“It’s a con game.” —Bill Veeck on Spring Training

Bill Veeck, legendary baseball owner for 60 years, gave his personal view of spring training in 1984 on an episode of Time Out, a weekly sports program hosted by a number of Chicago-area journalists and sportscasters.

In the video, Veeck reveals what club owners have long known: that spring training is more about exciting the fans and selling tickets than about conditioning the athletes.

You can also check out “Inside Spring Training,” a documentary of the 1978 preseason practice for the White Sox, which includes a candid conversation between Minnie Minoso and Media Burn Founder Tom Weinberg during a game of shuffleboard.