 | |
  Al López Field Location in Florida  Al López Field Location in the United States | |
| Location | Tampa, Florida |
|---|---|
| Owner | Tampa Sports Authority |
| Operator | Tampa Sports Authority |
| Capacity | approximately 5,000 |
| Field size | Left - 340 ft. Center - 400 ft. Right - 340 ft. |
| Surface | Grass |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | 1954 |
| Opened | March 1955 |
| Closed | 1988 |
| Demolished | Spring 1989 |
| Construction cost | "$287,901 (equivalent to $3,274,561 in 2023)" |
| Tenants | |
| MLB Spring Training Chicago White Sox (1955–1959) Cincinnati Reds (1960–1987) Minor Leagues Tampa Tarpons (FSL) (1957–1988) College USF Bulls (NCAA) (1966) | |
Al López Field was a spring training and Minor League baseball ballpark in West Tampa, Tampa, Florida, United States. It was named for Al López, the first Tampa native to play Major League Baseball (MLB), manage an MLB team, and be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Al López 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 López 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 López 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.
Al López Field was constructed as the first phase part of a planned community sports complex, with Tampa Stadium built adjacent to the ballpark in 1967. When the Tampa Bay area began seriously pursuing a Major League Baseball expansion team in the 1980s, the site of Al López Field was widely regarded as a prime location for a potential major league ballpark. With the city of Tampa unwilling to offer a new long-term lease due to the facility's uncertain future, the Reds decided to move their spring training home to nearby Plant City in 1988. The Tarpons moved to Sarasota a year later, leaving Al López Field without a tenant.
The ballpark was razed in 1989 to facilitate faster construction of a major league replacement. However, MLB chose St. Petersburg's Tropicana Field as the home for the expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays, leaving the site vacant and Tampa without a professional baseball team. Legends Field opened nearby in 1995 as the new spring training home of the New York Yankees and summer home of the minor league Tampa Yankees. In 1998, Raymond James Stadium, a replacement for Tampa Stadium, was built at the former location of Al López Field.