With some sage advice to fantasy camp rookies, Guy Wellman kicked off the 51st and probably final Dodgertown Fantasy Baseball Camp in Vero Beach.
“Swing the bat. You didn’t come all this way and pay all this money to take a walk. Have a hell of a camp,” said the man who has been director of this camp since it opened 35 years ago.
The Dodgers are moving to Glendale,Ariz for spring training next year and no one knows yet if there will be more fantasy camps there.
So, we took his advice and swung the bat and to hell with the walk. We lost our first game 4-3. Hey, we had a lot of laughs that’s what matters at this camp.
Former Dodger catcher Jeff Torborg is our manager and the “kid” on the team is 52. How great is that!
“Let’s have fun, don’t get hurt and let’s win,” said team captain Mark Stone from Encino.
Well, we had fun, didn’t get hurt, but we lost. Big deal.
Tomorrow I’ll tell you how Dodger Boys of Summer pitcher Ralph Branca – yeah, the guy who gave up that damn homerun to Bobby Thompson, won 21 games for tge Dodgers one year and got paid a whopping “6,500 a year for it.