By Diane Stanley
January 20 2018

When you’re alone and life is making you lonely you can always go, downtown. Downtown to Dodgertown actually. It’s a place that most Dodger fans can only dream of. For the few who do make the trip downtown they will find a place where baseball dreams are made that others can only envy.

[Originally published March 14, 2001]

Dodgertown is more than 3,000 miles away from Chavez Ravine. But for baseball fans across the nation, Dodgertown is known as one of the most tradition-rich sites in baseball.

Take a stroll down Main Street and you begin to understand. Only here in Vero Beach, Main Street is called Jackie Robinson Avenue. In fact, every road in Dodgertown is named after a Hall of Famer, from Don Drysdale Drive to Avenida Jaime Jarrin. Better yet, flag down a golf cart to take you over to Holman Stadium, which celebrated it’s 49th anniversary on March 12. After all, on any given day, fans can find Hall of Fame Manager and Senior Vice President Tommy Lasorda riding his cart through the streets of Dodgertown.

Yes in this special place that becomes home to both major league, and minor league players for the six weeks of spring training golf carts are the chosen mode of transport. Everything moves just a little slower in this baseball wonderland. On many roads they are the only form of transport anyway. So let me take you on a little ride through one of the greatest places in baseball history (on a golf cart of course!)

We’ve just pulled into the complex, seconds after passing the 18-hole golfer’s haven known as Dodgertown Pines Country Club. You can feel the history hit you like a 90-mile per hour fastball, as you’ve entered through the same gates that welcomed the likes of Robinson, Sandy Koufax and Pee Wee Reese. You can practically hear the words of Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully, as he sums up his 51 years at Dodgertown in one simple sentence.

“There’s not a place in the world that has as many memories for me as Dodgertown.”

That might seem hard to believe seeing as Scully has seen over 8,000 Dodger games from Los Angeles to Brooklyn and traveled the globe on behalf of the club. But riding on our golf cart, it’s all starting to make sense. You can feel the history in the air. It’s so strong you can almost smell it.

Our first stop is on Jackie Robinson Avenue, past the rooms that house nearly 250 players and staff throughout Spring Training and the minor league season. It’s a far cry from how the players once were housed.

“When I first reported here in 1949, we had 26 farm teams and 780 players in this complex,” said Lasorda from his seat in the second row behind the Dodger bench at Holman Stadium. “When I first reported here in 1949, I arrived at about 10 o’clock at night to get my bedding. When I went to my room and I turned the lights on, there were five other players in that room. We had three double bunks, and I climbed up on the top.”

At least Lasorda was lucky enough to have a room though. Just being on the team was no guarantee of that.

“My first year here, they didn’t know what to do with me,” recounted Scully. “So I slept on a cot in a little room off the main lobby.”

The year was 1948, and the World War II naval air station needed a tenant. Local businessman Bud Holman urged owner Walter O’Malley to bring his troops down to Vero Beach to prepare for the upcoming season by offering him the space for $1 year. Little did O’Malley know, his “troops” would spend many a cold night in the army barracks.

“[We had] no heat and a lot of times when it really got cold down here, we’d go to sleep with our uniforms on,” recalled Lasorda. “It was the only way we could stay warm.”

Those were the years of Herman Levy, the night watchman that would go through the barracks with a whistle every morning to wake up O’Malley’s players and staff.

“You’d be in a deep sleep, and he’d be right outside your room,” said Team Travel Advisor Billy DeLury. “He let that whistle blow and you would jump that high out of bed.”

It was not too long though before a 90-unit housing facility, which will give way to a 120-room hotel in the coming years. The hotel and a mini-town, complete with shops and recreational outlets, anchor a $7 million renovation plan.

Continuing on our Journey we have just passed the intersection of Koufax and Robinson, where the Roy Campanella Conference Room slowly becomes visible on your left. If we park our cart and wander into the conference center on your right and immediately you can hear the voice of Lasorda emanating from within. That’s because you’re footsteps away from the dining room. Apart from that Tommy does have a pretty loud voice.

Eddie Jackson, the grounds crew member who has worked here for 51 years and Dan Hargett, the Directory of Security who enters his 38th season. And many fans at Holman Stadium know of just one voice that has resonated from public address system there – it’s the voice of Dick Crago, who has been the P.A. announcer here for more than 35 years. Everyone has their own special memories.

They’ve all walked through the Hall of Fame, an actually hallway covered in black in white photos of former Dodgers that houses the Don Newcombe Room, where the medical staff is housed. It’s home to the Dodger clubhouses, both major and minor league, as well as the adjacent lounge where new Dodger Manager Jim Tracy can be found holding court this particular night. We have to be silent here as we sneek a peek because this area is totally off limits. At the end of the room is the Bob Hunter Media Workroom, named after the longtime Los Angeles writer who has since been enshrined in Cooperstown.

It’s here that we have to abandon our trusty golf cart. We are now forced to walk out of the Hall of Fame and into Don Sutton Square. A deep breath of fresh air reminds you that you are no longer in Los Angeles. The fresh grass mixes with the scent of Vero Beach’s version of a Dodger Dog. You can hear the sound of the public address system from the distance, and now you understand why Craig Callan, Vice President of Spring Training and Minor League Facilities says that “every day is a good day at Dodgertown.” You also understand why Lasorda says, “in all the years I’ve been coming here, I never get tired of coming to Vero Beach.”

We stand there open mouthed as players exit the clubhouse next to us and we make our way side by side up Vin Scully Way to Holman Stadium, it’s as if we are in a time machine. If we listen carefully we can actually hear Walter O’Malley saying, “My boys will always walk among the people.” Yes that really was Mark Grudzelanek who waved and smiled. Yes that was Shawn Green who asked us how we were doing. Sure enough that was Kevin Brown who asked us if we will be at the game today. “Great day for a ball game” shouts Mike Fetters. “It’s going to be a hot one” says Alex Cora as he jogs past. I’m getting brave now after meeting all of these players as I shout to EK, “Hey Eric hows the back?” He replies, “It’s getting there, but I’ll still be riding pine today.” We really are living a dream. The boys are walking among the people, and we are those people, very lucky people. The excitment really does take your breath away. We are in baseball wonderland.

Yes, the times have changed, but the history is as rich as ever. On or about April 30, 2001, the county of Vero Beach, along with state funds, will purchase the land from the Dodgers for $10 million. The team will incur all subsequent expenses and receive all revenues, just like before. Only once again, they will lease the land for $1 a year, just as they did in 1948.

It’s an ironic twist to the storied history of Dodgertown, but it’s far from the end to this fantasy. Simply stated in the words of baseball’s finest storyteller Scully, it just goes to show that in baseball, “everything comes full circle.”

Dodgertown is without doubt the best spring training venue anywhere in America. It may not be new and flashy like some stadiums, but the history there will never be equaled anywhere else. It’s baseball like it used to be. The way we all loved it the most. The way it was meant to be. Welcome to Dodgertown, where dreams really do come true. The place that brings out the little boy (or girl) in every fan.

Oh my, please excuse me I have to go. Sandy Kofax is standing just across the way. I have to try and get his autograph. That will make 15 today if I get it. Come on you guys, don’t you want one too?

Dodgertown, the greatest baseball place on earth.