INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — In his 2015 book, “101 Baseball Places to See Before You Strike Out,” author Josh Pahigian ranks world-famous Historic Dodgertown of Vero Beach as Number 35 of 101 on the must-see list.
Pahigian highly ranks such iconic places as the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., the Little League World Series complex in Williamsport, Penn., and Boston’s Fenway Park. He devotes three pages to Historic Dodgertown.
Of Historic Dodgertown – Vero Beach, a year-round, multi-sport training and conference center, Pahigian writes, “After serving as the spring training home of the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers for more than six decades, the all-inclusive player-retreat Walter O’Malley and Branch Rickey created in the 1940s bid adieu to the spring game midway through the 2008 Grapefruit League season. But the tropical complex and quaint ballpark at its heart remain intact, thanks to a venture led by former Dodgers owner Peter O’Malley and former Dodgers pitchers Hideo Nomo and Chan Ho Park…the centerpiece of Dodgertown was, and still is, Holman Stadium – one of the most delightful little ballparks pro ball has ever known, simply because there is so little about it that resembles a professional park.
“What you will notice is that the complex sees nearly year-round use now as starry-eyed youths, collegians, and adults play and practice on the very fields once graced by giants of the game like Pee Wee Reese, (Jackie) Robinson, (Don) Drysdale, Sandy Koufax, and Fernando Valenzuela.”
Pahigian, who has appeared as an expert in baseball culture and travel on numerous television and radio programs and has written sports travel feature stories for ESPN.com, is also the author of five other books: “The Ultimate Baseball Road Trip” and “Why I Hate the Yankees” (with Kevin O’Connell); “The Ultimate Minor League Baseball Road Trip;” “Spring Training Handbook” and “The Seventh Inning Stretch.” He is a fellow in the University of New England Center for Global Humanities in Portland, Maine and previously wrote about Historic Dodgertown for ESPN.com.
“We are honored and thrilled to be included in the just published “101 Baseball Places to See Before You Strike Out,’” said Historic Dodgertown Vice President Craig Callan. “Historic Dodgertown was recognized as a Florida Heritage Landmark in November 2014 because of its history of Spring Training integration and inclusiveness.”
The book is published by Lyons Press, an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield, and distributed by National Book Network.
