Kari Moran
February 26, 2009
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For five decades, the Dodgers played their Spring Training games in Vero Beach, Florida. Not anymore. This year, you'll find them in Arizona. Yesterday, the Dodgers opened up Spring Training with a loss to the Chicago Cubs, an away game. The Dodgers will play their first Spring home game at their new stadium in Glendale, Arizona this Sunday Tony Jackson covers the team for the Daily News. He spoke to KPCC's Kari Moran about the team's reaction to the move and whether there was a sense of a tradition being lost by moving from Vero Beach.
Tony Jackson: Well, I think with some people who've been– you know, the Dodgers have a lot of employees who've been with them for several decades, and I think on their part, there's a little bit of a nostalgia and wistfulness that they're not in Vero Beach anymore.
But I think even those people can see that this was the right move and the time had come, and the players just love the place. They haven't seen the stadium yet, but they've seen all the facilities, and the clubhouse, and the batting cages, and the back fields, and all of that, and everybody's just raving about the place.
It's not terribly pleasing to look at, but it's state of the art, and it's comfortable, and it's functional, and that's ultimately what a spring training facility is supposed to be.
Kari Moran: And did you notice a difference among the fans who attended yesterday's game? Obviously, one of the big attractions to the move for Dodger fans is that they don't have to travel so far.
Jackson: Yeah, and I do think that the Dodgers are going to travel really well as far as, when you go to road games here in the Cactus League, I think you're gonna see a lot of, it's gonna be almost a home game for the Dodgers, because I think Dodger fans are going to dominate the landscape over here.
Just, if you judge by the one week that the Dodgers spent here last spring training, there was blue everywhere. Now yesterday, the first game was a little bit of an exception, because, you know, the Cubs have always been one of the favorite teams over here, and I think somebody once told me one out of seven Phoenix area residents have some ties to Chicago.
So, that's not gonna be the case when you go over to Mesa to play the Cubs, as the Dodgers did yesterday. That's a Cubs crowd. But I do think, as they go, you know, to some of the other facilities around here, like the Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres, Texas Rangers, a lot of these teams that aren't necessarily all that close to their home cities, I think you're going to see Dodger fans pretty much dominate the crowd, even for road games.
Moran: Now, there's a big story this morning of interest to Dodger fans. The Dodgers have made their latest offer to all star outfielder Manny Ramires – two years, 45 million bucks, with an option to enter into free agency next winter. Does this seem like an offer that Manny will accept?
Jackson: Well, yeah. It's basically a hybrid of the two offers they made earlier, earlier in the winter, one of which was back in October. But yeah, I think you've got to accept this one, because one, I think time is running out.
And two, I really don't think, in spite of the comments you see from his agent, that there are other teams involved, I really don't think there are any teams involved, and I don't think Manny has any place else to go.
So yeah, I think this is coming to a resolution, and he was always kind of destined to end up back with the Dodgers, and I think that's gonna happen, if not today, then probably tomorrow.
Moran: Thanks, Tony.
Jackson: Absolutely, anytime.
