Brightsurf Science News and Current Science News Events
 

View Larger Image

The Rise and Fall of Dodgertown: 60 Years of Baseball in Vero Beach


by RODY L. JOHNSON

List Price: $24.95
Price: $16.47
You Save: $8.48 (34%)
Available: Usually ships in 24 hours
Sales Rank: 601955
Studio: University Press of Florida
Binding: Hardcover
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: March 02, 2008
Publisher: University Press of Florida


EDITORIAL REVIEWS

Product Description
Ironically, the last year of Dodgertown will mark the sixtieth anniversary of the team's relationship with Vero Beach, a sleepy beach town a couple of hours north of Miami. Since 1948, when Branch Rickey first brought his team to a former naval air station for training (the players slept in barracks), the Dodgers have practiced fundamentals in a bucolic setting. Featuring roofless dugouts, a grassy berm surrounding the outfield, and intimate seating for 6,400, Holman Stadium has been home to the Dodgers longer than even famed Ebbets Field in Brooklyn.
 
Granted special access to the team's archives and personal interviews with players, management, and staff, Rody Johnson offers a fascinating and remarkable history of the sometimes rocky relationship between the city and the team. Beginning with the signing of Jackie Robinson in 1946 and ending with the close of spring training in 2007, The Rise and Fall of Dodgertown traces the changes in baseball and society for more than a half century. It is a story of community, passion, and the beauty of an American sport.


CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 5 reviews)

An engrossing history.  
THE RISE AND FALL OF DODGERTOWN: 60 YEARS OF BASEBALL IN VERO BEACH is a specialty item for baseball collections and Vero Beach area residents who enjoy game history. It charts the history of the Dodgers, who have been coming to Vero Beach every spring since 1948, and it tells of an entire culture and community which sprang up around the rise of 'Dodgertown'. Baseball fans will find this an engrossing history.

May 06, 2008

A history worth telling  
This book really captures the spirit of Dodgertown and the special bond that grew and splintered between the community of Vero Beach and the Dodgers there. This book is packed with pictures and stories of Dodger greats, past and present. It's a shame they had to leave it, Spring Training will never be the same. But at least it's captured in prose!
March 25, 2008

A Fascinating Story  
Clearly a labor of love, this book tells not only Dodgertown's story, but baseball's and America's. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys forays into the cultural and economic evolution of the game. While baseball's players and facilities may have undergone dramatic changes through the years, Johnson's love of the sport clearly has not. A masterful work.

Tom

P.S. I also recommend "Spring Training Handbook" which goes to similar lengths to detail baseball's history in Florida.
March 06, 2008

Wish I'd Been There  
At exactly the stroke of midnight last night, I read the last page of Dodgertown and laid the book aside. It was a wonderful read. I was sorry it ended.

The book is a winner in so many ways. Obviously, a tremendous amount of research went into it. But at the same time, it wears its research well, never becoming a tome. Knowing virtually nothing about Vero, the Dodgers, or the history of baseball, I kept learning on each page, while growing familiar with the place, the people, and the wonderful mystique of spring training. I really felt I was there.

And so, I was saddened, I mean really moved and at times angry, during those final chapters when everything seemed to fall apart. Your own last pages indicate that you, and probably others, have philosophically come to grips with the passing of the good old days, but for a reader like me, new to it all, it's terribly difficult to let go. I kept wanting to go back to the O'Malley days. I felt personal loss in that I'll probably never be able to experience the special nature of Dodgertown. Oh, sure - another team may come in. For a while it even looked as though it might be the Orioles. But even if the Os' had moved to Vero, the camp wouldn't have been the same.
February 26, 2008

A Great Read  
This is a fascinating story, well researched by the author and laced with historic pictures. The book is full of anecdotes that vividly evoke the sixty years of Dodgertown and much more. Fay Vincent got it right: "It's a story that deserved telling. Rody has told it--and told it well."
February 24, 2008


SIMILAR PRODUCTS

My Bat Boy Days: Lessons I Learned from the Boys of Summer
by Steve Garvey

Dodgertown (CA) (Images of Baseball)
by Mark Langill

I Live for This!: Baseball's Last True Believer
by Bill Plaschke
by Tommy Lasorda

We Would Have Played for Nothing: Baseball Stars of the 1950s and 1960s Talk About the Game They Loved (Baseball Oral History Poject)
by Fay Vincent

101 Baseball Places to See Before You Strike Out
by Josh Pahigian

© 2008 BrightSurf.com