Spring’s Eternal at Dodgertown

Attendance 1953-1957 Brooklyn Dodgers vs. Milwaukee Braves

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International relations were always important to O’Malley as a way for countries to reach unity through baseball. He arranged for the Dodgers to play a 19-game goodwill tour in Japan in October-November 1956. In an unusually wet 1959 spring in Vero Beach when it rained six straight days, O’Malley arranged for the Dodgers to fly to Havana, Cuba to get their work done and play the Cincinnati Reds with Fidel Castro present. Holman’s son, Capt. H.R. “Bump,” one of the team’s pilots, flew the Dodgers to Havana in the team-owned Convair. The Dodgers would use their training camp, Dodgertown, to promote cultural exchanges and baseball education in later years. Peter O’Malley continued the tradition and encouraged numerous international visits from throughout the world. Vero Beach was the site of many of these exchanges, as in 1957 when the Dodgers invited Shigeru Mizuhara, manager of the Tokyo Giants as well as two of his players, pitcher Sho Horiuchi and catcher Shigeru Fujio, to train at Dodgertown. On March 2, 1961, the entire Tokyo Giants team arrived there for training. O’Malley even had dining room menus printed in Japanese for the occasion.

The successful Giants would return for education and spring training visits in 1967, 1971 and 1975 under O’Malley’s leadership. One of the most popular figures during these camps was Giants’ slugger and all-time home run leader Sadaharu Oh. “We could see how togetherness came about through a well-organized program,” said Oh of the Dodgertown experience. “I saw that a veteran player should work harder. Some of the busiest workers among the Dodgers in camp are their most experienced men. Spring training should not only be physical preparation. It also should be mental readiness. It is obvious that victory comes from team play. This you can gain in a place like Dodgertown. It brings everyone together more.”Joe Hendrickson, Dodgertown

In 1965, O’Malley hired Ike Ikuhara, a graduate of Waseda University in Japan, to work in various departments and learn the business of baseball. On the Dodgers’ second goodwill tour to Japan following their appearance in the 1966 World Series, the highly-educated and respected Ikuhara served as a team ambassador and interpreter. Years later, Ikuhara wrote two baseball books printed in Japanese (“The Man Who Survives the Race” in 1984; “A Winning Tradition” in 1985) and in summer of 2002 was posthumously honored with induction into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.

“We’ve brought the Japanese teams to the Dodgers’ spring training camp a number of times, and the Japanese are students of the game,” said O’Malley. “They work harder than our boys do in spring training. The Japanese (players) are out there at 8 in the morning and they are still out there at 6 at night. They work.”Ed Schoenfeld, The Sporting News, November 6, 1971

Dodgertown opened its arms to the world, as in 1962 Boudewijn Maat, an outstanding amateur player, of Holland was invited to Vero Beach to study American methods of training and playing baseball. In 1965, the Dodgers invited Ricardo Garza, a top player from Mexico, to study and train at Vero Beach. Other exchanges from Cuba and Mexico took place. In 1962, Kaoru Betto, a coach from Japan, traveled with the Dodgers for the entire season.

The Dodgers branched out from their base to make some spring trips, including to Mexico for a three-game series in 1964. The Dodgers played before 75,000 fans in the games in Mexico City. Unfortunately, a few months later on May 31, Bud Holman died at his Blue Cypress ranch. The rancher, citrus grower, automobile dealer, airport terminal manager for Eastern Air Lines had been a good friend of the O’Malleys, Dodgertown and the entire Vero Beach community.

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