Dodgers News: New Book Explores Tommy and the Dodgers’ “Greatest Draft Class Ever”
LOS ANGELES — Dodger fans who love the team’s history just got a new offseason read. Today marks the release of Before They Wore Dodger Blue: Tommy Lasorda and the Greatest Draft Class in Baseball History, a new book by author and baseball historian Eric Vickrey, published by August Publications.
The book zooms in on the 1968 amateur draft, when the Dodgers front office and scouting department absolutely nailed the new draft era. That summer they selected Doyle Alexander, Bill Buckner, Ron Cey, Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Tom Paciorek, Joe Ferguson, Bobby Valentine and Geoff Zahn, a haul that produced six future All-Stars and 23 All-Star selections in all. Those names, joined along the way by Tommy Hutton, Charlie Hough and Bill Russell, became the backbone of powerful Dodgers clubs in the minors and majors, setting up the run of three pennants in the 1970s and the 1981 World Series win over the Yankees.
Vickrey follows that class from the draft room to dusty minor league parks. A big chunk of the story centers on the 1970 Spokane Indians, the Triple-A team that featured most of the ’68 crop and is still talked about as one of the best minor league rosters ever assembled. With Tom Lasorda in the dugout, Spokane won the Pacific Coast League title over Chuck Tanner’s Hawaii club and gave Dodger fans an early glimpse of the infield and supporting cast that would soon take over the big league stage.
Lasorda is the other star of the book. Vickrey traces his path from journeyman pitcher to tireless scout to fiery minor league skipper, then to Walt Alston’s eventual successor in Los Angeles. Drawing on roughly 70 interviews with former players, executives, scouts, batboys and team staff, the book paints a picture of Lasorda not just as a quote machine, but as a sharp in-game manager and hands-on teacher who knew when to pat a kid on the back, when to push him, and when to take him out for a late-night meal to talk baseball and life.
Of course, Dodger fans already know what that group became. Cey at third, Russell at short, Lopes at second and Garvey at first formed an infield that stayed together for an almost unbelievable eight and a half consecutive seasons.Around them, the rest of the ’68 class and the players acquired in trades built out the roster that battled the Big Red Machine, clashed with New York in October, and eventually got its championship payoff in 1981. Vickrey uses game stories, clubhouse memories and front-office detail to show how much of that success came from work that started on draft day and continued on long bus rides through the minors.
Early readers are already giving the book strong reviews. Broadcaster Bob Costas calls it an important slice of baseball history filled with names that would soon be in the spotlight, while writers Michael Fallon and Andy McCue praise the way Vickrey explains how the draft reshaped the game and how the Dodgers stayed ahead of the curve.
For Dodger fans who grew up on Garvey, Lopes, Russell and Cey, or newer fans who want to understand how that core came together, this looks like a perfect addition to the offseason reading stack. It is the story of how one brilliant draft, a sharp scouting operation and a rising manager named Tommy Lasorda helped set the stage for the next great era of Dodger baseball.
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