Most of us who were there on St. Patrick’s Day 2008, when the Los Angeles Dodgers played their final spring training game at Dodgertown, will never forget how we felt as we watched the team’s buses pull away for the last time.
Conversely, most of us can’t remember anything about the Class A Vero Beach Dodgers’ final Florida State League game on that same field late in the summer of 2006, probably because only a few cared enough to show up.
But which team do we miss most?
I pondered that question last week as I drove past the hallowed grounds of what was once America’s quintessential spring-training home. The sun was setting and the afternoon’s heat and humidity had begun to ease – enough for me to roll down the window as I slowed to a crawl and allowed myself to quietly revel in sweet nostalgia.
Immediately, my mind drifted all the way back to 1980 – to that long-ago summer when both minor league baseball and I arrived in Vero Beach. I was only 21 then, just weeks out of college and embarking on a newspaper career that is now well into its fourth decade. But I’ll never forget the tingle I felt as I entered the gates of Dodgertown for the first time.
A friend had given me a ticket to a Vero Beach Dodgers game at Holman Stadium, where I found that all the poetry used to describe the place was fitting – no covered dugouts, no outfield fence and a Rockwellian connection between a small town and its new team. It was everything that everyone had said it was.
And now, those powerful memories left me feeling wistful, so much so that I wished I could go back.
“I hear a lot of people say that,” said Craig Callan, the longtime Dodgertown director for the Los Angeles Dodgers and now a vice president at Historic Dodgertown, where the venerable spring-training complex has been transformed into a multi-sport training and tournament facility.
“It was old-time baseball in a perfect setting,” he added. “And because Vero Beach was such a small town during the summer months, you didn’t have the packed crowds you had in the spring. The atmosphere was a lot more relaxed.
“A lot of the year-round people probably preferred going to the Vero Beach Dodgers games.”
I know I did.
That might surprise those of you who are familiar with my sports-writing career, which includes several stints covering big-league baseball in New York, Los Angeles and Denver and working at some of the game’s greatest cathedrals.
As a fan, however, there was something special about those summer nights watching the Class-A Vero Beach Dodgers play in the park-like surroundings where time seemed to stand still.
The beer and Dodger Dogs for dinner only added to the charm. So did the fun and familiar sounds of Dave Lietz, better known locally as “Mr. Music.” So did the Dodgerettes, who would greet you with a smile and usher VIPs to their seats.
Holman Stadium was our field of dreams, with its cozy confines, postcard-perfect sunsets and a palm-tree-lined berm instead of an outfield wall – until a fence was later erected for player-safety reasons. And there were always promotions and giveaways to lure locals to the games for an inexpensive but enjoyable evening out.
“Vero Beach being so small was a double-edged sword,” said Terry Reynolds, the Vero Beach Dodgers’ general manager from 1980-88 and now the Cincinnati Reds’ senior director of professional scouting.
“There was a limited number of people, so we really had to work hard to sell the product,” he added. “But because people in the community took such great pride in being the spring-training home for the Los Angeles Dodgers, they were loyal to the Vero Beach Dodgers, too.”
In many minor-league towns, people go to games for the same reason they go to the movies – to be entertained. They want to enjoy a night at the ballpark, where they can have a hot dog and a beer while they take in a few innings of professional baseball.
They don’t know the players. They have no emotional investment in the team. They don’t care who wins.
It was somewhat different here, probably because Vero Beach was the smallest city with a minor-league baseball team that played a full-season schedule.
The Vero Beach Dodgers had actual fans who knew their names and rooted for them to win. Some would listen to game broadcasts on the radio. Some would keep track of the players’ statistics, which were published regularly in the local daily newspaper. Others casually followed the team in the standings.
“I did the games for WTTB, which, you might remember, aired the broadcasts of the Los Angeles Dodgers games on Sundays,” said Joe Sanchez, the former Vero Beach Dodgers public-address announcer and radio play-by-play broadcaster who still lives in town. “I’d also send game stories to the newspapers.
“There were a lot of nights when Channel 34, which was based in Fort Pierce back then, would be out there with a camera crew,” he added. “So the Vero Dodgers got a lot of exposure, locally, especially early on.
“It didn’t hurt that the team was contending for the playoffs those first few years.”
With the Vero Beach Dodgers in the Florida State League’s championship chase for most of their first 10 years – they won titles in 1983 and 1990 – home attendance hovered around 1,000 per game and swelled to as much as 2,500 for the most successful promotions.
Reynolds said the team had between 400 and 500 season-ticket holders, many of whom were home-game regulars who showed up wearing Vero Beach Dodgers hats with the letters “VB” embossed over a grapefruit.
“I still have people ask for them,” Callan said of the hats, “but I’ve looked around and can’t find any.”
Apparently, the caps have gone the way of professional baseball in Vero Beach.
It has been eight years since the Los Angeles Dodgers terminated their 61-year marriage with Vero Beach and moved their spring-training operation to Arizona. And while the divorce was painful, especially because of the shabby way we were treated at the end, most folks here have moved on.
I rarely hear anyone say they miss spring training.
It was 10 summers ago that the Vero Beach Dodgers played their final Florida State League season before moving to San Bernardino in the California League. (They were replaced by the Vero Beach Devil Rays, who spent two forgotten seasons here before departing for Port Charlotte.)
I still hear plenty of people say they miss those summer nights at Dodgertown.
“That doesn’t surprise me,” Sanchez said. “There was always a great relationship between the Dodgers and Vero because of the 60 years they were here for spring training. In a lot of ways, Vero Beach and Dodgertown were interchangeable.
“So when the Vero Beach Dodgers came here, people really embraced them,” he continued. “They were our team, our Baby Dodgers, and they were part of the community while they were here. There was even an Adopt-a-Dodger program for people who wanted to give the players a place to live for the season.
“You’d see the guys around town during the day and maybe out somewhere after games at night,” he added. “A few of them married local girls.”
More than a few made it to the major leagues, where one of them – catcher Mike Piazza – earned induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday.
The long list of other Vero Beach Dodgers to play their way to the major leagues includes: Steve Sax, John Franco, Sid Fernandez, Mariano Duncan, Ramon Martinez, John Wetteland, Jose Offerman, Pedro Astacio, Paul Lo Duca, Adrian Beltre, Eric Gagne, James Loney, Matt Kemp and Russell Martin.
“Usually in minor league baseball, it’s what’s happening off the field that draws crowds,” Callan said, “but we also had a lot of good players come through here.”
It wasn’t enough to keep the team in Vero Beach, however, especially after Peter O’Malley sold the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1998 to Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Group, which sold to Frank McCourt in 2004.
McCourt moved the minor league team to San Bernardino after the 2006 season, then moved the Los Angeles Dodgers’ spring-training headquarters to Glendale, Ariz., after the 2008 Grapefruit League season.
“The Vero Beach Dodgers were Peter’s gift to the community,” Sanchez said. “He didn’t put them here to make money. He’s always had a special feeling for Vero Beach. That’s why he came back and got involved with Historic Dodgertown.
“Once Peter sold the team, everything changed,” he added. “The other owners never had that same attachment.”