 Long before the city was granted the Diamondbacks franchise, there existed a rich baseball tradition in the valley.MLB had taken advantage of the beautiful weather in southern Arizona since 1929, when the Detroit Tigers became the first team to hold their spring training in Arizona, in Riverside Park at Central Avenue and the Salt River.When Bill Veeck moved the Cleveland Indians spring training to Tucson in 1946, and convinced Horace Stoneham, the owner of the New York Giants, to move his spring training to Phoenix.