Pirates treasure Bradenton

Spring training in Florida can be a transient game, where Major League Baseball teams move around, often seeking to extract the best deals with local governments and communities.

The Cincinnati Reds, for example, left Sarasota in 2009 for Goodyear, Ariz. Sarasota, in turn, lured the Baltimore Orioles to town to replace the Reds. The Orioles had held spring training in Fort Lauderdale from 1996 to 2009. More recently, the Atlanta Braves announced plans to leave the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World for a new spring training complex in south Sarasota County, in North Port.

Consider, then, the Pittsburgh Pirates the anomaly among teams of Florida's Grapefruit League.