Spring training schedule 2017: Real, live MLB baseball games start Friday

Our long winter wait is over.

Major League Baseball teams across the land have been in their various spring training camps for the better part of two weeks now, and on Friday, we finally get some real baseball action to watch, with five games between a pair of major league teams.

There were some straggler games the last few days, with some MLB teams playing a local college team as an opener to their exhibition spring slate. But on Friday, we have actual MLB teams playing each other for the first time in nearly four full months.

The Baltimore Orioles travel to Lakeland, Fla. to battle the Detroit Tigers at Joker Marchant Stadium, where Detroit had a tuneup game on Thursday against Florida Southern.

Elsewhere in the Grapefruit League, the New York Mets and Boston Red Sox meet up in a battle of 2016 playoff teams at JetBlue Park in Fort Myers, while the New York Yankees host the Philadelphia Phillies in Tampa, the latter a rematch of the 2009 World Series.

In the lone night game on Friday, the Minnesota Twins host the Tampa Bay Rays at CenturyLink Sports Complex in Fort Myers, a 7:05 p.m. ET start.

In the only Cactus League affair on Friday out in Arizona, the San Francisco Giants open play by welcoming the Cincinnati Reds to Scottsdale Stadium. Also in the Phoenix area on Friday, the Milwaukee Brewers will be in action, hosting the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in Maryvale.

All six games on Friday will be available to watch online via MLB.tv, a subscription service.

While Friday brings us our first taste of MLB games this spring, the schedule begins in full force on Saturday, with 16 games on the slate.

1:05 p.m. ET: Orioles at Tigers
1:05 p.m.: Mets at Red Sox
1:05 p.m.: Phillies at Yankees
3:05 p.m.: Reds at Giants
3:05 p.m.: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at Brewers
7:05 p.m.: Rays at Twins