The
Carpenter Complex is a complex of four baseball
fields in Clearwater,
Florida
. It opened as 'Carpenter Field' in 1967.
It is the
Florida home of the Philadelphia Phillies baseball operations,
spring training site for the Phillies’ minor league players, home
to the Gulf Coast League
Phillies, and adjacent to Bright House Field
, spring training home of the Philadelphia Phillies and regular
season home of the Clearwater
Threshers.
The Complex has four fields, each named for Phillies Hall of Fame
players (all of whom trained with the Phillies in Clearwater and
also were the first four Phillies to have their uniform numbers
retired), the
Rich Ashburn Field,
Robin Roberts Field,
Mike Schmidt Field, and
Steve Carlton Field.
Paul Owens was a long-time Phillies
baseball operations director and general manager. The complex was
officially renamed the 'Paul Owens Training Facility at Carpenter
Complex' in Owens' honor.
The Carpenter Complex was dedicated on March 5, 1967 at which
Clearwater Mayor Joe Turner surprised Phillies owner and president
Bob Carpenter by naming the
new field in his honor. The complex was financed by a no-interest
$250,000 loan from the the Phillies to the City of Clearwater which
was to be repaid over a ten-year period. The complex was built on
the site of a former city trash dump. Through the years, settling
garbage has left dips and wholes in the field and has required
repairs on the clubhouse buildings.
The GCL Phillies played some games at the Joe DiMaggio Complex in
Clearwater in 2009 while the Carpenter Complex was
renovated..
References
External links