Hungry for some baseball at Al Lang Field? Then check out the St. Pete International Baseball, where teams from around the world — including the Blue Jays, Phillies and Rays — compete at the historic spring-training facility now through March 13.
The tournament, sponsored by the St. Petersburg Sports Alliance, hasn’t been publicized very well, especially to those already interested in spring training. But it brings baseball back to Al Lang Field, the longtime home to spring training in downtown St. Petersburg. The ballpark will be used for a series of games featuring a Korean professional squad (Seoul Nexen Heroes), national teams from Canada and Netherlands, and three MLB squads: the Toronto Blue Jays, the Philadelphia Phillies and the Tampa Bay Rays. Here’s the schedule:
| Date | Time | Visitor | Home |
| Feb. 24 | 7 p.m. | Seoul Nexen Heroes | St. Petersburg College |
| Feb. 26 | 2 p.m. | Canada | Seoul Nexen Heroes |
| Feb. 27 | 1 p.m. | Beach State | Canada |
| Feb. 28 | 1 p.m. | Seoul Nexen Heroes | Canada |
| March 1 | 1 p.m. | Seoul Nexen Heroes | Netherlands |
| March 1 | 7 p.m. | Canada | St. Petersburg College |
| March 3 | 7 p.m. | Netherlands | Seoul Nexen Heroes |
| March 4 | 1 p.m. | Toronto Blue Jays | Canada |
| March 5 | 7 p.m. | Netherlands | Canada |
| March 9 | 1 p.m. | Tampa Bay Rays | Netherlands |
| March 11 | 7 p.m. | Netherlands | St. Petersburg College |
| March 13 | 1 p.m. | Philadelphia Phillies | Netherlands |
individual game tickets starting at $6 are for sale at StPeteInternationalBaseball.com or at the Al Lang Stadium Box Office, 230 First St. S., 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday through Saturday. The first game in the series drew only 1,000 fans or so, but we’d expect the games with the pro teams to draw much better — especially the March 4 all-Canada game.
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