{"id":581064,"date":"2026-02-19T13:32:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T13:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/581064\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T13:32:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T13:32:33","slug":"lakeland-kicks-off-spring-training-with-annual-tiger-bbq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/581064\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakeland kicks off spring training with annual Tiger BBQ"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>LAKELAND, Fla. \u2014 With spring training games beginning this weekend, Lakeland is kicking off baseball season with the 79th annual Tiger BBQ on Thursday evening.<\/p>\n<p>The tradition celebrates the Detroit Tigers, who have returned to Lakeland for spring training for the past 90 years.<\/p>\n<p>The annual tradition began in 1946 when former Lakeland Mayor Jimmie Musso hosted the team in his backyard.<\/p>\n<p>Almost 80 years later, the Tigers are back again, kicking off the season with a game against the New York Yankees on Saturday at George M. Steinbrenner Field.<\/p>\n<p>A few hours away, the Rays will also kick off spring training in Port Charlotte, hosting the Atlanta Braves at Charlotte Sports Park on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tampabay28.com\/sports\/rays-pitchers-and-catchers-report-to-spring-training\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tampa Bay 28\u2019s Kevin Lewis checked in on the team<\/a> last week as the Rays held their first pitchers and catchers workout of the spring in Port Charlotte.<\/p>\n<p>Due to multiple hurricanes that disrupted previous seasons, this is the first time in years the Rays will have a full preseason at their normal spring training home and a full regular season at Tropicana Field in the same year.<\/p>\n<p>Thursday&#8217;s Tiger BBQ starts at 6 p.m. at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium and is open to the public. Fans can find tickets <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/visitcentralflorida.org\/events\/tiger-bbq\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Fans can also purchase preseason tickets for the Rays and the Detroit Tigers <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tampabay28.com\/sports\/2026-mlb-spring-training-schedule-released-6-teams-playing-in-the-tampa-bay-area\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/JULIE.SALOMONE.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Buildings painted pink ahead of demolition to make way for 29-story tower<\/p>\n<p>Several buildings in downtown St. Petersburg have been painted pink to bring attention to new construction.<\/p>\n<p>Buildings painted pink ahead of demolition to make way for 29-story tower<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAKELAND, Fla. \u2014 With spring training games beginning this weekend, Lakeland is kicking off baseball season with the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2386],"tags":[10117,5,5892,147,53,2583,4,6240,297,52714,20413,68,76069,594,10120],"class_list":["post-581064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-detroit-tigers","tag-abc-action-news","tag-baseball","tag-bbq","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-tigers","tag-detroittigers","tag-mlb","tag-polk-county","tag-rays","tag-tampa-bay-28","tag-tampa-bay-local-news","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-tiger-bbq","tag-tigers","tag-wfts"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116097552192691086","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}