Here’s Scoop on How O’Malley Made His Team a Little Special

“The Ice Cream Rule”

Every day of the regular season that the Dodgers either move into first place, or gain a game while in first, ice cream will be served at 2 p.m. in the concourse outside the Dodger Stadium office.

All employees invited. Big tubs. If the team is really playing well, there might even be a tray of cookies.

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It is a rule book with no pages, a company manual whose one copy is stored in the conscience of the company president.

Peter O’Malley will sign away this city’s last treasure, and the new Dodger owner will ask him for it.

“For what?” O’Malley will say.

“Whatever it is that lists what you do, and why you do it,” the new owner will say.

“It’s in here,” O’Malley will say, pointing to his chest.

“C’mon, there has to be a bottom-line explanation for why the Dodgers are the Dodgers,” the new owner will say.

“It’s in here,” O’Malley will say.

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“The Family Values Rule”

Every member of a player’s immediate family above age 14--from wives to parents to brothers--can travel with the player on any trip.

Those relatives can fly on the team plane and stay in the player’s hotel room. All free of charge. For all 81 road games.

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The Dodgers held a luncheon Wednesday to reassure everyone that nothing has changed.

But it only reminded employees how nothing will ever be the same.

A stadium club filled with food and embraces, a podium dominated by history (Steve Garvey and Ron Cey), inspiration (Brett Butler), continuity (Eric Karros) and behind-the-scenes stars (John Van Ornum).

John Van Ornum? The team’s new advance scout was introduced and allowed to tell a few jokes about himself.

Some major league teams won’t even fly their advance scouts to the home office during the off-season, much less give him a spot at a luncheon.

Then again, no other major league team has the sort of winter workout that accompanied the luncheon.

Downstairs, several major leaguers hit against live pitching, fielded live hitting, ran supervised sprints. They will do this three times a week until spring training.

“When I played in San Diego, our winter workouts were throwing a football,” new first baseman Eddie Williams said.

In the two days since O’Malley announced his family is selling the team after 47 years, much has been made about how well he treated the fans.

But what made the organization so successful was how he treated his own.

Nothing will affect the team more than the disappearance of that culture.

“You are treated so well here--far better than with any other team--that you gain a certain respect and pride about yourself and your job,” said Jim Gott, former Dodger reliever who played for five organizations. “That respect carries over onto the field.”

When employees talk about the Dodger Way, they are not only talking about footwork on double plays or batting stances with the bases loaded.

They are talking about company vacations where everyone piles into a plane for Italy (1988), Stadium Club wakes for deceased family members (Don Drysdale and Roy Campanella) and baseball’s only team plane.

In its final years during the early 1980s, the Dodger jet was no longer cost efficient. But O’Malley couldn’t bear to part with a longtime pilot who had made it his life.

Only when the pilot was killed in a bus accident was the plane finally sold and charter flights arranged.

But it’s all in the book.

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“The Kris Kringle Rule”

Every year, no matter how the club finished the year before, Santa Claus will visit Vero Beach during spring training.

He will show up at a Christmas party for the employees, players and their families. Even though it is the middle of March, he will bring gifts.

This party will be held within a couple of a weeks of a Western barbecue, in which employees and players will be given corny cowboy hats, scarves and dance lessons between servings of ribs.

(Past attendees will never forget the sight of Ramon Martinez doing a two-step.)

Both of those parties will be dwarfed by the employee-only St. Patrick’s Day bash, during which longtime “family” members are given the key to Vero Beach.

Last year, they were even treated to Vin Scully singing, “Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral.”

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On Easter morning several years ago, I was introduced to the Dodger Way while sitting in the Dodgertown press room, typing out a season advance.

I heard some rustling behind me.

I looked back to discover one of Orel Hershiser’s children.

Searching for Easter eggs.

Eddie Williams was recently introduced to the Dodger Way when he arrived in the Dominican Republic for another of his countless stints in winter league baseball.

“I was on the field, I looked up, and I saw Bill Russell and Reggie Smith,” he said. “Most places sent you to winter baseball and tell you to survive. The Dodgers, they go with you. They take care of you.”

Gott was introduced to the Dodger Way when he walked off the field after one shaky outing during his first spring training.

And nearly bumped into Sandy Koufax.

Who wanted to know if he could help.

“Usually in this game, the pitching coach never wants anyone else giving you advice, everybody is worried about their turf,” Gott said. “With the Dodgers, everyone helps, and everyone is happy about it. There I was, talking to Sandy Koufax about my balance. . . .”

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“The Suggestion Box Rule”

On most teams, the player representative is strictly a union liaison. On the Dodgers, he is O’Malley’s sounding board.

If the players don’t like the food on the airplanes, which is served in mountainous portions and continuously during the flight? The Dodgers change the menu.

The players didn’t like sharing rooms on the road, or paying extra if they wanted a single room? The Dodgers give everyone a single room for free, which for years was unlike every other team.

The Dodgers don’t like a hotel’s proximity to shopping malls? The Dodgers change the hotel, which happened several years ago in Atlanta, before they moved again when the new hotel could not deliver the rooms needed for a potential playoff game.

The new hotel thought the Dodgers would be like everyone else and need 25 rooms.

The Dodgers reminded them that, per their agreement, the Dodger family would require 100.

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Pampering?

The Dodgers’ 13 World Series appearances under the O’Malleys would indicate that their treatment may warrant another description.

Like, good business.

“I remember Walter O’Malley once told me that he wanted to remove everything that players could gripe about,” hitting coach Reggie Smith said. “He felt, with no excuses, everybody could give their best effort.”

So Peter O’Malley drove Hideo Nomo around Vero Beach during the Japanese pitcher’s first visit there.

And traveling secretary Billy DeLury once slept all night at a hospital with a player suffering from a stomachache.

And when O’Malley told his employees Monday that he was selling the team, before worrying about their futures, they thought of his legacy.

And, to a man who may have just cost them their jobs, a room full of people gave a standing ovation.