Baseball Game Action in 1955 at Al Lopez Baseball Field Stadium in Tampa, Florida

Al Lopez Field was a spring training and Minor League baseball ballpark in West Tampa, Tampa, Florida. It was named for Al Lopez, the first Tampa native to play Major League Baseball (MLB), manage an MLB team, and be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Al Lopez Field was built in 1954 and hosted its first spring training in 1955, when the Chicago White Sox moved their training site to Tampa from California. Al Lopez became the White Sox's manager in 1957, and for the next three springs, he was the home manager in a ballpark named after himself. The Cincinnati Reds replaced the White Sox as Al Lopez Field's primary tenant in 1960 and would return every spring for almost 30 years. The Tampa Tarpons, the Reds' Class-A minor league affiliate in the Florida State League, played at the ballpark every summer from 1961–1987, and many members of the Reds' Big Red Machine teams of the 1970s played there early in their professional baseball careers.

The Tampa Bay area sought a major league expansion franchise beginning in the 1980s, and the Al Lopez Field site was widely regarded as the best location for a new major league ballpark if Tampa gained a team. With the city of Tampa unwilling to agree to a new long-term lease, the Reds moved their spring training home to a new facility in nearby Plant City, Florida in 1988. The Tarpons moved to Sarasota, Florida a year later, leaving Al Lopez Field without a tenant. The facility was razed in 1989 and Raymond James Stadium was built at its former location in 1998.

MLB Spring Training

Chicago White Sox (1955-1959)

Cincinnati Reds (1960-1987)

Minor Leagues

Tampa Tarpons (FSL) (1957-1988)

College

USF Bulls (NCAA) (1966)

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