Yesterday was the last game played in Dodgertown, ending 61-years of spring training in Vero Beach, Florida. Carl Erskine, a former Dodger great, wearing his Dodgers whites, played the national anthem with his harmonica. The scene was too much for many of the assembled. It was bittersweet, and the dabbing of eyes ensued.

You don’t have to be an ex-Dodger to have an appreciation for the place. Just listening to any of the former players will provide you with an understanding of the uniqueness of the place. In my case the stories came from a former Dodger World Series MVP pitcher, Larry Sherry.

It was a couple of years ago that Larry and I were swapping stories to kill the time while we were undergoing chemotherapy treatments for our respective cancers. Sherry was the hero of the 1959 Series, but he had more stories about some of his exploits with fellow players, down at Dodgertown in spring training (their circumventing curfews, talking shop with the stars, etc.) than he did about the World Series games he starred in. I find it interesting to hear what’s really important to people…many times it isn’t what you’d think it would be.

So you can imagine the emotions Tommy Lasorda was feeling yesterday as his mind recalled memory after memory.

Now 80, he’s been down there for 59 years of spring trainings…almost from day one, when former Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey moved his team’s spring training to a former World War II Navy base in 1948.

(Back then there were more than 600 players from all 26 Dodgers farm teams, all sleeping in the military barracks and training on several fields around the former base.)

Fifty-nine years…He still eats his meals in the cafeteria, ends his nights in the lounge telling stories of the old days, recalling the exploits of the great players who have graced the halls, and, not surprisingly, he stays in the same room they issued him more than three decades ago. This place means something to him. Understandably he’s feeling the blues right now. Dodgertown is now gone, but Tommy’s memories of the place and the great Dodger organization will live on…


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