Spring Training Flashbacks: Dodgertown - 2005

Listen carefully, and you can almost hear the ghosts.  The spirits of beloved Dodger legends Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese, Don Drysdale and Don Newcombe, Roy Campanella and Gil Hodges.  Just some of the legends who began their baseball years in Vero Beach, Florida at the complex known as Dodgertown.  I made my first visit there in 2005.

Dodgertown's street signs honored franchise legends, including one who never suited up.

Players who took the field at Holman Stadium were well aware that they were standing on hallowed ground, where the team that integrated baseball -- and then brought the major leagues to the West Coast -- prepared for their seasons from 1948 through 2008.

A simple stadium, not much bigger than some high school fields, where the purpose was preparation.  If you wanted "up close and personal," this was the place.  More than 100 miles from Miami, the onetime Navy air base had barracks to house all the players.  No need to worry about segregation of a pre-Rosa Parks Florida.  Everyone was housed on the campus.

Below: from just before a 2007 Grapefruit League game.

Dodgertown became a bit of an anachronism after the ballclub moved to Los Angeles, remaining its spring training home for its first 50 California seasons, before closing in 2008.

Now officially "Historic Dodgertown," the complex lives on as a training facility for amateur sports and has even hosted a Canadian Football League team.  In 2019, Dodgertown became the first sports facility to be added to U.S. Civil Rights Trail.