Saturday, June 13, 2020

Vintage backgrounds: Chain of Lakes Park

Hitting the popular 1975 set now. From 1966 to 1992, the Red Sox trained at Chain of Lakes Park in Winter Haven, FL. The area around the park is somewhat hilly, which explains why there is this grassy knoll behind pitcher Bill Lee.
You can see some of those hills on this Winter Haven postcard. Looks like they were largely artificial to keep the park from sinking into the water.
What you do not see anywhere in this photo is a high rise hotel. That makes this card of fellow Boston star Carlton Fisk in a spring training photo in his home uniform rather puzzling. I am guessing this was taken at another park (St. Petersburg?) but for some reason the Red Sox were wearing their home uniforms. Or maybe it's a gray uniform and the color in the photo got washed out?

1 comment:

  1. I like these posts. I immediately went to Google Maps to see what the area looks like now... and the place is completely developed. All of the groves are now built over.

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