Dodgertown feels the blues

VERO BEACH, Fla. -- There’s no cheering in the press box. But nobody said anything about crying.

So when former pitcher Carl Erskine, resplendent in Dodgers whites, stepped onto the field with a harmonica Monday to play the national anthem before what may prove to be the Dodgers’ final game after 61 springs at Dodgertown, it proved too much for one radio reporter, who pulled off his glasses and dabbed at his eyes with a handkerchief.

And he wasn’t alone.

“It’s St. Patrick’s Day. I’m Irish. And I’ve never felt so little like celebrating in my life,” said Clifford Bombard, a Dodgers fan from Virginia who was born the same year -- 1948 -- the Dodgers started training in Vero Beach. “It’s a little bittersweet. I understand why they’re going and all that stuff. But I’m still going to miss the heck out of them.”

Where the Dodgers hope to be going is Arizona, where they expect to move into an $80-million, state-of-the-art training complex next spring. But there is some question whether the facility will be completed in time to the team’s satisfaction. And while that issue could be resolved within the next few days, the lingering doubts prevented the team from definitively calling Monday’s 12-10 loss to the Houston Astros their last game in Vero Beach.

But the fans knew.

“It is a little sad for the people of Vero because they are losing a lot of history,” said Brandon Smith, a 22-year-old Dodgers fan from Woodland Hills who made the trip to Dodgertown to say goodbye. “As a fan living in L.A., I’m glad they’re moving to Arizona because it’s so much closer.

“But because this place has so much history,” he said, it’s unfortunate “that it’s going away.”

Nancy Taylor, a Brooklyn native who, like Bombard, was born the year the Dodgers moved to Vero Beach, was more direct.

“I think it stinks,” she said.

When former Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey moved his team’s spring home to a former World War II Navy base in 1948, he was lauded as a visionary. There, more than 600 players from all 26 Dodgers farm teams slept in military barracks and trained on several fields around the sprawling campus.

Over the years a golf course and a movie theater were added. The barracks were eventually torn down and replaced by “villas” to house the players and staff. But none of that could make up for the fact that with the Dodgers now playing in Los Angeles, not Brooklyn, fewer fans bothered to make the trek to Florida. And as modern training complexes began to spring up all over Florida and Arizona, the features that used to stamp Dodgertown as unique -- such as the roofless dugouts and the berms at the edge of the Holman Stadium outfield -- began to be seen as outdated and quirky.

So last year the Dodgers announced they would be packing up and heading west for the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, about a five-hour drive from Dodger Stadium.

“This complex, with its history of the Dodgers, overwhelms you. You can’t fathom leaving it behind,” Dodgers owner Frank McCourt said in a statement issued by the team. “Yet at the same time, it breaks our hearts to know that so many in Los Angeles cannot make the cross-country trek with their families to see it firsthand. And make no mistake, that is the driving force behind the move to Arizona.”

McCourt said many Dodgertown landmarks, such as the street signs and light posts topped with baseballs, will be relocated to the Arizona facility or put on display at Dodger Stadium.

“After all, Dodger Stadium is Dodgertown,” he said. “And for that matter, L.A. is Dodgertown.”

What the Dodgers will leave behind, however, is the history and tradition that permeated their Vero Beach home.

“If you listen closely,” Dodgers scout Ron Rizzi said, “you can still hear the echoes of Branch Rickey giving his talk in the morning.”

Dodgers reliever Rudy Seanez came to spring training in Vero Beach for the first time in 1994 and was surprised to see legendary Dodgers players such as Erskine -- who threw the first pitch in Holman Field history in 1953 -- and Sandy Koufax walking the hallways.

“You could talk shop with any one of those guys,” he said. “The people walking through here, it was pretty cool. It’ll be one of the things that you always remember.”

Coach Manny Mota, who has spent 38 springs in Dodgertown, did more than talk. He remembers working up the courage to ask Koufax to pitch batting practice to him one year.

“If you could make contact with a curve from Koufax, you could hit anybody’s,” Mota said. “That filled me with pride. It was a great honor.”

Speaking of honors, both the Dodgers and Astros hustled off the field after Monday’s game to allow Hall of Fame manager Tom Lasorda, who has spent more springs in Vero Beach than anyone, to walk off alone, passing between two rows of Dodgers players who held their bats aloft in tribute.

And that’s when Lasorda began to weep.

The Dodgers play one more Grapefruit League game today, meeting the Marlins in Jupiter, before boarding a charter for Arizona, leaving Florida behind -- perhaps forever.

“For me, it’s an emotional day,” said Mota, who remembers sleeping in a bunk bed during his first four springs at Dodgertown, the place where he first learned to golf. “Sad in a way because the team has been here so many years and the fans have supported it very well. But at the same time, the public understands that Mr. McCourt is trying to honor and facilitate the fans in Los Angeles who want to enjoy their team.

“It was a great privilege to be here.”

--

[email protected]