Baseball’s roots in our region date back to the 1890s. The Bradentown B’s baseball team, pictured here at the turn of the 20th century in front of Braden Castle (once the largest home in the area and then a fort during the Third Seminole War of 1855-1858), was likely one of  several neighborhood groups made up of young people playing in sandlots, part of a national trend that cast baseball as a “cure” to fast-paced urbanization. Later, Bradenton became a hub for spring training, with the Pittsburgh Pirates arriving in 1969 and the Bradenton Marauders playing their first game in 2010. (And no, Bradentown isn’t a typo—that was the city’s name until it was changed to Bradenton in 1924.)