From the 1940s through the early 60s, the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers excelled at acquiring and developing talent. MLB’s adoption of an amateur player draft in 1965 forced teams to change the way they scouted. The Dodgers quickly adapted. In 1968, the astute front office and venerable scouting department put together what remains the greatest draft class in baseball history.
That year, the Dodgers drafted six future All-Stars—Doyle Alexander, Bill Buckner, Ron Cey, Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, and Tom Paciorek— who would be selected for a combined 23 All-Star games—plus Joe Ferguson, Bobby Valentine, and Geoff Zahn. Most of these draftees—joined at various stops by Tommy Hutton, Charlie Hough, and Bill Russell—would form the core of outstanding minor-league teams and the next great era of Dodgers baseball, highlighted by a 1981 World Series win. It’s widely regarded as the best draft class ever. And the 1970 Spokane Indians—featuring most of that draft class, led by Tommy Lasorda—is considered one of the greatest minor-league clubs ever.
How the Dodgers put together that legendary draft class and the players’ climb through the minor leagues under Lasorda is chronicled in Before They Wore Dodger Blue: Tommy Lasorda and the Greatest Draft Class in Baseball History. Seventy interviews with former players, executives, broadcasters, scouts, batboys, and other team personnel help shed light on an important era in one of baseball’s winningest franchises.
Tommy Lasorda: One of a Kind
Tommy Lasorda remains one of the most dynamic personalities in the history of American professional sports. After a middling playing career, the boisterous Pennsylvanian worked his way up the Dodgers ranks as a scout and minor-league manager. He developed many of the Dodgers top prospects in Rookie ball and Triple-A before his appointment as Walt Alston’s replacement as Dodger manager near the end of the 1976 season.
“[Tommy] Lasorda developed into a master,” said Bobby Valentine, the leading light in the draft class before injuries cut his career short, in an interview with the author. “His baseball acumen, his ability to manage a game is always overshadowed by his persona. He was a spectacular in-game manager. He knew when to put on a hit-and-run. When a guy was in a slump, he’d give him a high-five when he came into the dugout. That would boost the guy’s confidence for the next at-bat. He knew when to take a pitcher out, when to leave him in, when to challenge him, when to take a kid out for a private dinner, and when to scold a kid in front of the entire team.”
The Infield: Unmatched Consistency
Cey, Russell, Lopes, and Garvey proceeded to form an All-Star infield that would play together for an unprecedented eight and a half consecutive seasons. That foursome, along with other homegrown stars and pieces acquired through trades involving the ’68 draft class, carried the Dodgers to three National League pennants in the 1970s and a World Series title in 1981 under Lasorda.
Early Praise for Before They Wore Dodger Blue
“This is a significant piece of baseball history, and a story brimming with figures soon to become boldface names.”—Bob Costas, 2018 Ford C. Frick Award winner and longtime MLB broadcaster
“Eric Vickrey’s Before They Wore Dodger Blue opens with the well-covered heyday of the early 1960s Los Angeles Dodgers but then breaks new ground by examining how the first major-league amateur draft, instituted in 1965, completely upended the Dodgers and changed the culture of the major leagues … Vickrey deftly paints a portrait of these changing times, reaching a climax with the 1981 World Series, when the rebuilt Dodgers and their core draftee class of 1968 come back to defeat the juggernaut New York Yankees and their team of superstar free agents. Before They Wore Dodger Blue is an exciting and essential look at how a brave new world emerged out of the primordial, old school baseball soup of the 1960s.”—Michael Fallon, author of Dodgerland: Decadent Los Angeles and the 1977–78 Dodgers
“The amateur draft was supposed to let poorer clubs compete with the big-money franchises, such as the Dodgers. But picking winners was about more than money and the 1968 draft proved it. There was the scouting that recognized Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Ron Cey, Bobby Valentine, Bill Buckner, Tom Paciorek, Joe Ferguson, Doyle Alexander, Sandy Vance and Geoff Zahn that spring. And there was the player development system, epitomized by Tommy Lasorda, that transformed the talent into major league stars. Vickrey profiles them all, delving into their backgrounds and careers in a crisp presentation that makes the story sparkle.”—Andy McCue, author of Seymour Medal-winning Mover and Shaker: Walter O’Malley, the Dodgers, and Baseball’s Westward Expansion
Fast Facts
Price: $24.95.
Print ISBN: 978-1-938532-94-8.
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-938532-95-5.
Format: 6×9, 348 pages.
The book was published on December 7, 2025 by August Publications. You can purchase the book directly from the publisher, order from your local independent bookstore, or through these online booksellers:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Before-They-Wore-Dodger-Blue/dp/1938532945
Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/p/books/before-they-wore-dodger-blue-eric-vickrey/aa7967d2549178ad
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/before-they-wore-dodger-blue-eric-vickrey/1148755814
