Tommy "old-school" Lasorda

Spring Training. I hate to admit it but as a kid, it didn't seem like anything super special. I will even go as far to say I grew up thinking all kids had a team come and train in their town. Obviously I was a delusional victim incapable of appreciating things until I lived life without them. (I experienced something very similar with the beach after I moved away to college and NYC. To this day I crave salty air, sand in my toes and hot sun.) But just like growing up next to the beach, Dodgertown was always there and while I loved both, there was no reason to think about it beyond that. Senior year of high school I worked at Perkins, a CVS-type store just down the street from Holman Stadium. Players came in and out of there all the time. It was totally normal to come home, slam the door and yell: "Hey dad, guess who was in tonight!" 

Growing up, for as long as the Dodgers were in town, a few things came guaranteed on the corner of 43rd and 26th street. Field trips (yes, our high school justified this as some kind of learning experience; an administrative decision I completely support), jobs (you can easily dig up a long list of bat boys), photos and autographs (all I have kept to this day), food (for some reason stadium popcorn + hot dog + coke = perfect! Don't forget small Dodger helmets filled with dip n' dots.), socializing and crazy fan support (VB is almost equal to any small town in Texas), a Florida tan (rookies rolled up their sleeves, the rest of us knew to wear tank tops) and it was fun.

Have you ever been to Vero Beach? Well friend, not many things change. There's this one sign on State Road 60 that reads: "Welcome to Vero Beach, home of Dodgertown". Actually, I'm not 100% sure it says exactly those words. The sign has been there for so long I've etched a mental image of it in my head. So if we're being honest here, I never take time to read it as I drive pass. In my head, I already know it. It's just always been there. I mean there are restaurants the same age as Dick Cheney that have outlasted hurricanes. All of them. It's also a town that for the past 60 years has proudly wrapped its arms around a baseball team. Side note: if you do visit, we've got a drink named Dodger-Dodger. I challenge anyone to try and find something stronger then this drink. Not happening. With this being the last spring training for the Dodgers in Vero, a definitive change, of the biggest kind, is lurking on the horizon.   

Tommy Lasorda was, and still is for that matter, a legend. So imagine my smile when this morning I open up USA Today and see the headline: "Fill-in Lasorda gets back into swing with umpire dispute". Haha.. what?! You mean to tell me Joe Torre goes to the other side of the world for an exhibition game, Lasorda takes over and in a matter of five minutes, he causes enough drama to grab a few headlines! The man hasn't coached in 12 years! But you know what, only a fool would think any of that famous fire had burned out. It was refreshingly familiar, like a piece of home from a very long time ago. Looking at the article I smiled and happily thought, even when things leave, it doesn't mean they change.