ANNA MARIA – Major League Baseball owners and players have finally settled their collective bargaining agreement, and spring training begins this week, better late than never.
In honor of the start to the season, swing by the baseball-themed neighborhood between Spruce and Cypress avenues in Anna Maria, where statues portray the boys of summer at one of the few remaining baseball houses – “Home Plate.”
Milwaukee Braves ballplayers lived in the neighborhood during spring training in Bradenton, where the club trained from 1953-62. Pitcher Warren Spahn, a Baseball Hall of Famer, started the tradition of naming houses with “The Mound,” and others followed: “Home Plate,” “Infield,” “Outfield,” “Shortstop,” “Catcher’s Mitt” and “The Diamond.”
While many of the houses are gone, at 208 Cypress Ave., “Home Plate” still sports a door with the names of Spahn and Braves third base player and Hall of Famer Eddie Mathews, who bought the home from him.
