1993

March 11, 1993

In a pre-game ceremony at home plate, Holman Stadium is honored on its 40th anniversary of its inaugural game on March 11, 1953. Dodger President Peter O'Malley is joined by Vero Beach Mayor Jay Smith and other elected city officials with Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda and Dodgertown Director Craig Callan. Bump Holman, the son of Bud Holman, for whom the stadium is named for, is also part of the tribute. It was Bud Holman who encouraged the Brooklyn Dodgers to hold their Spring Training in Vero Beach, Florida in 1948 and the Dodgers named their Spring Training Stadium at Dodgertown for him. 1

March 21, 1993

Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda was asked if rookie catcher Mike Piazza would make the Opening Day roster. Piazza was hitting well in Spring Training and would show the form that would earn him the 1993 National League Rookie of the Year. Said Lasorda of Piazza making the club for the season, "If he's (Piazza) not, I'm not." 2

March 22, 1993

Rain, rain would not go away as the Florida rains prevented the Dodgers from playing exhibition games. The field at Holman Stadium, the Dodgers' ballpark in Spring Training, was practically under water. One writer said a yacht could have floated inside Holman Stadium. 3 In a 30-hour period, 5.7 inches of rain fell on Dodgertown. Dodger President Peter O'Malley, who had been coming to Vero Beach since the Dodgers began training there in 1948 said, "We're prepared to move (play exhibition games in Florida) if we have to. I don't want to list them, but you can let your imagination wander." O'Malley discussed previous rain history in Vero Beach. "Thirty years ago (1961), we went to Havana, Cuba. The storms in Florida were so bad so we got together with Cincinnati and played in Havana shortly after Castro took over. It happens. This is the wettest spring I've seen here. If we still can't play for the next four or five days, we will find dry fields to work out on some place." In order to get some spring work in, the Dodgers took buses to Winter Haven, approximately 100 miles northwest where it was dry and played a 10-inning intrasquad game. 4