Baseball history is deeply rooted in the Tampa Bay area. From all the way back in 1913 when the Cubs moved to Tampa for spring training to 1997 when we finally got our own Major League Baseball team, baseball and the Tampa Bay area have a relationship for the record books.
Which is why the former home of baseball legend and Hall of Famer Al Lopez is worth preserving at such great lengths.
Back in May, the city uprooted and moved the entire house - along with another - in a painstaking, careful process from their original locations at 1210 E. 12 St. to were they both now reside - Ninth Avenue and 19th Street across from Centennial Park in Ybor City.
Al Lopez's former home will undergo renovations to become the Tampa Baseball Museum, an epicenter for baseball history in Tampa covering 125 years of the sport's heritage, including municipal, Negro and major league teams that have, at one time or another, called the Bay area home.
It will also tell the story of Al Lopez, a famed catcher who broke the record for games played as a catcher with 1,918 before turning into a manager and winning American League pennants with the Cleveland Indians in 1954 and the Chicago White Sox in 1959.
Lopez's mother and father moved into the house around 1910 or 1912 with family members living there until 1959, the Tampa Bay Times reports.
The other house will become a law enforcement museum. Both houses were two of 64 buildings being relocated as part of Florida Department of Transportation's Interstate Historic Mitigation Plan to make room for the new I-4 expansion in Ybor.
We'll keep you updated as more news arises regarding the Tampa Baseball Museum.
