A history of the most hallowed spring training site in baseball
"There is no spring training site quite like Dodgertown. Rody Johnson was there from the beginning, so he's able to take us on an entertaining trip down through its long and colorful history."--Fay Vincent, former commissioner, Major League Baseball
"The definitive history of the most unique spring training complex in the land."--Joshua R. Pahigian, author of Spring Training Handbook
"Dodgertown," says Sports Illustrated, "did not invent spring training. It only perfected it." But following in the ill-fated path of Ebbets Field and Brooklyn, Dodgertown and Vero Beach will lose the team to Glendale, Arizona, after the 2008 season.
Ironically, the last year of Dodgertown will mark the sixtieth anniversary of the team's relationship with Vero Beach, a sleepy beach town a couple of hours north of Miami. Since 1948, when Branch Rickey first brought his team to a former naval air station for training (the players slept in barracks), the Dodgers have practiced fundamentals in a bucolic setting. Featuring roofless dugouts, a grassy berm surrounding the outfield, and intimate seating for 6,400, Holman Stadium has been home to the Dodgers longer than even famed Ebbets Field in Brooklyn.
Granted special access to the team's archives and personal interviews with players, management, and staff, Rody Johnson offers a fascinating and remarkable history of the sometimes rocky relationship between the city and the team. Beginning with the signing of Jackie Robinson in 1946 and ending with the close of spring training in 2007, The Rise and Fall of Dodgertown traces the changes in baseball and society for more than a half century. It is a story of community, passion, and the beauty of an American sport.
