In 1943, the defending World Series champion Cardinals shifted their spring training site from Florida to Illinois. Compared with where other big-league clubs had to go, the Cardinals considered themselves fortunate.
With the United States pouring resources into its fight against Germany and Japan in World War II, big-league baseball offered to help conserve by placing travel restrictions on where clubs could train in the spring.
Clubs were ordered to choose sites north of the Potomac and Ohio rivers and east of the Mississippi River.
The Browns of the American League selected Cape Girardeau, Mo., located 135 miles south of St. Louis. (Because Cape Girardeau is on the west bank of the Mississippi, the Browns technically were in violation of the rules, but baseball officials allowed it.)
The Cardinals picked Cairo, Ill., the southernmost spring training site of all 16 major league clubs. Cairo, then a town of 14,000, is located where the Ohio River flows into the Mississippi. It is 40 miles south of Cape Girardeau.
“We’re going farther south than any other big-league training outfit,” Cardinals owner Sam Breadon said to The Sporting News. “We’ll be only a short distance from Tennessee and the weather down there is always from 12 to 15 degrees warmer than it is in St. Louis.”
Here is where the big-league teams trained in 1943:
NATIONAL LEAGUE
CLUB……………1943 TRAINING SITE……………1942 TRAINING SITE
Braves…………..Wallingford, Conn……………………..Sanford, Fla.
Cardinals……….Cairo, Ill……………………………………St. Petersburg, Fla.
Cubs………………French Lick, Ind……………………….Catalina Island, Calif.
Dodgers…………Bear Mountain, N.Y…………………..Havana, Cuba
Giants……………Lakewood, N.J………………………….Miami, Fla.
Phillies…………..Swarthmore, Pa……………………….Miami Beach, Fla.
Pirates……………Muncie, Ind…………………………….San Bernardino, Calif.
Reds………………Bloomington, Ind…………………….Tampa, Fla.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
CLUB……………1943 TRAINING SITE……………1942 TRAINING SITE
Athletics…………Wilmington, Del………………………..Anaheim, Calif.
Browns…………..Cape Girardeau, Mo…………………..DeLand, Fla.
Indians…………..West Lafayette, Ind……………………Clearwater, Fla.
Red Sox………….Medford, Mass………………………….Sarasota, Fla.
Senators…………College Park, Md………………………Orlando, Fla.
Tigers……………..Evansville, Ind…………………………Lakeland, Fla.
White Sox………..French Lick, Ind………………………Pasadena, Calif.
Yankees……………Asbury Park, N.J…………………….St. Petersburg, Fla.
The Cardinals didn’t report to Cairo, Ill., until mid-March, at least two weeks later than they usually went to St. Petersburg. They trained outdoors on a large field and indoors in a high school gym.
According to The Sporting News, the field drained well, “usable the day after a heavy rainfall,” and the gym was like “a steam room” because the Cardinals kept the temperature above 80.
Cardinals manager Billy Southworth projected a positive attitude, telling The Sporting News after the first week of workouts, “Let us have three days outdoors out of every five and we’ll be in thoroughly satisfactory condition for the pennant race. And let us have warm weather through most of the last two weeks and we’ll be in as good condition as we could attain anywhere in the country.”
The Cardinals’ Cairo spring didn’t hurt. They repeated as National League champions in 1943. They trained again in Cairo in 1944 and 1945 (winning a World Series title in 1944) before returning to St. Petersburg in 1946.
Previously: How Mort Cooper pitched 2 straight 1-hitters for Cardinals
I believe they used Egyptian Field, aka Dodger Field, aka Cairo Kitty League Field, which had been home of the Dodger affiliate Cairo Egyptians in the Kitty League, and which the Negro American League 1939 St. Louis Stars used for two home games.
Kevin: Thanks for the insight. That’s a special site.
Both my grandpa & uncle were part of the Cairo Kitty league. My grandpa played for the Dodgers. They were actually featured in Ridley’s Believe it or Not(it used to be in the paper like a comic strip) bc they were “The Pitching Pitchers”(their names were Jimmy-my grandpa, and Billy Pitcher, and that was also their position).
What a wonderful story. Thank you for sharing it with us, Audrey.
The Web site baseball-reference.com has some statistical data on Jimmy Pitcher and Billy Pitcher.
Here is a link to Jimmy Pitcher: https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=pitche001jam
Here is a link to Billy Pitcher: https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=pitche001wil
They played on Cotter Field, named after my great-uncle, “Ward” Cotter. It was a well-constructed field, and drained well because the dirt had been dug up and “equipped” with pebbles, etc., then put back, to make this drainage possible. It was called “Cotter Field” from the 1920s, when it was finished, and apparently underwent some changes in name over the years. It most recently was named “Box Field,” after a local citizen whose surname was “Box”. It was named Cotter Field because Ward apparently was instrumental in getting it installed. Next to it was a landing field for airplanes. = bygone days, folks !
— John K. Cotter, whose father, uncles, and grandparents lived in Cairo. By 1936, the family was gone.
Hi, John. Thank you very much for the wonderful insights you provided. Congratulations on the Cotter family’s legacy of community involvement and betterment in Cairo, Ill.
John – Was this field located at Commercial and 40th Street?
Cotter Field (now called Box Field) is located on the corner of Butler Homes (formerly Cedar Street) and 17th Street in Cairo.
Thank you for contributing this information, Tara.