MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL--

Vero Beach Style

Not too many major-league styled ballparks feature trees (above) shading the seats around the infield.

That's the way it is at Hollman Field, the former spring training facility for the Brooklyn and LA Dodgers in Vero Beach.

In 1948 the Brooklyn Dodgers arrived in Vero Beach with over 600 players and 26 farm teams to establish their then new Spring Training facility.

In 1953 the above stadium was dedicated.  There was no outfield fence or wall.  A grassy mound still surrounds the outfield adorned with Royal Palm trees and they were then in the field of play.  Outfielders would chase up the mound and around the palms, and fans seated there, for any ball that reached that distance.

A fence was built, ending that charming activity, in 1988.

 
Fans still have ready access to the player's dougouts where the youngster (above) receives an autograph from the NY Met's catcher before a recent game.

The Dodgers left this facility in 2008 and moved to Glendale, AZ.

On March 31st this year, the Met's triple-A affiliate team, the Buffalo Bisons played the New Orleans Zephyrs, a triple-A affiliate of the Miami Marlins, in an exhibition, fund-raiser before 2,000 local fans--the first pro game since the Dodgers left.

It was fun for me to munch my ballpark hot dog and re-kindle childhood memories from the 1940s and 50s of Dodger greats and hall-of-famers Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella, two of my most treasured baseball cards of that era.

Names of former Dodger greats like Gil Hodges and Sandy Koufax also came to mind as I squeezed into my shady seat to avoid the sizzling Florida sun.

Today, the stadium and surrounding sports complex is re-inventing itself.  It is now known as the Vero Beach Sports Village and new construction is providing four new softball/little league fields and a milti-purpose field to facilitate football, lacrosse, soccer and rugby events.

This is being driven by a joint venture with Minor League Baseball and former Dodger President Peter O'Malley and associates.

A blemish of rust pains the Tommy Lasorda Lane road sign at Vero Beach's former Dodgertown complex.It and the crumbling concrete of its once proud baseball stadium are mute testimony to the decay of that storied facility.

I have seen the minor league baseball stadium of the Altoona (PA) Curve.  And, Fogeyisms just a few weeks ago featured the Spring Training facility for the NY Mets in nearby Ft. Pierce.

Judging by the quality of those modern, baseball stadiums, Vero Beach will have to do something similar if it ever hopes to attract another major league affiliate.