The annual migration of Major League Baseball teams to Florida and Arizona is an event we know as spring training. Baseball's spring training traces its roots all the way back to the 1800s. Back in 1870, the Chicago White Stockings and Cincinnati Red Stockings held camps in New Orleans to get ready for the upcoming season. Spring training was officially declared a "ritual" in 1900 as teams spent a month in the winter in small communities in the south to train and be evaluated by managers.