid along with skating tickets she wanted.............. The 2 hockey tickets were $56 each which in 1980 was a lot and I figured we would see 2 European teams - instead, we hit the lottery.

We never married but we are still friends.

What a story. I’m sure it all worked out, but I don’t know how you resisted marrying that one.

 

[Martin and Woods]

Personal observation

Winter Haven was a good fan experience as I used to call it Saugus with palm trees.

After the Bucky Dent game, I said I was done with the team and my then-girlfriend listened to me all winter.

The following March my GF invited me to spend time with her aunt and uncle in a Tampa suburb and one morning we were going to Disney World which I had never been to.

We head east on I-4 and about an hour from Tampa, I saw this sign...............

My hands started shaking on the steering wheel and sweat poured out of me.

Annie deadpanned, they are playing the White Sox at 1 PM and I already bought the tickets.

I had never been to Winter Haven and then after the game we went to the Holiday Inn where both the Globe and Herald were available and Cliff and Claf were doing their show in the lobby.

Poor Annie thought I was now stabilized and then she had to deal with this a few weeks later.

Pénalité de Boston - 2 minutes pour trop d'hommes sur la glace

A year later she told me I was able to buy hockey tickets for a 5 PM game on February 22nd in Lake Placid along with skating tickets she wanted.............. The 2 hockey tickets were $56 each which in 1980 was a lot and I figured we would see 2 European teams - instead, we hit the lottery.

We never married but we are still friends.

After reading your post I started reliving/googling the 1979 "Too many men on the ice" game and came across a post on a Bruins board that included this:

"To this day I don't how myself and 2 buddies made it back to Boston alive. We drank heavily afterwards and the next thing I remember was being in a coffee shop in Salem, NH and the waitress looked at us and said 'pulling an all nighter'. I held up the Montreal newspaper and she said 'OMG you were there, I am buying your breakfast'."

Based on the username, I'm wondering - was that you, too?

Anyway, love this story.

 

[CARDCHUCK]

Hi everyone, fan of the team that took over custodianship of Winter Haven in 1993. Was looking if anyone else posted pics, thought you all would like to see the demo from April to May. I did a blog with more pics at my site cardchuck.com (https://cardchuck.com/cardchuck-blog/f/demolition-2024---winter-havens-chain-of-lakes-park-no-more) and here's a "time lapse" so as to cut to the chase. Great little facility, very intimate access to baseball, will miss it dearly.

 

[Lose Remerswaal]

Ouch. Thanks for posting those.