Spring Fling: The Images Missed Without Spring Training
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A version of this piece appears in the March 2022 issue of Sports Illustrated.
Walter Iooss Jr./Sports Illustrated
The worst part of a labor stoppage in baseball, to some fans, isn’t the prospect of seeing Opening Day pushed back or having to read story after story about millionaires arguing with billionaires. Rather, it’s the potential loss of spring training
Walter Iooss Jr. first went to the Grapefruit League in the 1960s. Phillies slugger Richie Allen spotted the young photographer and his friend and decided they looked cool enough to ask them to hang out, beginning a decades-long friendship. Iooss also did some of his best work in Florida and Arizona, where the settings are distinctive and the vibes laidback. “This was the complete, total opposite of Yankee Stadium, where everything is restricted,” he says, reflecting on his first spring trip. “Everything was open. You could talk to the players, no one really cared where you stood. It was a happy experience.”
Walter Iooss Jr./Sports Illustrated
Another benefit: the natural light during morning workouts and late-afternoon drills. “Spring training was about the light, the backgrounds, the signs, the walls,” says Iooss, who took this picture of Yankees starter Sam McDowell in Bradenton, Fla., in 1974.
Walter Iooss Jr./Sports Illustrated
“Backgrounds to me are almost the most important part of a picture.”
