Dodger Organization Innovations

The Dodgers were innovators in Major League Baseball during the 50-year watch of the O’Malley family with numerous “firsts” in the game.

From jet airplane travel and in-game entertainment to computerized ticketing systems, the Dodgers were also pioneers off the field.

The Dodgers owned five passenger airplanes: Douglas DC-3 (used from 1950-1957); Convair 440 Metropolitan (1957-1960); Douglas DC-6B (1961); Lockheed Electra II (1962-1970); and Boeing 720-B Fan Jet (1971-1982). The expansion of airline travel had made it practical for the Dodgers and Giants to relocate to the West Coast prior to the 1958 season. Opposing National League teams could head west to play a series with both Los Angeles and San Francisco, making the trek from the east productive.

The Dodger-owned airplanes made travel much more convenient for the team, despite the added costs of more than $1 million a year to maintain and operate them, plus hire a captain, co-pilot, engineer, and flight attendants. The Dodgers worked out an arrangement with the Angels in their inaugural American League season allowing them to fly on the DC-6B. Beginning in 1962 and continuing through 1967, the Angels and some of their farm clubs used the Electra II (also known as L-188) for road trips. Sid Ziff, Los Angeles Times, “Life with Dodgers”, March 13, 1962 The Dodger jet traveled across the country approximately 50,000 miles per year. Joseph Durso and Murray Chass, New York Times, “Dodgers Abandon Their Private Jet”, January 29, 1983

During spring training at Dodgertown, Vero Beach, Florida, the Dodgers utilized their airplane from adjacent Vero Beach Municipal Airport to their advantage for road games, shuttling the team across Florida and quickly back to Vero Beach the same day. It was important as a perk for the team.  

Having their own captain, co-pilot, engineer, and airplane made a big impression on the players.

“The plane to me, that was the golden years of baseball,” said Dodger All-Star pitcher Jerry Reuss in 2008. “You want to know what the difference is between this organization, family, and baseball. The four years that I was privileged to fly on that plane because there was a convenience factor that was unequaled by any other major league club.” 

At the time, no other sports team owned its own airplane. Walter O’Malley and his son Peter appreciated the efficiency of not having to wait for commercial airplanes for travel, but having it under Dodger control as well. The team-owned airplane also played an important role in bonding the team members. Walter named two of the airplanes in honor of his wife Kay – the Electra was christened “Kay O’” and the 720-B was named “Kay O’II”. The planes were decorated with a baseball theme inside and out. The Electra featured the Dodgers logo, an outline of the City of Los Angeles and interior amenities like bats and baseballs woven into the carpeting, and card tables for the players to enjoy during flights.

Two main pilots were responsible for getting the Dodgers safely to their destinations – Capt. Harry R. “Bump” Holman (Convair, DC-6B and Electra), and Capt. Lew Carlisle (Electra and 720-B). Holman was the son of Bud Holman, the highly respected business and civic leader from Vero Beach, Florida who was responsible for presenting the opportunity for the Dodgers to establish their training camp there. Thus “Dodgertown” was born in 1948, thanks to Holman’s vision. In 1953, Walter O’Malley named the privately built ballpark at Dodgertown in Holman’s honor. Iconic Holman Stadium is still the centerpiece of the Jackie Robinson Training Complex (the former Dodgertown).

Bump Holman took over his father’s air services business Sun Aviation at Vero Beach Municipal Airport with his brother Tom, following the passing of their father in 1964. Carlisle was a senior captain for Eastern Airlines for 23 years before joining the Dodgers in 1964. Carlisle and his wife Millie, who worked on Dodger flights as an attendant, were cherished members of the Dodger family. Upon Carlisle’s untimely passing in the fall of 1982, and with the prospect of having to upgrade to a new jet, the Dodgers ceased operating their own airplane. In addition, more charters became available.

The July 8, 1980 introduction of Mitsubishi Diamond Vision at Dodger Stadium was a sports industry game-changer in video display board presentation and in-stadium entertainment. In February, 1980, Dodger President Peter O’Malley traveled to Nagasaki, Japan with Dodger executives Fred Claire (Vice President, Public Relations & Promotions), Bob Smith (Director, Stadium Operations), and administrative assistant Akihiro “Ike” Ikuhara to view a 1/30th scale model demonstration of the new technology.

O’Malley was convinced that it would fit perfectly into the Dodgers’ plans to celebrate the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in July and into the future, so he agreed to have it installed at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers debuted the world’s first full-color matrix board to fans at the 1980 MLB All-Star Game. The clear 35 x 25’ board became a showcase for the game, receiving rave reviews. In 1991, once again the Dodgers  were at the cutting edge of technology when they upgraded to the latest Diamond Vision Mark III video matrix board. Over time, following the Dodgers’ lead, every major sports stadium utilized big screens to present in-game features and highlights. In fact, Mitsubishi Electric’s website claims, “From Dodger Stadium to the World” to describe how the Diamond Vision technology has grown over 40 years and “entertains crowds at not only baseball stadiums, but also rugby stadiums in South Africa, cricket fields in Australia, and soccer stadiums in Spain.” Mitsubishielectric.com, “Diamond Vision: The History of the Large-Scale Video Screen”, July 22, 2020

Sports Illustrated carried an article titled “Jumbo Dreams”, The Giant Video Screen, That Electric Mirror of Our Sports Culture, Has Transformed The Way We Watch Games – And Even the Way They’re Played” on January 26, 2009, which credits the Dodgers for changing the industry. “The birth of giant, glittering video scoreboards can be traced to 1980, when Mitsubishi installed its Diamond Vision technology – a significant upgrade in high-resolution graphics at that time – in the scoreboard at Dodger Stadium. By the turn of the 21st Century, virtually every pro stadium, ballpark and arena…had bowed to consumer demand either souped up its scoreboard or installed a new one altogether.” Sports Illustrated, “Jumbo Dreams”, January 26, 2009       

In 1982-83, the Dodgers developed a computerized ticketing system for convenience of their fans. Dodger Vice President, Ticketing Walter Nash was instrumental in innovating the ticketing system which was then adopted and deployed by several major league teams. During his 33 years with the Dodgers, Nash was responsible for more than 100 million tickets being distributed. Walter Nash obituary, Los Angeles Times, January 28, 2015

Promotions and marketing innovation were regular features of the Dodgers, including events like helmet weekend, Union 76 Dodgers pin giveaways, and Think Blue Week, an idea spawned by Barry Stockhamer, Dodger Vice President, Marketing. During Think Blue Week, which began in 1987, fans submitted letters in a variety of contest categories to live out their baseball dreams as the truest of the blue, including such areas as singing the national anthem, dragging the infield with the grounds crew, serving as public address announcer from the press box, throwing the ceremonial first pitch, broadcasting an inning from a radio booth. A huge THINK BLUE sign was placed on the hillside behind the Dodger Stadium parking lot for all to see and it became an icon of the event.

For decades, the Dodgers also held a free public workout and exhibition game in February against the University of Southern California baseball team, which generated excitement at Dodger Stadium. The exhibition game was very popular and drew large crowds anxious for a new season to begin. The first exhibition game of five innings was held in 1964 and they continued into the early 1990s. In 1977, a crowd of 48,056 watched the game and USC won, 5-2. Dodger Cy Young Award-winning pitcher Fernando Valenzuela was the starting pitcher on February 14, 1982 before 35,000 fans.

One of the first female professional baseball umpires, Christine Wren has fond memories from the 1975 exhibition game.

Dodger President Peter O’Malley heard she had completed umpiring school and tracked her down at an auto body shop in Seattle. He invited her to work the Dodgers vs. USC Trojans exhibition game at Dodger Stadium. According to the Seattle Times, “Wren accepted, received a first-class seat on a flight to L.A. and was the plate umpire for the game. The exhibition was free for fans, so 51,000 of them showed up to pack the stadium. Club officials gave Wren solid reviews for her work that day, and Wren recalls her first professional game as the highlight of her career.” Adam Jude, Seattle Times, “It’s not a whole new ballgame — yet — but Spokane’s Christine Wren went to bat for future generations as a professional umpire in the 1970s”, July 14, 2020

Wren recalled, “That gave me a picture of what The Show was like. There’s nothing like a loaded stadium when you walk onto the field. I still get hairs on the back of my neck standing up right now.” 

Beginning September 9, 1990, to further the outreach to the ever-evolving, diverse Southland community, the Dodgers had the first Major League Baseball regular season radio broadcast in Korean. Broadcasts in Korean were held on a regular basis following that and were extremely popular especially when pioneer South Korea-born pitcher Chan Ho Park joined the Dodgers in 1994. The Dodgers were also the first major league organization to have Chinese Mandarin language broadcasts of a regular season game on May 19, 1993. In 1998, they even added select games in Russian. 

This innovation was all to expand and mirror the community which they served. Spanish-language Dodger radio broadcasts date back to 1954 in Brooklyn. In 1958, the Dodgers started Spanish radio broadcasts in their very first season in Los Angeles on KWKW. Those broadcasts have continued to grow and thrive in the market, especially when popular Hall of Fame broadcaster Jaime Jarrin was in the booth for 64 seasons (1959-2022).

In the area of scouting and player development, the Dodgers were early pioneers in creating and building a state-of-the-art baseball academy in the Dominican Republic. “We got the idea, and then Philadelphia and Toronto were jumping ahead of us,” said Dodger Latin America scout Ralph Avila in a 2000 interview. “We were working in San Pedro de Macoris but not with all the facilities we needed. When (then-Dodgers owner Peter O’Malley) saw that the idea was working good for other organizations, he said, ‘OK, we’re going to go now and do something better than everybody else.’ That’s when we came up with Campo Las Palmas.” Cesar Brioso, South Florida Sun Sentinel, “Major League Beisbol”, July 30, 2000  

What Avila and O’Malley designed, created and opened on March 21, 1987 was “Campo Las Palmas,” a baseball academy in Guerra, Dominican Republic, which sat on nearly 50 acres of formerly sugar cane. They developed three baseball fields, batting cages, a clubhouse, dormitory with bunk beds, on-site kitchen, dining and meeting rooms in a lush tropical setting, all privately built by O’Malley. The search for young Dominican talent was on and other major league clubs eventually followed with academies of their own. For decades, the Dodgers reaped the benefit of prospects developing and playing in the organization. But, the idea for Campo and many stars who played for the Dodgers that graduated from there like Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez, Ramon Martinez, Raul Mondesi, Pedro Astacio, Jose Offerman, and Henry Rodriguez was unique.

Dominican Juan Marichal, Hall of Fame pitcher for the San Francisco Giants and briefly for the Dodgers in 1975 said, “There is nothing like it in all the Caribbean.” Rob Ruck, University of Pittsburgh, latinousa.org, originally from The Conversation, “The Promise and Peril of the Dominican Baseball Pipeline”, March 25, 2019

The Dodgers have many other innovations and “firsts” in baseball and many may be viewed here.