Lakeland Pilots

The Lakeland Pilots of Lakeland, Florida got their name by contest. In January 1946, the city's new professional club chose "Pilots" from 100 submitted entries, picked by a judging panel that included big league pitchers Tommy Bridges of Detroit and Rip Sewell of Pittsburgh to honor the British and American aviators who trained during the war at Lakeland's Lodwick School of Aeronautics. The winning entrant, a railroad worker named J. L. Jarvis, received his prize in miles: a trip with the team to Havana.

That Havana trip was no gimmick. The Pilots played in the Florida International League, a Class C and later Class B circuit that stretched from Florida's Gulf Coast across the water to Cuba, one of the few minor leagues ever to cross international waters. Lakeland stayed there through 1952, with a one-year detour as the Lakeland Patriots in 1951, then moved in 1953 to the Class D circuit the city had known since 1919. The move paid off fast: the Pilots won the league championship in 1954.

Lakeland's baseball roots go deeper than the Pilots. The city fielded the Lakeland Highlanders as charter members of that same circuit from 1919 to 1926, winning the 1924 title, and Lakeland has served as the Detroit Tigers' spring training home for the better part of a century, the longest such relationship in baseball.

The Pilots folded after the 1955 season. Our design is adapted from original artwork the team used back in the day.