If you’ve ever been to Camelback Ranch in Glendale, AZ to witness Spring Training up close and personal (or Dodgertown in Vero Beach before that) and wandered over to the minor league side of camp, you have undoubtedly seen him. He’s tall and lean and one of the nicest guys you will ever meet. His name is John Shoemaker, and he is in his 34th season (that’s not a typo) as a Dodgers minor league manager and the current manager of the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes of the newly-created Low-A West League.

On Sunday night, ‘Shoe,’ as he is affectionately known, hit a career milestone – one that very few managers in professional baseball ever see; he collected his 1,600th career win as a member of the Dodgers storied Player Development Department.

Shoemaker, who the Dodgers originally drafted in the 35th round of the 1977 MLB First-Year Player Draft out of Waverly High School in Waverly, OH, spent four seasons in the Dodgers organization as an outfielder. And though he never made it to The Show, Shoe posted a respectable .282/.394/.314/.708 slash line over his four minor league seasons.

…and then he found his true calling.

In 1987, Shoemaker was appointed as manager of the (former) Vero Beach Dodgers of the (former) Florida State League, which was founded in 1919 and continued uninterrupted for 100 years, until 2020 when MLB commissioner Rob Manfred gave it the ax for reasons that only he knows when he did a major restructuring of the entire Minor League Baseball system. And though Shoemaker finished his rookie managerial season in 12th place, he led his team to a first-place finish in the famed Texas League (founded in 1902) in 1990. He was appointed as manager of the Quakes this season and, as of this writing, has his team in first place in the Low-A West standings, albeit by a mere .5 games over the Lake Elsinore Storm (Padres).

To put all of this into perspective, every Dodger player who came up through the Dodgers minor league system since 1987 played under the guidance, leadership, and friendship of John Shoemaker – every one of them.

Congratulations, Shoe! – A GREAT accomplishment for a GREAT guy!

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