Bobby Mattick / Engelbert Complex

The handsome Florida headquarters for the Blue Jays, built in 2019.

Walking up to Bobby Mattick field #2, Jun-2022.

The spectator’s view.

Chronological Tour: Stop 423

• Location: Garrison Road at Solon Avenue, Dunedin, Fla. (map it using Google Maps)
• Opened: 1978 as Cecil B. Engelbert Complex
• Additional names: Bobby Mattick Training Center at Engelbert Complex (2003)
• Home team: Gulf Coast / Florida Complex League Blue Jays

Dunedin had sufficient recreation facilities that could be utilized by the Blue Jays, but their “back fields” wound up being located four miles from Grant Field, where they would play their spring training games. The Engelbert Complex, which featured both baseball and softball fields, was pressed into service. At that time, having an exhibition field and practice fields that were not adjacent to each other was not uncommon: the Cardinals had facilities five miles apart, while the Phillies had to travel three miles. Both of those played in Pinellas County as well, the Cards in St. Petersburg and the Phils in Clearwater.

By 2018, Grant Field, which had become a full-fledged stadium in 1990, was in dire need of renovation, and the Jays were talking about leaving town. The city and county stepped up and offered major renovations to both Grant Field and the Engelbert Complex. The latter would lose its recreational softball fields and become strictly a Blue Jays training facility. While the city continues to refer to it as the Engelbert Complex, the Jays refer to the facility as the Bobby Mattick Player Development Complex. Mattick, who played for the Chicago Cubs around 1940 and then moved into scouting, became the Blue Jays director of player development in 1978. He served the club as its manager in 1980-81 and remained in the organization through late in the century. The complex received the Mattick name in 2003, a year before his death.

There are still occasional amateur games played on two fields of the complex. I attended a high school game here in April 2024.