Morning Report: Farewell to Vero Beach

There was an emotional scene in Vero Beach, Fla., yesterday, where the Dodgers began a move nearly akin to leaving Brooklyn for the City of the Angels.

Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda, who played in Ebbets Field in Brooklyn and managed in Dodger Stadium in Chavez Ravine, said goodbye to Dodgertown in style.

The 80-year-old Norristown native walked out of Holman Stadium under an archway of bats held high by his players and coaches.

His eyes red, his steps slow, Lasorda waved to the fans for the final time at Dodgertown. Down in the right-field corner, his players and coaches silently gathered and formed two lines.

Crossing bats overhead in a sacred baseball tradition, they formed an arch to let Lasorda close the special place the Dodgers called their spring home for 60 years.

"These guys want me to cry," he said.

He didn't, but chances are a few people in the overflow crowd did. Some of them stood in the bottom of the ninth, bidding farewell to their team - and a piece of paradise lost - as Los Angeles fell to the Houston Astros 12-10.

"We're going to leave, but we're not leaving our memories," Lasorda told them in a pregame address, pausing between sentences. Later, he reflected: "In all probability, I'll never be here again."

Set to move next year into an $80 million complex that they'll share with the Chicago White Sox in Glendale, Ariz., the Dodgers will take away more than a team from Vero Beach, a town of 30,000 on Florida's east coast.

In an era when spring training has become big business, Dodgertown was more like baseball's petting zoo, where players were encouraged to chat with fans and sign their balls. To many visitors, Vero Beach was a true field of dreams.

"It is a special place," former Dodgers ace Carl Erskine said.

The righthander known as Ersk (or "Oisk" in Brooklyn-ese) had thrown the first pitch in Holman Stadium in 1953.

"I hate to leave," he said.

So did everybody else who had ever been there.

Marks Madness. Kudos to the Villanova Wildcats, who not only qualified for the NCAA tournament with a late push, but have one of the top 10 academic records in the 65-team field.

A study conducted by Richard Lapchick, head of the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, rated each of the 65 teams by the percentage of players which earned a degree over a six-year period.

Villanova ranked seventh in the field, graduating 89 percent of its players.

Western Kentucky graduated 100 percent, with Butler (92), Davidson (91) Notre Dame (91), Purdue (91), Xavier (90) and Villanova following.