Dodgertown, St. Patrick's Day and the ignorable loss of history

And a happy St. Patrick’s Day to ye. May the wind always be at your back, may the sun shine warm upon your face … and if you’ve been called Dodgertown for 60 years, may you still be called Dodgertown.

There are Irish blessings, and apparently, simple Irish flights of fancy.

This used to be the best day of spring at Dodgertown. A special time because the O’Malleys made it a family day for the entire organization. A day to celebrate in the offices, on the field, in the dining room and, I’ve been told, in the Dodgertown bar.

The celebration permeated throughout Vero Beach. It was a happening that helped break up the doldrums of spring training. Further built the bond between the Dodgers and their Florida second home.

Now it’s just another day, save for the green bases and wearing of green caps and jerseys, a trend the Dodgers started and which has become standard fare throughout baseball. (The Dodgers will sign their jerseys after Thursday's game, to be auctioned off by the Dodgers Dream Foundation during the season.)

Meanwhile, there is Dodgertown, abandoned by the Dodgers three years ago so they could make the migration to Arizona. It was the most historic -- and, OK, romantic -- of all spring sites. It was the first and easily most unique, with players living in the old naval barracks surrounding the storied camp.

Only it is no longer Dodgertown, not officially anyway. It is now called the Vero Beach Sports Village. Just so catchy.

The Dodgers would not permit the facility, now owned by Indian River County and leased to Minor League Baseball, to continue to call itself Dodgertown. Which is sort of like Walter Knott selling his amusement park to Cedar Fair Entertainment, only not allowing it to be called Knott’s Berry Farm.

There were several negotiations, the complex's new operators very much wanting to be able to call it Dodgertown, but they could never reach an agreement with the Dodgers.

Last December, the iconic Dodgertown signs around the former spring training site were replaced by the Vero Beach Sports Village logo. Dodgertown signs were placed in storage.

"We had to move on with our rebranding,'' said Craig Craig Callan, director of the complex, the same position he held with the Dodgers for 30 years.

"But at the same we would welcome being able to use the Dodgertown name again we had used since 1948. There is only one Dodgertown, and that's in Vero Beach, Fla.''

Which everyone seems to know ... except the Dodgers.

The team fought the continued use of the Dodgertown name last season while using a ludicrous marketing campaign aimed at Arte Moreno and the Angels that promoted everywhere as Dodgertown. Minus, naturally, that certain place in Vero Beach.

Now the Dodgers' marketers have moved on to a much more palatable "It’s time for Dodger baseball" campaign. (Vin Scully Is My Homeboy has several photos of billboards using the new campaign, including a killer one with Vin Scully himself.)

Meanwhile, Dodgertown tries to promote itself as a training facility for teams using a name that sounds like a place senior citizens have poker tournaments.

This silliness is a black mark on the Dodgers’ history, something the Dodgers used to celebrate on St. Patrick’s Day.

At the real Dodgertown on Thursday, high school and college baseball teams were working out, minor league umpires were being evaluated -- and employees were all wearin' the green.

"We have kept the tradition alive,'' Callan said.

Which sometimes requires action, not words.

-- Steve Dilbeck

Comments

[Dan Fox]

I'm sure there will be a particularly special place in hell for Frank McCourt for the entirety of bad will he has created as owner of my Dodgers. As a fan living in Indiana, the greatest joy in each of 39 of my 47 years was the week to two weeks we spent in Vero during spring training. It's not really difficult to see how someone whose greatest accomplishment was owning a parking lot could not appreciate the singularly unique relationship the Dodgers had with Vero Beach. They can train in Whatever Dump, Arizona for the next 100 years, and it will never be able to equate a single Spring in Florida....

[Oliver Cromwell]

There was always this oddly 'Holy' alliance between the Papist church and the O'Malley owned "doyers" ...

those on the inside laughed about it, those on the outside whispered about it.

It was never just coincidental that their management were all members of the Knights of Columbus. Nor was it a surprise that they made such a show of it each St Patricks Day.

What WAS a surprise was that the proudly Protestant Valley-ites and the Sons of Hollywood Bin David chose to politely ignore the quaintness of it all, even revealing in it from time to time ....

You would think that having your nose rubbed in the holy water as reminder that the Dodgers were a closed "family" might have been off-putting to some. But it never seemed to bother most of the non-Catholics of this City of Angels.

Even Al Campanis' fall from the clouds couldn't shake the faithful enough to wake them as to what was really going on up there.

So its now doubly ironic that it should be another Son of Erin that breaks all tradition and leaves Tommy "the windbag" Lasorda as the last connection to that time of Clan O'Malley -

only Tommy left to recite the liturgy ... (the Dodger Catechism) as a living relic ... as an icon even,

recalling the days when Monsignor Roger Mahoney himself would bless the team on the field.

O' what a time - / - O' what a team

[StanL]

If the sleazeball still has the team next year, the word is that he will initiate a day in spring training for all to celebrate. It will be named in honor of the person he revered the most. It will be the Michael Milken Day.
Of course, only Jamie, Frank and their two sons will be the only ones that would celebrate the day.

[N.P.Krohn]

Nice piece Steve. One of my best baseball memories was walking across the greens and coming upon Dodgertown my first time. I got to sit right behind Joey Amalfitano! So many great stories about those old barracks. The test your speed pitching cage was rigged though; I know i can throw harder than 60.

[jesse c.g.]

GREAT ARTICLE! As a kid growing up. On Sunday morning when I would return hm from church (around 11am). I turned on the tv & to my surprise the Dodger would be on from Dodgertown Vero Beach,Fl. with Vinny/Ross Porter. Then I knew that baseball was around the corner. Though I was watching the gms from LA. I knew how special Vero/Dodgertown was; the closeness of the fans, small intimate stadium (seems as though you're @the neighborhood park, historic banners/billboards, history, to know that all Dodger players at one time were there, an actual place calld Dodgertown..etc. I dreamt of one day going. I was fortunate to go on the last year with my brother. It was all I thought it would be and more!! To think that I was walking the walkways/fields that Jackie, Duke, Pee Wee, Campenella, Koufax, Garvey, Fernando, etc... I've been to Camelback and no comparison! Vero Beach was the best for the fans!!!! Though I know that for the modern player that may not be true. Camelback feels just like any other stadium, too corporate. Vero Beach was our connection to Dodger history and Mccourt has taken that away as he's taken so many things from our beloved Dodgers! I will always treasure my memories of the true "Dodgertown, Vero Beach". I truly feel sorry for the Dodgers fans that never will experience the true "Dodgertown". To have a better understanding of what I'm trying to say. Please check out the site; Blue Heaven.
I'M BOYCOTT THE MCCOURT! SELL THE TEAM!! I WILL ROOT FOR MY DODGERS LISTENING TO VINNY & WILL NOT ATTEND A GM TIL WE HAVE A NEW OWNER! HE IS NO LONGER GETTING MY $!

[KoufaxFan]

Went to Dodgertown in beautiful Vero Beach for 36 of those 61 years including 3 fantasy camps there. Had the best times of my life at the real Dodgertown. There will never be another place like it. No dugouts, no outfield fence for quite a while--had to hit it over the berm for a home run. The accessibility to the players was unrivaled. Remember sitting at the picnic table eating hot dogs with Roger McDowell, during the game! "Meet the Dodgers" Day--autographs golore! And yes St. Patty's Day was special--big cookout by the pool with the O'Malleys. It was baseball heaven on earth!

And McCrap took it all away for the almighty dollar for his own pockets. The Dodgers still own the street adjacent to the entrance to the VB Sports Village & McCrap won't sell back to Indian River County as they want to expand & put a new building by the entrance. Just sleaze; McCrap leaves VB, takes the name, & now won't allow building expansion there. I'm surprised McCrap hasn't put a toll booth on that street.

But the Vero Beach Curse lives! At the last game at the real Dodgertown which was on 3/17/08 a curse was set from the ghosts of Dodgertown: Jackie, Campy, Pee Wee, The Twin D, Gil, Clem, et al; The Dodgers will not win another pennant as long as McCrap is the owner.

[St. Patrick]

I feel it is time for me to drive out the slimey snakes that occupy the owner's box at Dodger Stadium.

[KoufaxFan]

Let's also remember on March 17th in 1946 Jackie Robinson played in the first integrated game: a spring training game in Daytona Beach, FL as Jackie played for the Montreal Royals against their parent club, the Brooklyn Dodgers. Jackie went 0 for 3 with a run scored as the Dodgers beat Montreal 7-2. 4,000 people squeezed into the tiny ballpark, now called Jackie Robinson Ballpark where the Daytona Cubs play. Of those 4,000 one thousand African-Americans attended and some even sat in the "all white" sections. History made 65 years ago today!

[OldBrooklynFan]

When I think of Vero Beach it makes me said, because I missed the opportunity to see the Dodgers using it as a spring training site.

[Skyharbor]

Frank McCourt provided a memorable opening to St Patrick's Day at Camelback Ranch. The singer of the National Anthem had a voice so bad the players were laughing openly while fans were wincing in utter disbelief. Then the singer forgot...not stumbled...but FORGOT the words. Finally he retrieved a 3x5 card from his pocket with the lyrics and resumed his Roseanne flashback. There was no doubt it was time for Dodger baseball.

[Skyharbor]

Love the new Vin Scully billboard which not so subtlety discourages fans from buying tickets and encourages them instead to enjoy Dodger baseball at home with Vin. And we do love Vin!

[Airedale]

Steve, that is an awesome tribute to my beloved Dodgertown in Vero Beach. Thank you for putting it so eloquently.

I actually retired to Vero Beach so I could watch every spring training game in Holman Stadium and watch the Vero Beach Dodgers play in High A during the summer. First, scumbag McCourt took away the minor league team. Soon the rumors were flying about the Arizona move.

Ironically, the attendance at Camelback Ranch seems to be less than even in the waning seasons in Vero. Even those 3-4,000 attendance figures early in ST seem grossly exaggerated.

It's all blowing up in the thieving McCourt family's collective face.

[Blueeyedgal]

The McCourts killed the real Dodgertown and try to sell it to us as a marketing slogan so we'll buy more t-shirts.

Some of us fans are not fooled. Long live the real Dodgertown, and down with phony Dodgers.

[Lane Kiffen]

I wonder how much of my Dream Foundation donation gets to Frank's pocket? One of those questions we all ask now in this new era of Dodger ownership.

I think I'll just give a homeless guy 20 bucks instead