Day 10: 30 baseball books in 30 days of April
The book: "The Rise And Fall of Dodgertown: 60 Years of Baseball in Vero Beach"
The author: Rody Johnson
How to find it: University Press of Florida, 302 pages, $24.95
Where we'd go looking for it: We're partial to Powell's online store. But it's also on the publisher's website.
The scoop: Johnson considers himself a lifelong Dodgers fan, inheriting his Aunt Lil's spring-training season tickets five rows behind the dugout. He was at Vero Beach for the first spring training in 1948. He was there to see the team leave for the last time a few weeks ago.
His tone changes from melancholy to somewhat miserable when he writes of the team-city relationship in the post-O'Malley ownership, one that's been passed from Rupert Murdoch to Frank McCourt. The team played the city as a bargaining chip whenever it could threatened to move to Arizona -- which is finally has. But that was hardly the only time friction arose between Vero and the franchise.
"In earlier days, availability of apartments created tensions, integration brought stresses and the Federal Aviation Administration threatened to throw the Dodgers off airport property," Johnson documents.
But even Vero Beach was at fault. It was losing its small-town charm when a Wal-Mart Super Center and a Disney resort were built in the limits.
The Dodgers played in Vero longer than they'd been at either Ebbets Field or Dodger Stadium in L.A. And Johnson just wants to make sure everyone realized that when it will be left behind next year for a new spring facility in Glendale, Ariz.
The book is not done without the Dodgers' blessing. Team historian Mark Langill is credited with providing a read of the early manuscript and providing photographs. And the Daily News' Tony Jackson is cited for helping with access protocol to players and coaches. The index also notes contributions by the Daily News' Kevin Modesti for an interview he did with Peter O'Malley.
How it goes down in the scorebook: E-McCourt.
Leave a comment