The big difference I’ve seen over the years is in the conditioning. So many of the players early in my career would come to spring training having done very little all winter, and they’d come get in shape. Nowadays guys come to spring training like they’re going to compete in the Olympics.
Spring training is so much more structured now than it was in the ’60s. There’s a program, and you follow a schedule that’s up on the board. We had things to do, but I don’t think it was as structured. I can remember coming into spring training and Walter Alston would say, “You’re starting opening day. When do you want to make your first exhibition, and how many innings you want to work this spring?” I never was told, “You’re going to go 40 pitches today and then 50 next time, and then you’re going to go five innings.” I threw nine innings a couple times in spring training.
I never threw batting practice in spring training because I thought I would get into bad habits. You’re behind the screen. You throw; you duck. And what are you supposed to do in batting practice? Throw the ball right down the middle so they can hit it. Well that’s a bad habit to get into. I would go throw with a catcher, and we’d work on pitches and have a hitter stand there, left-handed and right-handed.
I don’t think there’s the intimacy in spring training now that we had. I know I was blessed playing for the Dodgers because we had Dodgertown.
You get out of your car and start to walk to the clubhouse, you’d bump into (friends you’ve met) Jim and Ed and Dick, and they’d say “We playing today? Pick you up at 1 o’clock. We’re teeing off at 1:15. By the way I’m having a barbecue over at the house. I’d love to have you come over. Bring some of the other guys.”
There was a guy in Vero Beach who owned a lot of orange groves. He would say, “I’m picking you and Jim Brewer and Claude Osteen up right after practice. We’re going to go fish the orange grove.” At Dodgertown they had the kitchen, so you could eat there, and of course a lot of people stayed there (in dormitories). There was lady there who was a great cook, so we’d bring the fish into her. … I once killed a turkey before practice one morning, brought it in, and we had baked turkey. There was an intimacy. It’s almost like we were returning residents. You cultivate that over time. I spent two years in Vero Beach, when you add up the days.
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