Dodgertown

Spring’s Eternal at Dodgertown

The Sporting News list of 100 Most Powerful People in Sports for the 20th Century, December 1999

  1. Pete Rozelle
  2. Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis
  3. Roone Arledge
  4. Branch Rickey
  5. Marvin Miller
  6. David Stern
  7. Rupert Murdoch
  8. Avery Brundage
  9. Ban Johnson
  10. Muhammad Ali
  11. Walter O’Malley
  12. Steve Borstein
  13. Phil Knight
  14. George Halas
  15. Babe Ruth
  16. Walter Byers
  17. Lamar Hunt
  18. Ted Turner
  19. Paul Brown
  20. Michael Jordan
  21. Jackie Robinson
  22. Pierre De Coubertin
  23. Juan Antonio Samaranch
  24. Donald Fehr
  25. Tex Rickard
  26. Roy Hofheinz
  27. Horst Dassler
  28. Red Auerbach
  29. Bill France Sr.
  30. Arnold Palmer
  31. Al Davis
  32. Birch Bayh
  33. Billie Jean King
  34. Paul Tagliabue
  35. Charlie Finley
  36. Clarence Campbell
  37. George Steinbrenner
  38. Peter Ueberroth
  39. Bert Bell
  40. Jacob Ruppert
  41. Dick Ebersol
  42. Mark McCormack
  43. Al Neuharth
  44. Tex Schramm
  45. Bill Veeck
  46. Arthur Ashe
  47. Howard Cosell
  48. Fathers Theodore Hesburgh and William Beauchamp
  49. Don King
  50. Connie Mack
  1. David Falk
  2. John Wooden
  3. Andre Laguerre
  4. August Busch Jr.
  5. Peter Seitz
  6. Roger Penske
  7. Wilt Chamberlain
  8. Jack Nicklaus
  9. Bill France Jr.
  10. Bowie Kuhn
  11. George Preston Marshall
  12. Ed Barrow
  13. Abe Saperstein
  14. John McGraw
  15. Larry MacPhail
  16. Dick Schultz
  17. Gary Bettman
  18. Adolph Rupp
  19. Walter Brown
  20. Jesse Owens
  21. Deane Beman
  22. Phog Allen
  23. Wellington Mara
  24. Charles Comiskey
  25. Eddie Robinson
  26. Knute Rockne
  27. Arch Ward
  28. Jerry Jones
  29. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
  30. Bobby Orr
  31. Art Rooney
  32. Alan Eagleson
  33. Pele
  34. Bud Selig
  35. Tommie Smith and John Carlos
  36. Pat Summit
  37. Laurence Tisch
  38. Bobby Jones
  39. Tiger Woods
  40. Leigh Steinberg
  41. Henry Iba
  42. Bill Bowerman
  43. Anatoli Tarasov
  44. Albert “Happy” Chandler
  45. “The Voices of Baseball” — Mel Allen, Red Barber, Vin Scully, Harry Caray, Jack Buck, Ernie Harwell,Bob Prince, Etc.
  46. Sonny Werblin
  47. Ed and Steve Sabol
  48. J.G. Taylor Spink and C.C. Johnson Spink
  49. Wayne Gretzky
  50. The Famous Chicken
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ABC Sports ranks the Top Ten Most Influential People "off the field" in sports history as voted by the Sports Century panel in December, 1999

  1. Branch Rickey
  2. Pete Rozelle
  3. Roone Arledge
  4. Marvin Miller
  5. Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis
  6. David Stern
  7. Avery Brundage
  8. Walter O’Malley
  9. George Halas
  10. Mark McCormack
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Attendance 1953-1957 Brooklyn Dodgers vs. Milwaukee Braves

Attendance 1953-1957 Brooklyn Dodgers vs. Milwaukee Braves
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Holman duly impressed the Dodgers. He was genuinely interested in having everything fit together perfectly even if it cost him personally, as when he wrote a check to the city for use of apartment buildings nearby Dodgertown, a key to closing the agreement. “We insisted on having those apartments for our staff (married couples) and the press,” said Bavasi.Bill Boeding, Vero Beach Press-Journal, February 20, 1988 “We offered them $100 a month for rent of each apartment. But the city balked at the offer. Holman took out his checkbook and asked the value of the buildings. They said $52,000. Holman started to write out a check for that amount. The city fathers refused to sell. Then they rented ‘em to us...and we closed the deal.”Joe Hendrickson, Dodgertown This would be the start of something big. But, progress was as slow in arriving as Vero Beach’s commerce.

When the Dodgers first agreed to make Vero Beach their spring home in 1948, it appeared to officials that the makeshift facilities for fields would be a deterrent to continuing the relationship in the long term. Primitive was too nice a word to be used for the state of the playing fields. “It was just a poor excuse for a baseball field,” said Hall of Fame center fielder Duke Snider.

“We’d carry a fungo bat in case you had to stop and kill a snake on the way,” said former Dodger star pitcher Carl Erskine.Ibid.

Initially, while the camp was functioning as a training and baseball teaching facility under the tutelage of Dodger President Rickey, the poor field conditions meant the Dodgers would play most of their major league exhibition games in front of crowds in Miami Stadium. The minor leaguers played on the various local fields, including next to the airport, trying to dodge snakes, bugs and all other manner of wildlife among the Florida landscape. Rickey started the morning session with a lecture to the hordes of players and coaches.

Rickey’s desire to find a spring training site that would permit his new star, Jackie Robinson, who had crossed Major League Baseball’s color line as the first African-American player in 1947, to have some normalcy was extremely important. Most Florida communities planted in the depths of the South discriminated against African-Americans, where segregation was a way of life. According to author Sidney P. Johnston, “Rickey believed that racism was less prevalent in Vero Beach than most other places in the South. African-American baseball players, like all people of their race, encountered discrimination not only in larger cities, such as Jacksonville and Tampa, but in small towns as well. Jackie Robinson aroused protests in Sanford during his first year in the Dodger farm system, while Jacksonville and Deland closed their stadiums to the integrated Dodger farm system.”Sidney P. Johnston, A History of Indian River County “a sense of place”, page 116

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  • This aerial taken on March 7, 1950 shows the general Dodgertown layout with Fields No. 1 and No. 2 adjacent to the barracks, which housed the more than 600 major and minor league Dodgers.This aerial taken on March 7, 1950 shows the general Dodgertown layout with Fields No. 1 and No. 2 adjacent to the barracks, which housed the more than 600 major and minor league Dodgers.
  • The double play duo of second baseman Jackie Robinson and shortstop Pee Wee Reese get their work done at Dodgertown.The double play duo of second baseman Jackie Robinson and shortstop Pee Wee Reese get their work done at Dodgertown.
  • With more than 600 Dodger players on property, many were assigned to practice on one of the fields near the airport, which meant taking a walk across the street.With more than 600 Dodger players on property, many were assigned to practice on one of the fields near the airport, which meant taking a walk across the street.
  • Jackie Robinson made history when he crossed the color barrier in Major League Baseball in April 1947. But, prior to his debut, he played in the minor league system of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson had to endure all forms of discrimination in the South during spring training. Robinson played in Daytona Beach, FL in 1946 and this is the program from the game.Jackie Robinson made history when he crossed the color barrier in Major League Baseball in April 1947. But, prior to his debut, he played in the minor league system of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson had to endure all forms of discrimination in the South during spring training. Robinson played in Daytona Beach, FL in 1946 and this is the program from the game.