Book excerpt: McKechnie Field in Bradenton, Florida, is the oldest active major-league spring-training facility in the country. Opened in the spring of 1923 with Commissioner Keneshaw Mountain Landis in attendance, it has played host to six different major-league teams, with the Pittsburgh Pirates calling it home since 1969. The New York Giants traveled to Sarasota in 1924 as the first of five teams to venture to its confines. These two cities, both situated on the Gulf Coast of Florida, boast nearly a century of baseball history and have seen the game's all-time greats.