1972

February 27, 1972

Ron Rapoport of the Los Angeles Times writes of the changes in Dodgertown this Spring. New hotel room villas were opened as living quarters for players and staff to replace the World War II barracks previously there. "The Dodgers begin a new era in Spring Training today. It includes air conditioning, carpeted floors, color television, showers that turn on (and off) when you want them to and dozens of other comforts of home….What Spring Training used to be was mosquitos, sweltering sleepless nights (and freezing sleepless nights), splinter producing floors."  1

February 28, 1972

Tom Lasorda, the Dodgers' Triple-A manager for the Albuquerque Dukes, receives a present from Walter O'Malley at the start of Spring Training. Lasorda had always said he wanted his tombstone to carry the Dodgers' schedule so if people visited his gravesite, they might want to see a game at Dodger Stadium that night. Lasorda is presented with a marble tombstone that states, "Dodger Stadium is his address, but every ballpark was his home."  2

March 4, 1972

Walter O'Malley explains how he came to build golf courses in Vero Beach on Dodgertown property. "I built the course (9-hole golf course) because the African-American players were not allowed on local courses…..Well, I got such a kick out of the (9-hole) course, that I built the 18-hole course." O'Malley said people questioned the Dodgers remaining in Florida for Spring Training after moving to Los Angeles. "The logistics indicated it was ridiculous to train in Florida when there are ideal places like Palm Springs in California…..There's more competition here….We don't lose many days of practice. We have an understanding with the weatherman that it 'only rains at night.' O'Malley also said there were valid reasons to keep Spring Training in Vero Beach. "We're in so deep it would not be economic to think of making a move. The things we've built here nobody would want unless he was in the baseball business."  3

March 4, 1972

The Dodgertown base is the subject of a feature written by Ron Rapoport of the Los Angeles Times. Coach Danny Ozark had been coming to Dodgertown since 1948. "We had 28 minor league clubs and 550 players here the first year. We slept six to a room in the old barracks. They came around and blew a whistle to wake us up…..We ate off stainless steel trays. It was a lot like the Army," said Ozark. Walter O'Malley explained how Dodgertown came to be in Vero Beach. "We had tried Daytona Beach and Sanford and Pensacola," said O'Malley. "But Florida had segregation laws then-African-Americans couldn't play and we had Jackie Robinson and had determined to keep pioneering in that area. Well, Bud Holman (Vero Beach resident and business leader for whom Holman Stadium is named) said, 'Come to Vero Beach. You'll have no trouble.'" Merrill Barber, President of the Indian River Citrus Bank in Vero Beach was quoted as saying, "The coming of the Dodgers is the greatest single event that could have happened in our community. We got the type of publicity nationwide we could not have obtained any other way. Many people are living here now because of the Dodgers. They came to see the team, decided they liked the town and moved here."  4

March 4, 1972

The identity of the "Green Phantom", the practical joke artist in Dodgertown is revealed in an article in the Los Angeles Times. Night watchman Glen Joyce told a story of how Triple-A Manager Tom Lasorda was a victim in previous years when someone moved out all the furniture from Lasorda's room. Then, the following evening, Lasorda's room was filled with shredded paper. Player Jim Lefebvre stepped forward to proclaim himself as the "Green Phantom." Lefebvre said, "I can't deny it any longer. I was the Green Phantom and Wes Parker was the "Shadow." The great thing was, Tommy (Lasorda) kept telling me I had to help him find who was doing it, so one night we fixed it up so a couple of other guys would be in his room while everybody was watching the movie. Then we told him to sneak back to his room and he caught them." The "Green Phantom" played no favorites on the base. Dodger President Peter O'Malley said, "One night, the "Green Phantom" stole all four wheels off my dad's (Dodger Chairman Walter O'Malley) golf cart. Now that was going too far."  5

March 4, 1972

Ron Rapoport of the Los Angeles Times reports that Bert Lahr, the prominent American actor who played the "Cowardly Lion" in the "Wizard of Oz," visited Dodgertown in the 1960s and visited the press room after an exhibition game. 6 In 1971, Ray Bolger, the "Scarecrow" from the "Wizard of Oz" was a Dodgertown guest and played golf at the new Safari Pines golf course. 7

March 5, 1972

Pulitzer Prize columnist Arthur Daley of the New York Times writes of the changes of the new rooming quarters at Dodgertown this Spring Training. "There is a new look to Dodgertown this year," wrote Daley….."When the Dodger plane spilled out the players at Vero (Beach) this year, the athletes just blinked in astonishment. Where there had once been an orange grove across the road from the barracks, a cluster of extremely attractive motel type dwellings glistened in the sunshine…Thanks to the snazzy new living quarters, Dodgertown has a championship look."  8

March 7, 1972

Walter O'Malley's golf cart was equipped with a flashing red light and a siren. One writer speculated the Dodger Chairman was the latest member of the Vero Beach volunteer police force.  9

March 15, 1972

The players and team personnel rave about the Dodgertown villas that are built for their sleeping comfort in this their first Spring Training of use. The rooms are also decorated. Walter O'Malley has a bit of fun with Walter Alston's room on the base. Laminated plaques containing Dodger yearbook, program, and World Series covers have been placed in the villas. In Alston's room, a plaque showing the Dodgers' 1962 anticipated World Series cover was installed. The Dodgers lost the 1962 National League pennant to the San Francisco Giants in a three-game playoff and Alston was the Dodger Manager that season.  10

March 16, 1972

Dodgertown has always been a place for experimentation for training baseball techniques. This year, there is a new twist on the "strings" area where several pitchers could warm up at one time under the guidance of pitching instructors and managers. Two mounds this Spring were placed under an enclosure to allow a pitcher to get his work in despite rain or wind. An enclosure is also built at the other end to protect the catchers. In the early 1950s, the Dodgers acquired from England "cricket cradles", a device made of wood shaped in a half-pipe with curved sides approximately 10 feet long and five feet wide. Two players, each standing on opposite sides, would throw the ball through the cradle to make it hit somewhere on the curved sides. The receiver of the throw would then have to react to the unpredictable movement of the thrown ball to improve reflexes. The Dodgers made good use of the cradles for five years, but the exercise was eventually eliminated. It was discovered when the equipment was not in use during the workout, players found it to be a comfortable place to take a nap or get a tan.  11

March 17, 1972

Marvin Miller, the director of the Major League Players' Association, attends the team's annual St. Patrick's Day Party at Dodgertown as an invited guest of Walter and Peter O'Malley. Miller was making his usual stops at all the Spring Training sites and this day he was at Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Florida to speak to the Dodger players. While Miller was on the base, an invitation to Miller, his wife, and Players' Association attorney, Dick Moss, was offered and they attended the festivities that night.  12

March 17, 1972

Walter O'Malley recalls past St. Patrick's Day parties at Dodgertown with Bud Furillo, columnist for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner. O'Malley said his father-in-law, Peter Hanson, would sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" in Swedish at the party. "It's a great song in Swedish, "said O'Malley. The Dodger Chairman of the Board recalled one Spring at McKee Jungle Gardens in Vero Beach, an elephant with its body painted pink and its trunk painted green, made an appearance. "This (elephant) was never explained to guests and they began to wonder privately about their condition," said O'Malley.  13

March 18, 1972

Columnist Melvin Durslag writes of the new housing quarters for Dodger players and team personnel at Dodgertown this spring. Durslag wrote of past Spring Trainings at Dodgertown but now, "You entered the new world of Walter (O'Malley), rooms of freshly painted concrete block and carpets that stretched wall-to-wall."  14

March 22, 1972

Dodgertown Camp Director Dick Bird writes a memo on the number of community benefits provided by Dodgertown to the City of Vero Beach and Indian River County. Bird wrote of the use of Dodgertown and Holman Stadium without receiving consideration for 4th of July fireworks shows, high school and college clinics, high school band competitions, minor league exhibition games on the base, public use of the base swimming pool, film and speaker's bureaus to the local community, free golf clinics at Safari Pines Country Club and Dodgertown Country Club, hosting meetings of local volunteer organizations, and sponsorship of drug abuse programs. Bird also pointed out the Dodgers surrendered the lease on two practice fields to cooperate with Piper Aircraft to expand the manufacturer's plant operation. Also, the Dodgers had purchased undesirable land from the Vero Beach airport to build the nine-hole and the 18-hole golf courses, both open to the public. Bird stated confidently the Dodgers were the only major league team owning 100% of their Spring Training base and paying 100% of their total costs.  15

March 27, 1972

Columnist Jim Murray once again turns his satirical humor on the new Dodgertown villas used for the first Spring this year. Murray wrote, "We are a country with little regard for our great traditions, impatient with pomp, scornful of sacred heirlooms." In pretending to be outraged, Murray goes on to write of the loss of baseball history by the closing of Shibe Park (in Philadelphia), the Polo Grounds (in New York City), and Sportsman's Park (in St. Louis). Murray then writes, "Still, I never thought it would jilt the barracks of Vero Beach. I mean, Pee Wee Reese slept here…The flower of American journalism drank here….Duke Snider got gray (hair) here." Murray remembered the barracks at Dodgertown. "It had a charm all its own. It's still the only place I ever lived where they welcomed the wake-up call. Which, by the way, was a piercing police whistle…..Walter O'Malley has now come full circle….He has taken them (the Dodgers) out of the 19th Century altogether." Murray wrote of the new rooms at Dodgertown. "The windows not only have curtains, they have glass….I counted 24 streams of water issuing from the showerhead in the new one. The old one had one. It was good for cleaning your eye. It was either very, very hot, or very, very cold."  16

March 30, 1972

Dodger minor league Manager Stan Wasiak heard a local rental car company gave use of a car to a Dodger player for being named "Player of the Week" in Spring Training. Wasiak wondered aloud as to what he would expect to receive if a minor league manager's team won all their camp games in a week. Wasiak's team went undefeated one week and he was given his prize that he drove proudly on the Dodgertown base: A bicycle with a sign on the back that read, "Minor League Manager of the Week."  17

April 2, 1972

Dodger pitcher Claude Osteen speaks of the value of Dodgertown as a Spring Training site. "Togetherness is as much a part of preparing the team as the physical part….You want to get the players' mind on baseball and keep it there. I think Vero Beach is fantastic. If I were an owner I couldn't think of a better place." 18

1 ^ Ron Rapoport, Los Angeles Times, February 27, 1972

2 ^ Milton Richman, United Press International, March 1, 1972

3 ^ Ron Rapoport, Los Angeles Times, March 4, 1972

4 ^ Ron Rapoport, Los Angeles Times, March 4, 1972 

5 ^ Ron Rapoport, Los Angeles Times, March 4, 1972  

6 ^ Ron Rapoport, Los Angeles Times, March 4, 1972   

7 ^ Bob Hunter, The Sporting News, April 17, 1971

8 ^ Arthur Daley, New York Times, March 5, 1972

9 ^ Ron Rapoport, Los Angeles Times, March 7, 1972

10 ^ Bob Hunter, Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, March 15, 1972

11 ^ Ron Rapoport, Los Angeles Times, March 16, 1972

12 ^ Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, March 30, 1972

13 ^ Bud Furillo, Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, March 17, 1972

14 ^ Melvin Durslag, The Sporting News, March 18, 1972

15 ^ Dick Bird Correspondence to Walter O'Malley, March 22, 1972

16 ^ Jim Murray, Los Angeles Times, March 27, 1972

17 ^ Bob Hunter, Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, March 30, 1972

18 ^ Ron Rapoport, Los Angeles Times, April 2, 1972

For more on the history of the Dodgers Spring Training visit walteromalley.com