COVER STORY
12
But you have to go along with change. One of those
big changes will be going to Arizona. I’ll have to go
along with it, and find a way to enjoy it.”
Black and white people sat in separate sections of
Holman stadium until black players complained to
Dodger ownership in 1963. Wills said he doesn’t specifically
remember being a leader of that cause.
“But I probably was, and I certainly would have
been one of the voices they would have listened to,” he
said. “But I want to say that Mr. Walter O’Malley was
wonderful when it came to addressing issues of race.
He built a golf course here at Dodgertown so that the
African-American teammates would have a place
where they could play.”
DODGERTOWN REVERENCE
Many of today’s ballplayers don’t have much of a
sense of history. Their memories don’t seem to reach
back beyond the length of their current contracts. But
Dodger outfielder Juan Pierre was in obvious awe of
Wills as he worked on bunting with him in Maury’s
Pit. Pierre has a reverence for Dodgertown, too.
Below, Scott Norton puts down the third-base
line before a game. Norton has been working
for the Dodgers for eight years. Left, Maury
Wills works with players on their bunting.
Below left, Bill Winkle works as a security
guard during spring training and has been a
Dodger fan since their Brooklyn days.
“It’s an honor to be able to learn from somebody like
Maury, who revolutionized the game, and who is such
a great guy,” Pierre said. “And it’s terrific to be in
Dodgertown, to play on the fields where Jackie
Robinson and Sandy Koufax played. As a fan and as
someone who is interested in the history of the game,
it’s an honor to come here and consider this my workplace.”
Dodger broadcaster Charley Steiner usually has just
the right words to describe any situation. But as we sat
on the berm before a night game, he merely pointed
when I asked him to sum up the magic of Dodgertown.
“Just look,” he said, gesturing toward exercising
players who were casting immense shadows on the
green field as the sun set. Above the palm trees, puffy
pink Beanie Backus clouds floated by. “There really is a
field-of-dreams quality about this place,” Steiner said.
The pullout, he said, will be painful. “When the last
bus pulls out of here, it’s going to be like the last helicopter
out of Vietnam.” Smiling, Steiner said that he
“didn’t mean that on a proportionate level, of course.”
“I have mixed emotions about the move, because I
love the tradition here. But it makes sense from the