Daytona Cubs

The development of professional baseball in the Daytona Beach area can be dated back to 1920. City Island Ballpark hosted its first professional baseball team when the Class D Florida State League was established. In 1936, after closing for 8 years, the Florida State League returned. The St. Louis Cardinals placed their farm club here and named them the Daytona Beach Islanders. Hall-of-Famer Stan Musial played for the team in 1940. He was a left-handed pitcher who did it all for the team. In addition to wining 18 games, Musial batted .311 with 70 RBIs in 405 at-bats. Late in the season, he fell in the sandy outfield and injured his throwing shoulder. The incident ended Musial's pitching career, thus created his amazing hitting journey. The Islanders spent six seasons in Daytona Beach before World War II brought a suspension of play following the 1941 season. When baseball resumed in town in 1946, the Islanders were no longer part of the Cardinals organization, but now with the Brooklyn Dodgers; a relationship that would last just one year, but still made a huge impact on the future of the sport. Daytona Beach became the first Florida city to allow an integrated game to be played, when Jackie Robinson took the field at the ballpark on March 17, 1946. Robinson was playing for the Triple-A Montreal Royals at the time, who were in town to play an exhibition game against their parent club, the Brooklyn Dodgers. After both Jacksonville and Sanford refused to allow the integrated game, Daytona Beach gladly opened their doors. Robinson would go on the break the color barrier in Major League baseball the following year. This incident also lead to the Dodgers making Daytona Beach their Spring Training home for 1947, before building Dodgertown down the road in Vero Beach. This series of events was shown in the 2013 movie, "42", about Robinson's life and is the reason the ballpark was named after him in 1989. A statue commemorating the historic event is located outside the south entrance of the stadium.