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Walter O'Malley

April 10, 2023

Walter Francis O'Malley (October 9, 1903 – August 9, 1979) was an American sports executive who owned the Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers team in Major League Baseball from 1950 to 1979. In 1958, as owner of the Dodgers, he brought major league baseball to the West Coast, moving the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles despite the Dodgers being the second most profitable team in baseball from 1946 to 1956, and coordinating the move of the New York Giants to San Francisco at a time when there were no teams west of Kansas City, Missouri.[1][2] For this, he was long vilified by Brooklyn Dodgers fans.[3] However, Pro-O'Malley parties describe him as a visionary for the same business action,[4] and many authorities cite him as one of the most influential sportsmen of the 20th century.[5] Other observers say that he was not a visionary, but instead a man who was in the right place at the right time, and regard him as the most powerful and influential owner in baseball after moving the team.[6]

Walter O'Malley
O'Malley on the cover of Time magazine, April 28, 1958.
Born(1903-10-09)October 9, 1903
Bronx, New York, U.S.
DiedAugust 9, 1979(1979-08-09) (aged 75)
Rochester, Minnesota, U.S.
Resting placeHoly Cross Cemetery
EducationCulver Academy
University of Pennsylvania
Columbia University
Fordham University
OccupationOwner of Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers
Known forMoving the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles
Spouse
Katherine Elizabeth Hanson
​
​
(m. 1931; died 1979)​
Children2, including Peter O'Malley
ParentEdwin Joseph O'Malley
RelativesPeter Seidler (grandson)
Websitewalteromalley.com

O'Malley was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame for his contributions to and influence on the game of baseball in 2008.

O'Malley's father, Edwin Joseph O'Malley, was politically connected. Walter, a University of Pennsylvania salutatorian, went on to obtain a Juris Doctor, and he used the combination of his family connections, his personal contacts, and both his educational and vocational skills to rise to prominence. First, he became an entrepreneur involved in public works contracting, and then he became an executive with the Dodgers. He progressed from being a team lawyer to being both the Dodgers' owner and president, and he eventually made the business decision to relocate the Dodgers franchise. Although he moved the franchise, O'Malley is known as a businessman whose major philosophy was stability through loyalty to and from his employees.[7]

O'Malley ceded the team presidency to his son, Peter, in 1970 but retained the titles of owner and chairman of the Dodgers until his death in 1979. During the 1975 season, the Dodgers' inability to negotiate a contract with Andy Messersmith led to the Seitz decision, which limited the baseball reserve clause and paved the way for modern free agency.[8] He bequeathed the team to his children Peter O'Malley and Therese O'Malley Seidler upon his death in 1979.[9]

Early years

 
Edwin O'Malley circa 1905

Walter O'Malley was the only child of Edwin Joseph O'Malley (1881–1953), who worked as a cotton goods salesman in the Bronx in 1903. Edwin O'Malley later became the Commissioner of Public Markets for New York City. Walter's mother was Alma Feltner (1882–1940).[10] O'Malley grew up as a Bronx-born New York Giants fan.[10] He frequently attended Giants games at the Polo Grounds with his uncle Clarence.[11] O'Malley was a Boy Scout who rose to the rank of Star Scout.[11]

 
O'Malley's photo from the 1922 Culver yearbook

O'Malley attended Jamaica High School in Queens from 1918 to 1920 and then the Culver Academy (the eventual high school alma mater of future New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner)[12] in Indiana.[13] He managed both the baseball and tennis teams, served on the executive staff of the student newspaper, was a member of the Hospital Visitation Committee as well as the debate team, Bible Discipline Committee and the YMCA.[11] At Culver, his baseball career was ended with a baseball that hit him on the nose.[10]

Later, he attended the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) and graduated in 1926 as the senior class Salutatorian.[1][14][15] At Penn, he was initiated into Theta Delta Chi, and he also served as president of the Phi Deuteron Charge.[1] Upon his graduation from the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science his father gave him a cabin cruiser that slept eight.[16] He was also Junior and Senior class president.[10] O'Malley originally enrolled at Columbia University in New York City for law school, but after his family lost their money in the Wall Street Crash of 1929, he switched from Columbia Law School to night school at Fordham University.[17] Edwin O'Malley's dry goods business was failing and Walter had to help run the business.[18]

Personal

 
Peter O'Malley, Walter O'Malley's son, succeeded his father as principal owner of the Dodgers until he sold the team in 1998.

On September 5, 1931, he married Katherine Elizabeth "Kay" Hanson (1907–79), whom he had dated since high school, at Saint Malachy's Roman Catholic Church in Manhattan.[19] They had two children: Therese O'Malley Seidler (born 1933)[20][21] and Peter O'Malley (born 1937).[22] Kay had been diagnosed with laryngeal cancer in 1927 before the engagement and had to have her larynx removed. She was unable to speak above a whisper the rest of her life.[1][23] Edwin O'Malley encouraged Walter to break off his engagement, and after Walter refused his parents did not attend the wedding.[11] O'Malley was a smoker, who golfed occasionally, but more commonly gardened for recreation.[24] In 1944, he remodelled his parents' summer house in Amityville, New York and relocated his family there from Brooklyn.[24] The house was next door to the house Kay had grown up and her parents lived next door.[24]

As a family man, he attended church regularly, attended Peter's football games at LaSalle Academy, chaperoned his daughter's dances. On summer weekends he took the family sailing on his boat, which was named Dodger.[25]

Pre-baseball career

After he completed his law degree in 1930 at Fordham Law, he worked as an assistant engineer for the New York City Subway.[17] After earning his law degree he needed to obtain a clerkship, but it was during the depression and no one could afford to hire him. He allowed a struggling lawyer to use space in his office and paid for his own clerkship.[26] After working for the Subway, he worked for Thomas F. Riley, who owned the Riley Drilling Company, and they formed the partnership of Riley and O'Malley. With the help of Edwin O'Malley's political connections, Walter's company received contracts from the New York Telephone Company and the New York City Board of Education to perform geological surveys.[17] Subsequently, Walter started the Walter F. O'Malley Engineering Company and published the Subcontractors Register with his uncle, Joseph O'Malley (1893–1985).[1]

Walter eventually concentrated on the field of law, starting with work on wills and deeds.[10] By 1933, he was senior partner in a 20-man Midtown Manhattan law firm.[26] He developed the business habits of smoking cigars and of answering questions only after taking two puffs.[10] During the Great Depression, O'Malley represented bankrupt companies and enriched himself, while building his thriving law practice.[16] He invested wisely in firms such as the Long Island Rail Road, Brooklyn Borough Gas Company, the New York Subways Advertising Company, a building materials firm, a beer firm and some hotels. His success begot both influence and attention. The Brooklyn Democratic Machine powers such as judge Henry Ughetta and Brooklyn Trust Company president George Vincent McLaughlin were among those who noticed the rising O'Malley.[16]

Dodgers

 
The extent of O'Malley's role in helping Branch Rickey sign Jackie Robinson (pictured) is a matter of some dispute.

McLaughlin had been New York City Police Commissioner in 1926, knew O'Malley's father, and had attended Philadelphia Athletics games with O'Malley when O'Malley was still at the University of Pennsylvania.[26] McLaughlin hired O'Malley to administer mortgage foreclosures against failing businesses for the Trust Company. O'Malley earned McLaughlin's confidence by acting in numerous capacities including bodyguard, valet, chauffeur, adopted son, confidant and right-hand man.[16] The trust company owned the estate of Charles Ebbets, who had died in 1925 and owned half of the Brooklyn Dodgers.[27] It was 1933 when Walter again met George V. McLaughlin, president of the Brooklyn Trust Company.[1] O'Malley was chosen to protect the company's financial interests in the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1933.[28] O'Malley also served as designated driver for the hard drinking McLaughlin.[29] It was through McLaughlin that Walter was brought into the financial arrangements for Ebbets Field in 1940.[1] In 1942, when Larry MacPhail resigned as general manager to serve in the United States Army as a lieutenant colonel,[10] O'Malley was appointed the attorney for the Dodgers, and he obtained a minority ownership interest on November 1, 1944.[28][30] He purchased 25% as did Branch Rickey and John L. Smith (president of Pfizer Chemical),[31] while the heirs of Stephen McKeever retained the final quarter.[32] In 1943, he replaced Wendell Willkie as chief legal counsel.[10][12] Branch Rickey, who had built the St. Louis Cardinals into champions, replaced MacPhail, and O'Malley began to accumulate stock in the Dodgers.[10]

 
Branch Rickey, the father of the modern farm system and the key figure in signing Jackie Robinson, co-owned the Dodgers in the 1940s, before O'Malley squeezed him out of the organization.

Rickey was a teetotaler, while O'Malley enjoyed alcoholic beverages and tobacco.[10] As O'Malley became more involved in affairs, he became critical of Rickey, the highest-paid individual in baseball, counting salary, attendance bonuses, and player contract sales commissions.[12] O'Malley and Rickey had very different backgrounds and philosophies.[12] It was O'Malley who put pressure on Rickey to fire manager Leo Durocher, who O'Malley felt was a drain on attendance.[33] In board of directors meetings, O'Malley also opposed Rickey's extravagances.[34] When he was with his political friends, he made fun of Rickey at every chance.[35] Daily News columnist Jimmy Powers would deride Rickey for selling off players and for general miserliness.[35] When Rickey asked O'Malley, the team lawyer, if he should sue, O'Malley said no. Powers' campaign became so public that after the 1946 season Rickey gave each player a new Studebaker, which gave O'Malley, a Dodgers shareholder, reason to speak ill of Rickey in the press.[35][36] It got to the point where everything Rickey did was something O'Malley derided: O'Malley thought Rickey's construction of the state of the art Vero Beach spring training facility, known as Dodgertown, was extravagant; he thought Rickey's investment in the Brooklyn Dodgers of the All-America Football Conference was questionable; he fought Rickey on the team's beer sponsor; and he demanded that players return their 1947 World Series rings before receiving the new ones Rickey ordered.[37] As team lawyer, O'Malley had a role in breaking the racial barrier as well. In particular, he had a significant role in Rickey's top-secret search for suitable ballplayers to break the color barrier and then later he had a role in assessing the ongoing legal risks to the franchise.[12] Other accounts, however, suggest that he played a lesser role in Robinson's signing.

Control

When co-owner Smith died in July 1950, O'Malley convinced his widow to turn over control of the shares to the Brooklyn Trust Company, which O'Malley controlled as chief legal counsel. Rickey's contract as general manager was set to expire on October 28, 1950. Rickey's Dodgers stock was held on margin and he had fully leveraged his life insurance policy. O'Malley lowballed Rickey with an offer of $346,000 (the purchase price). Rickey demanded $1 million ($11,262,794 today).[38] O'Malley eventually pursued a complicated buyout of Rickey, who had received an outside offer from William Zeckendorf of $1 million for his interests.[39] There were varying accounts about the sincerity of the offer because Zeckendorf and Pittsburgh Pirates owner John Galbreath were fraternity brothers, but there is a lot of evidence that he had a sincere interest in acquiring the team.[40] The outside offer triggered a clause in the partnership agreement whereby the asking price of a third party had to be matched if a current owner wanted to retain control and the third party would be compensated $50,000. The canceled $50,000 check would later include Rickey's signature showing that Zeckendorf turned over the $50,000 to Rickey.[41]

O'Malley replaced Rickey with Buzzie Bavasi.[10] O'Malley became the president and chief stockholder (owner) on October 26, 1950.[30] O'Malley assumed the title of president from Rickey, who was a trailblazer in baseball both for instituting the farm system and for breaking the racial barrier with Jackie Robinson.[42] According to pitcher Clem Labine and noted author Roger Kahn, the first thing O'Malley did when he took over was assign Bavasi to enamor himself to Dick Young of the Daily News so that O'Malley would not have to worry about ever getting bad press from the Daily News.[43]

After the ownership transfer, O'Malley's rivalry with Rickey became very public. O'Malley forbade the speaking of Rickey's name in Dodgers offices with transgressors being subjected to a fine. He abolished Rickey's title of General Manager so that no front office person could perpetuate Rickey's role. In addition, when Rickey assumed the title with the Pittsburgh Pirates, O'Malley arranged for the Dodgers to omit the Pirates from their spring training schedule.[39] Nonetheless, after the transfer, the Dodgers remained successful under O'Malley: they won the National League pennants in 1952, 1953, 1955—the year of their first World Series championship—and 1956. Under O'Malley, the Dodgers were the most overtly political post World War II franchise.[44] In 1951, Brooklyn native and United States Congressman Emanuel Celler's Judiciary Committee investigated whether the reserve clause was in violation of federal anti-trust laws. Celler represented half of Brooklyn in Congress and O'Malley used the local press such as the Brooklyn Eagle to pressure Celler into backing off of the issue.[45] During the 1951 season, the Dodgers engaged former West Point varsity baseball player and U.S. Army General Douglas MacArthur to lure war veterans.[46] O'Malley attempted to entice him to take the post of Commissioner of Baseball.[47] After the 1956 season, O'Malley sold Ebbets Field to Marvin Kratter and agreed to lease the stadium for three years.[48]

Robinson had been a Rickey protege, and O'Malley did not have the same respect for Robinson that Rickey did.[49] O'Malley referred to him as "Rickey's prima donna".[50] Robinson did not like O'Malley's choice for manager, Walter Alston. Robinson liked to argue with umpires, and Alston rarely did so. Robinson derided Alston in the press.[51] In 1955, Alston played Don Hoak at third base during the exhibition season. Robinson voiced his complaints to the press.[52] Robinson did not get along with Bavasi either, and the three seasons under Alston were uncomfortable for Robinson. Robinson announced his retirement in Look magazine after the 1956 season.[53]

 
Ebbets Field, built in 1912–13, was the Dodgers' home in Brooklyn before O'Malley moved the club to Los Angeles in 1957.

The signing of Robinson brought the team international fame, making O'Malley an international baseball ambassador to celebrities such as Iraq's King Faisal II.[54] In 1954, Dodgers scout Al Campanis signed Sandy Koufax in large part for two reasons, according to a memo to O'Malley that said "No. 1, he's a Brooklyn boy. No. 2, he's Jewish." Bavasi noted that "there were many people of the Jewish faith in Brooklyn."[55] During the 1955 season, Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella had a medical billing controversy regarding neurosurgery services by Manhattan doctor Dr. Samuel Shenkman. Shenkman billed $9,500, an amount which Campanella forwarded to the Dodgers and the Dodgers refused to pay. O'Malley felt the doctor was overcharging: "It appears that [Dr. Shenkman] thought he was operating on Roy's bankroll..."[56] The Dodgers had convinced Campanella to have the surgery after enduring a slump in 1954 following MVP seasons in 1951 and 1953. The surgery was intended to restore complete use of his hand.[57]

Despite having won the National League pennants in 1947, 1949, 1952 and 1953, they lost to the New York Yankees in the World Series each time, which frustrated O'Malley and all Dodgers fans.[58] In 1955, the team won the World Series for the first time in their history. However, attendance declined from a peak of 1.7 million in 1946 and 1947 to just over one million per year in the mid-1950s. With the advent of the affordable automobile and post-war prosperity, Brooklyn's formerly heterogeneous, middle-class fan base for the Dodgers began to splinter.[59] A large white flight took place, and Ebbets Field's shabby condition and lack of parking spaces led to the loss of fans who relocated to Long Island.[60]

 
Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, shown here, was bought by O'Malley in 1956 in order to secure the rights to the Los Angeles market for the Dodgers.

O'Malley tried to raise money and get the political backing to build a new ballpark elsewhere in Brooklyn. The one person whose backing he needed was Robert Moses, a powerful figure who influenced development in New York through the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority. O'Malley envisioned a domed stadium near the Long Island Rail Road station on Brooklyn's west end,[10] and even invited R. Buckminster Fuller to design the structure; Fuller, in conjunction with graduate students from Princeton University, constructed a model of the "Dodgers' Dome".[61] Moses did not like O'Malley and derided O'Malley's pro-Brooklyn and pro-Irish sentiments in the press.[62] O'Malley wanted to build a new Brooklyn Dodgers stadium at Flatbush and Atlantic Avenue, but Moses wanted the Dodgers to move to Queens and play in Flushing Meadows Park (the location where the New York Mets play today). Although O'Malley lined up bipartisan political support including New York Governor W. Averell Harriman, Moses blocked the sale of the land necessary for the planned new Brooklyn stadium.[63] O'Malley bought the Chicago Cubs minor league baseball team, the Los Angeles Angels, as well as their stadium, Wrigley Field, from Philip Wrigley in 1956 at the winter baseball meetings, and during spring training, Los Angeles Mayor Norris Poulson traveled to the Dodgers' training camp at Vero Beach, Florida in an attempt to lure the franchise.[10][64] O'Malley met with Moses at Moses' home after purchasing the Angels to discuss final offers from New York to no avail.[65] O'Malley noticed the great success of the Milwaukee Braves after their move from Boston in 1953.[10] They had a 43,000-seat stadium, parking for 10,000 cars and an arrangement for no city or real estate taxes.[66] He also felt the limitations of the small landlocked Ebbets Field, which held less than 32,111 fans and accommodated only 700 parking spaces.[10][28][30] Attendance between 1950 and 1957 was between 1,020,000 in 1954 and 1,280,000 in 1951.[66] O'Malley had sold the ballpark to Marvin Kratter for about $2,000,000 on October 31, 1956.[67] The deal included a five-year lease that allowed the Dodgers to move out as soon as the proposed domed stadium in Downtown Brooklyn was ready for business.[68]

Ultimately, O'Malley decided to leave Brooklyn for Los Angeles in 1957.[1][2][69] Robert Moses authority Robert Caro and other contemporaneous sports historians felt that Moses was more to blame for the Dodgers' leaving.[70][71][72] The 1956 season had marked the end of the Jackie Robinson era in which the Dodgers won six pennants, lost two pennant series and finished as low as third only once in ten years, and the new era would begin in a new home.[10] During the 1957 season, he negotiated a deal for the Dodgers to be viewed on an early pay TV network by the Skiatron Corporation subject to the approval of other teams and owners. The rest of baseball was not ready for the risks of such a venture and it did not pan out at the time.[73]

Move to Los Angeles

O'Malley is considered by baseball experts to be "perhaps the most influential owner of baseball's early expansion era."[74] Following the 1957 Major League Baseball season, he moved the Dodgers to Los Angeles, and New York's Dodgers fans felt betrayed.[5] O'Malley was also influential in getting the rival New York Giants to move west to become the San Francisco Giants, thus preserving the two teams' longstanding rivalry. He needed another team to go with him, for had he moved out west alone, the St. Louis Cardinals—1,600 mi (2,575.0 km) away—[75][76] would have been the closest National League team. The joint move made West Coast road trips more economical for visiting teams.[10][28] O'Malley invited San Francisco Mayor George Christopher to New York to meet with Giants owner Horace Stoneham.[10] Stoneham was considering moving the Giants to Minnesota,[77] but he was convinced to join O'Malley on the West Coast at the end of the 1957 campaign. Since the meetings occurred during the 1957 season and against the wishes of Commissioner of Baseball Ford Frick, there was media gamesmanship.[78] On April 15, 1958, the Dodgers and Giants ushered in West Coast baseball at Seals Stadium.[79][80] When O'Malley moved the Dodgers from Brooklyn the story transcended the world of sport and he found himself on the cover of Time.[81] The cover art for the issue was created by sports cartoonist Willard Mullin,[82] long noted for his caricature of the "Brooklyn Bum" that personified the team. The dual moves broke the hearts of New York's National League fans but ultimately were successful for both franchises – and for Major League Baseball as a whole.[5][83] In fact, the move was an immediate success as well since the Dodgers set a major league single-game attendance record in their first home appearance with 78,672 fans.[10] During the first year after the move, the Dodgers made $500,000 more profit than any other Major League Baseball team and paid off all of their debts.[72] This did not assuage many Dodgers fans in New York; many years later, newspaper writers Pete Hamill and Jack Newfield each challenged the other to choose the three worst people of the 20th century. Independently, they produced identical lists: "Hitler, Stalin, O'Malley."[84]

In the years following the move of the New York clubs, Major League Baseball added two completely new teams in California, as well as two in Texas, two in Canada, two in Florida, one each in the Twin Cities, Denver, and Phoenix, and two teams at separate times in Seattle. In addition, the Athletics, who had already moved to Kansas City, moved to Oakland; Kansas City would get a new team the year after the A's moved to Oakland. The National League returned to New York with the introduction of the New York Mets four years after the Dodgers and Giants had departed for California.

When he made the decision to relocate in October 1957 to Los Angeles, O'Malley did not have an established location for where the Dodgers would play in 1958. O'Malley worked out a deal with Los Angeles County and the state of California to rent the Los Angeles Coliseum for $200,000 per year for 1958 and 1959, plus 10% of the ticket revenue, and all concession profits for the first nine games of each season following an opening series with the San Francisco Giants.[85] The Dodgers temporarily took up residence while they awaited the completion of 56,000-seat capacity Dodger Stadium, built for $23 million. The Dodgers were soon drawing more than two million fans a year. They remained successful on the field as well, winning the World Series in 1959, 1963, and 1965. The Los Angeles Angels also played in Dodger Stadium from 1962 to 1965.[86]

Controversy regarding land deal with city of Los Angeles

 
Dodger Stadium (May 2007)

The dealings with the city of Los Angeles after the Vero Beach meeting raised questions. The initial offer of 500 acres (2.02 km2) and tax exemptions was determined to be illegal and improper.[64] The minor league San Diego Padres owners led an opposition effort to stop the transfer of 352 acres (1.42 km2) in Chavez Ravine via a referendum.[10] O'Malley engaged in an extensive marketing and media campaign that helped the referendum pass, but there were extensive subsequent taxpayer lawsuits.[87] The plaintiffs initially prevailed in some of these suits.[88] Finally, during the middle of the 1959 season, the Los Angeles City Council was able to approve the final parcel for the stadium.[89] One legendary negotiation with the city over concession revenue is that in O'Malley's move to the Coliseum he agreed to accept concession revenues from only half the team's games—the home half.[90] The land was eventually transferred by the Los Angeles city government to O'Malley by an agreement which required O'Malley and the Dodgers to design, build, privately finance and maintain a 50,000-seat stadium; develop a youth recreation center on the land. O'Malley was to pay $500,000 initially, plus annual payments of $60,000 for 20 years; and pay $345,000 in property taxes starting in 1962, putting the land on the tax rolls. Also, the Dodgers would transfer team-owned Wrigley Field, then appraised at $2.2 million, to the city. The city exchanged "300 acres, more or less, in the Chavez Ravine area", while L.A. County Supervisors unanimously agreed to provide $2.74 million for access roads. In addition, the Dodgers also had to pay $450,000 for territorial rights to the Pacific Coast League, whose Los Angeles Angels and Hollywood Stars suspended play.[91]

Management philosophy

 
 
Vin Scully and Tommy Lasorda were long time O'Malley employees.

His son, Peter O'Malley, described his management style as follows: "As president, the way he ran the business, he believed in stability and very little turnover. It was the strength of the organization. The management team worked as well as the team on the field."[7] This is evidenced in many ways, including the long tenure of both Walter Alston and Tommy Lasorda as Dodgers managers and Vin Scully, the broadcast voice of the Dodgers. Alston was repeatedly rehired to consecutive one-year contracts from 1954–1976 until he retired. Then Lasorda, who had been a long-time employee in as a coach and minor league baseball manager, took over as manager for another 20 years.[28] Scully was the voice of the Dodgers for 67 seasons until his retirement in 2016, the infield of first baseman Steve Garvey, second baseman Davey Lopes, shortstop Bill Russell and third baseman Ron Cey was the longest-running intact infield in major league history.[28] Furthermore, O'Malley is said to have kept Bowie Kuhn in office as the Commissioner of Baseball until O'Malley's death.[28] O'Malley rewarded loyal employee Bavasi by allowing the San Diego Padres franchise to establish an expansion team with Bavasi as president in Southern California.[92] Alston said O'Malley convinced him that when he signed his first one-year contract it could be a lifetime job by pointing out that "signing one-year contracts can mean a lifetime job, if you keep signing enough of them."[93] Although O'Malley had good stories of loyalty with some employees, there were several stories of O'Malley's frugality.[94]

Although O'Malley was loyal to his employees, he did not take kindly to demands from employees such as manager Charlie Dressen's request for a three-year contract. When Dressen requested a multi-year contract after losing a second consecutive World Series to the Yankees, he was released.[95] Then when he hired Walter Alston as a replacement, he made it clear to the press that Alston would only receive one-year contracts and would not attempt to show up the management in the national media.[96] There were rumors that Alston even signed blank contracts in the fall and showed up in the spring to find out his salary.[96] O'Malley also did not support those who remained friends with Rickey, which was a large factor in Red Barber quitting as Dodgers announcer.[97]

O'Malley also engaged in several high-profile salary disputes with his players. In 1960, he refused to pay right fielder Carl Furillo for the 1960 season after he was released early due to injury, which led Furillo to sue the team. Because of this, O'Malley allegedly blacklisted Furillo from any job in baseball.[98] In 1966, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, who employed the same lawyer, engaged in a joint contract holdout.[99] They had earned $70,000 and $75,000 respectively during the 1965 season,[99] during which the Dodgers won the World Series,[100] and O'Malley offered $105,000 and $95,000 for the 1966 season.[99] At the time, Willie Mays was Major League Baseball's highest paid player at $125,000 per year and multi-year contracts were very unusual.[100] They demanded three-year $167,000 per year contracts and after holding out until less than two weeks before Opening Day, they received one-year $130,000 and $115,000 contracts respectively.[99]

O'Malley liked clubhouse turmoil only slightly less than free agent disloyalty.[101] When he traded Maury Wills to the Pittsburgh Pirates following consecutive National League pennants, it was attributed to Wills having quit during the middle of the Dodgers' post-season tour of Japan.[102]

Retirement from presidency

On March 17, 1970, Walter turned over the presidency of the team to his son Peter, remaining as Chairman until his death in 1979. Peter O'Malley held the position until 1998 when the team was sold to Rupert Murdoch.[103][104] The team remained successful on the field under Peter and won the World Series in both 1981 and 1988. They remained successful at the box office as well: by the end of the 1980s, they had not only became the first franchise to draw three million fans, but also they had done it more times than all other franchises combined.[28] During the 1970s, O'Malley was credited for stagemanaging Lasorda's career. Lasorda become known for his die-hard Dodgers clichés, such as describing the color of his blood by saying "Cut me, I bleed Dodger blue."[105] It was even said that the reciprocal loyalty and respect between Lasorda and O'Malley was so high that O'Malley gave Lasorda a tombstone as a gift that had an inscription that read "TOMMY LASORDA, A DODGER".[101]

The McKeevers held their 25% interest in the Dodgers until 1975 when Dearie McKeever died. They sold out to O'Malley making him the sole owner of the Dodgers.[106] Also during 1975, the Dodgers franchise was embroiled in the Andy Messersmith controversy that led to the Seitz decision, which struck down baseball's reserve clause and opened up the sport to modern free agency. Messersmith and the Dodgers were unable to come to contract terms in part because of a then unheard of no-trade clause demand, and Messersmith pitched the entire season without a contract under the reserve clause, which stated that team has the right to extend the prior years contract one year if a player does not agree to terms. Teams had previously had the right to continue such re-signings year after year.[8] This gave owners the right to issue "take it or leave it" offers to the players.[8] Although the Dodgers and Messersmith nearly hammered out a deal monetarily, they could not come to terms on the no-trade clause. Supposedly Major League Baseball instructed the Dodgers not to surrender such a clause for the good of the game.[8] The Seitz decision limited the re-signings to one year, and since Messersmith performed quite well in 1975, winning a Gold Glove Award and leading the National League in complete games and shutouts, while finishing second in earned run average, he was a valuable talent. He earned offers from six different teams.[8] Messersmith became the first free agent, except for Catfish Hunter who had been declared a 1974 free agent by breach of contract. O'Malley felt the price wars would be the downfall of baseball because the fans only have so much money.[8] The scenario led to an eighteen-day lockout during spring training in 1976 over the prospect of dozens of players playing becoming free agents and the inability to redesign the reserve clause.[8]

Death and legacy

O'Malley was diagnosed with cancer, and he sought treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He died of congestive heart failure on August 9, 1979, at the Methodist Hospital in Rochester.[1][107] O'Malley had never returned to Brooklyn before his death. He was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.[13][107] His wife Kay had died a few weeks earlier.[108]

Although O'Malley had later retired and had relinquished control of the Dodgers before his death, he is still hated in Brooklyn, not only for moving the Dodgers, but also for forcing out legendary general manager Branch Rickey from the team in 1950. At one time, Brooklyn Dodgers fans hated O'Malley so much that he was routinely mentioned along with Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin as the most villainous 20th-century men;[28] one version of a joke went, "If a Brooklyn man finds himself in a room with Hitler, Stalin, and O'Malley, but has only two bullets, what does he do? Shoot O'Malley twice."[83][109] Some still consider him among the worst three men of the 20th century.[110] Much of the animosity was not just for moving the team, but robbing Brooklyn of the sense of a cohesive cultural and social identity that a major sports franchise provides.[5][60] Despite the long-standing animosity of Brooklyn fans and their supporters in baseball, O'Malley was posthumously inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008 after having been elected by the Veterans Committee with the minimum number of votes necessary for induction.[7]

His legacy is that of changing the mindset of a league that had the St. Louis Cardinals as its southernmost and westernmost team (the Philadelphia Athletics of the American League had moved to Kansas City just three years prior). Tommy Lasorda said upon hearing of his election to the Hall, "He's a pioneer. He made a tremendous change in the game, opening up the West Coast to Major League Baseball."[7] When asked how he wanted to be remembered, O'Malley said, "for planting a tree."[7] The tree provided the branches to open up the West Coast to baseball, but O'Malley's son remembers his father's 28 years on Major League Baseball's executive council as service that "was instrumental in the early stages of the game's international growth."[7] His contributions to baseball were widely recognized even before his Hall of Fame election: he was ranked 8th and 11th respectively by ABC Sports and The Sporting News in their lists of the most influential sports figures of the 20th century.[5]

On July 7, 2009, Walter O'Malley was inducted into the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame along with two other Dodger icons: slugger Steve Garvey and announcer Vin Scully.[111] "Over the years, we have learned more of his decade-long quest to build a new stadium in Brooklyn and about how those efforts were thwarted by city officials. Perhaps this induction will inspire fans who themselves started new lives outside the borough to reconsider their thoughts about Walter O'Malley", said John Mooney, curator of the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame. "He privately built one of baseball's more beautiful ballparks, Dodger Stadium, and set attendance records annually. While New York is the home of the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame, it seeks to honor inductees whose impact was and is national."

O'Malley's detractors say that he was not a visionary for taking baseball west. They say the game was naturally heading toward geographical expansion and O'Malley was just an opportunist. Rather than truly being a leader, these detractors say his leadership was a manifestation of making the most money.[112]

Popular culture

O'Malley was mentioned several times in Danny Kaye's 1962 song tribute The D-O-D-G-E-R-S Song (Oh, Really? No, O'Malley!), which spins a tale of a fantasy game between the Dodgers and the Giants. At one point, the umpire's call goes against the home team:

Down in the dugout, Alston glowers
Up in the booth, Vin Scully frowns;
Out in the stands, O'Malley grins...
Attendance 50,000!
So ....what does O'Malley do? CHARGE!!

O'Malley was featured prominently in the HBO documentary film Brooklyn Dodgers: Ghosts of Flatbush, which chronicled his executive management of the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers. The documentary focuses on the post World War II glory years of the franchise and presents a compelling case that O'Malley truly wanted to keep the Dodgers in Brooklyn in a stadium near the Long Island Rail Road's Atlantic Terminal, but he was unable to get the proper support from Moses.[109]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Walter O'Malley Biography: Early Years". O'Malley Seidler Partners, LLC. from the original on March 26, 2007. Retrieved February 14, 2007. Walter Francis O'Malley, son of Edwin Joseph and Alma Feltner O'Malley, was born in the Bronx, New York on October 9, 1903. ...
  2. ^ a b "Baseball Club Holds Edge in Chavez Ravine Test". The New York Times. June 4, 1958. The proposal to give the Dodgers a 300-acre baseball stadium site in Chavez Ravine appeared to be winning in Los Angeles' municipal election tonight.
  3. ^ Zimbalist, Andrew (January 12, 1997). . U.S. News & World Report. U.S. News & World Report. Archived from the original on May 24, 2011. Retrieved April 26, 2008.
  4. ^ Hoffer, Richard (May 9, 1994). . Time. Archived from the original on November 13, 2007. Retrieved April 26, 2008.
  5. ^ a b c d e McGookin, Steve (September 28, 2007). . Forbes. Archived from the original on November 18, 2007. Retrieved April 26, 2008.
  6. ^ Stout, p. 334.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Gurnick, Ken (December 3, 2007). "O'Malley family rejoices in Hall election". MLB Advanced Media, L.P. from the original on December 7, 2007. Retrieved December 8, 2007.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Phillips, B.J. (April 26, 1976). . Time. Archived from the original on June 14, 2009. Retrieved April 30, 2008.
  9. ^ Wulf, Steve (January 20, 1997). . Time. Archived from the original on January 13, 2005. Retrieved April 26, 2008.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t . Time. April 28, 1958. Archived from the original on January 14, 2009. Retrieved April 28, 2008.
  11. ^ a b c d Shapiro, p. 22.
  12. ^ a b c d e Dorinson, Joseph and Joram Warmund, ed. (October 1998). Jackie Robinson: Race, Sports, and the American Dream. M.E. Sharpe. p. 166. ISBN 0-7656-0317-9.
  13. ^ a b "Walter F. O'Malley, Leader of Dodgers' Move to Los Angeles, Dies at 75". The New York Times. August 10, 1979. from the original on July 23, 2018. Retrieved February 14, 2007. Walter F. O'Malley, the man who took the Dodgers out of Brooklyn and opened the West Coast to major league baseball, died yesterday in Rochester, Minnesota. He was 75 years old. The son of a commissioner of public markets, he attended Jamaica High School in Queens and Culver Military Academy on Indiana, where he played on the baseball team until a broken nose finished his playing career. ...
  14. ^ Klitzman, Zach, "Ruth, Koufax, Aaron ... O'Malley: Long-time Dodgers owner becomes first Penn alum to get Cooperstown invite" 2018-08-13 at the Wayback Machine, The Daily Pennsylvanian, January 17, 2008
  15. ^ "A Pioneer Owner (and Spoon Man) in the Hall of Fame" 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, University of Pennsylvania Alumni Profiles, The Pennsylvania Gazette, Sept/October 2008
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  17. ^ a b c Boxerman, Burton A. (2003). Ebbets to Veeck to Busch: Eight Owners Who Shaped Baseball. ISBN 0-7864-1562-2. from the original on 2021-11-10. Retrieved 2020-12-05. ... the Board of Education and the New York Telephone Company. After the partnership dissolved, Walter O'Malley started WF O'Malley Engineering Company. ...
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Further reading

  • Dorinson, Joseph and Joram Warmund, ed. (October 1998). Jackie Robinson: Race, Sports, and the American Dream. M.E. Sharpe. pp. 166–168. ISBN 0-7656-0317-9., accessed online at google books on 2008-01-24
  • Golenbock, Peter (1984). Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 0-399-12846-8.
  • Marzano, Rudy (2005). The Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1940s: How Robinson, MacPhail, Reiser and Rickey Changed Baseball. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-1987-3.
  • McCue, Andy (2014). Mover and Shaker: Walter O'Malley, the Dodgers, and Baseball's Westward Expansion. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-80-324508-2.
  • Murphy, Robert (2009). After Many a Summer: The Passing of the Giants and Dodgers and a Golden Age in New York Baseball. New York: Union Square Press. ISBN 978-1-40-276068-6.
  • Prince, Carl E. (1996). Brooklyn's Dodgers: The Bums, The Borough and the Best of Baseball 1947–1957. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509927-3.
  • Shapiro, Michael (2003). The Last Good Season: Brooklyn, the Dodgers, and Their Final Penant Race Together. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-50152-8.
  • Stout, Glenn (Richard A. Johnson photos and editing), The Dodgers: 120 Years of Dodgers Baseball, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004, Boston/New York, ISBN 0-618-21355-4.

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Walter Francis O'Malley.
Preceded by President of the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers
1950–1970 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
none
 Chairman of the Los Angeles Dodgers
1970–1979 		Succeeded by

April 10, 2023
walter, malley, walter, francis, malley, october, 1903, august, 1979, american, sports, executive, owned, brooklyn, angeles, dodgers, team, major, league, baseball, from, 1950, 1979, 1958, owner, dodgers, brought, major, league, baseball, west, coast, moving, . Walter Francis O Malley October 9 1903 August 9 1979 was an American sports executive who owned the Brooklyn Los Angeles Dodgers team in Major League Baseball from 1950 to 1979 In 1958 as owner of the Dodgers he brought major league baseball to the West Coast moving the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles despite the Dodgers being the second most profitable team in baseball from 1946 to 1956 and coordinating the move of the New York Giants to San Francisco at a time when there were no teams west of Kansas City Missouri 1 2 For this he was long vilified by Brooklyn Dodgers fans 3 However Pro O Malley parties describe him as a visionary for the same business action 4 and many authorities cite him as one of the most influential sportsmen of the 20th century 5 Other observers say that he was not a visionary but instead a man who was in the right place at the right time and regard him as the most powerful and influential owner in baseball after moving the team 6 Walter O MalleyO Malley on the cover of Time magazine April 28 1958 Born 1903 10 09 October 9 1903Bronx New York U S DiedAugust 9 1979 1979 08 09 aged 75 Rochester Minnesota U S Resting placeHoly Cross CemeteryEducationCulver AcademyUniversity of PennsylvaniaColumbia UniversityFordham UniversityOccupationOwner of Brooklyn Los Angeles DodgersKnown forMoving the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los AngelesSpouseKatherine Elizabeth Hanson m 1931 died 1979 wbr Children2 including Peter O MalleyParentEdwin Joseph O MalleyRelativesPeter Seidler grandson Websitewalteromalley wbr comO Malley was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame for his contributions to and influence on the game of baseball in 2008 O Malley s father Edwin Joseph O Malley was politically connected Walter a University of Pennsylvania salutatorian went on to obtain a Juris Doctor and he used the combination of his family connections his personal contacts and both his educational and vocational skills to rise to prominence First he became an entrepreneur involved in public works contracting and then he became an executive with the Dodgers He progressed from being a team lawyer to being both the Dodgers owner and president and he eventually made the business decision to relocate the Dodgers franchise Although he moved the franchise O Malley is known as a businessman whose major philosophy was stability through loyalty to and from his employees 7 O Malley ceded the team presidency to his son Peter in 1970 but retained the titles of owner and chairman of the Dodgers until his death in 1979 During the 1975 season the Dodgers inability to negotiate a contract with Andy Messersmith led to the Seitz decision which limited the baseball reserve clause and paved the way for modern free agency 8 He bequeathed the team to his children Peter O Malley and Therese O Malley Seidler upon his death in 1979 9 Contents 1 Early years 2 Personal 3 Pre baseball career 4 Dodgers 4 1 Control 4 2 Move to Los Angeles 4 3 Controversy regarding land deal with city of Los Angeles 4 4 Management philosophy 4 5 Retirement from presidency 5 Death and legacy 6 Popular culture 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External linksEarly years Edit Edwin O Malley circa 1905 Walter O Malley was the only child of Edwin Joseph O Malley 1881 1953 who worked as a cotton goods salesman in the Bronx in 1903 Edwin O Malley later became the Commissioner of Public Markets for New York City Walter s mother was Alma Feltner 1882 1940 10 O Malley grew up as a Bronx born New York Giants fan 10 He frequently attended Giants games at the Polo Grounds with his uncle Clarence 11 O Malley was a Boy Scout who rose to the rank of Star Scout 11 O Malley s photo from the 1922 Culver yearbook O Malley attended Jamaica High School in Queens from 1918 to 1920 and then the Culver Academy the eventual high school alma mater of future New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner 12 in Indiana 13 He managed both the baseball and tennis teams served on the executive staff of the student newspaper was a member of the Hospital Visitation Committee as well as the debate team Bible Discipline Committee and the YMCA 11 At Culver his baseball career was ended with a baseball that hit him on the nose 10 Later he attended the University of Pennsylvania Penn and graduated in 1926 as the senior class Salutatorian 1 14 15 At Penn he was initiated into Theta Delta Chi and he also served as president of the Phi Deuteron Charge 1 Upon his graduation from the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science his father gave him a cabin cruiser that slept eight 16 He was also Junior and Senior class president 10 O Malley originally enrolled at Columbia University in New York City for law school but after his family lost their money in the Wall Street Crash of 1929 he switched from Columbia Law School to night school at Fordham University 17 Edwin O Malley s dry goods business was failing and Walter had to help run the business 18 Personal Edit Peter O Malley Walter O Malley s son succeeded his father as principal owner of the Dodgers until he sold the team in 1998 On September 5 1931 he married Katherine Elizabeth Kay Hanson 1907 79 whom he had dated since high school at Saint Malachy s Roman Catholic Church in Manhattan 19 They had two children Therese O Malley Seidler born 1933 20 21 and Peter O Malley born 1937 22 Kay had been diagnosed with laryngeal cancer in 1927 before the engagement and had to have her larynx removed She was unable to speak above a whisper the rest of her life 1 23 Edwin O Malley encouraged Walter to break off his engagement and after Walter refused his parents did not attend the wedding 11 O Malley was a smoker who golfed occasionally but more commonly gardened for recreation 24 In 1944 he remodelled his parents summer house in Amityville New York and relocated his family there from Brooklyn 24 The house was next door to the house Kay had grown up and her parents lived next door 24 As a family man he attended church regularly attended Peter s football games at LaSalle Academy chaperoned his daughter s dances On summer weekends he took the family sailing on his boat which was named Dodger 25 Pre baseball career EditAfter he completed his law degree in 1930 at Fordham Law he worked as an assistant engineer for the New York City Subway 17 After earning his law degree he needed to obtain a clerkship but it was during the depression and no one could afford to hire him He allowed a struggling lawyer to use space in his office and paid for his own clerkship 26 After working for the Subway he worked for Thomas F Riley who owned the Riley Drilling Company and they formed the partnership of Riley and O Malley With the help of Edwin O Malley s political connections Walter s company received contracts from the New York Telephone Company and the New York City Board of Education to perform geological surveys 17 Subsequently Walter started the Walter F O Malley Engineering Company and published the Subcontractors Register with his uncle Joseph O Malley 1893 1985 1 Walter eventually concentrated on the field of law starting with work on wills and deeds 10 By 1933 he was senior partner in a 20 man Midtown Manhattan law firm 26 He developed the business habits of smoking cigars and of answering questions only after taking two puffs 10 During the Great Depression O Malley represented bankrupt companies and enriched himself while building his thriving law practice 16 He invested wisely in firms such as the Long Island Rail Road Brooklyn Borough Gas Company the New York Subways Advertising Company a building materials firm a beer firm and some hotels His success begot both influence and attention The Brooklyn Democratic Machine powers such as judge Henry Ughetta and Brooklyn Trust Company president George Vincent McLaughlin were among those who noticed the rising O Malley 16 Dodgers Edit The extent of O Malley s role in helping Branch Rickey sign Jackie Robinson pictured is a matter of some dispute McLaughlin had been New York City Police Commissioner in 1926 knew O Malley s father and had attended Philadelphia Athletics games with O Malley when O Malley was still at the University of Pennsylvania 26 McLaughlin hired O Malley to administer mortgage foreclosures against failing businesses for the Trust Company O Malley earned McLaughlin s confidence by acting in numerous capacities including bodyguard valet chauffeur adopted son confidant and right hand man 16 The trust company owned the estate of Charles Ebbets who had died in 1925 and owned half of the Brooklyn Dodgers 27 It was 1933 when Walter again met George V McLaughlin president of the Brooklyn Trust Company 1 O Malley was chosen to protect the company s financial interests in the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1933 28 O Malley also served as designated driver for the hard drinking McLaughlin 29 It was through McLaughlin that Walter was brought into the financial arrangements for Ebbets Field in 1940 1 In 1942 when Larry MacPhail resigned as general manager to serve in the United States Army as a lieutenant colonel 10 O Malley was appointed the attorney for the Dodgers and he obtained a minority ownership interest on November 1 1944 28 30 He purchased 25 as did Branch Rickey and John L Smith president of Pfizer Chemical 31 while the heirs of Stephen McKeever retained the final quarter 32 In 1943 he replaced Wendell Willkie as chief legal counsel 10 12 Branch Rickey who had built the St Louis Cardinals into champions replaced MacPhail and O Malley began to accumulate stock in the Dodgers 10 Branch Rickey the father of the modern farm system and the key figure in signing Jackie Robinson co owned the Dodgers in the 1940s before O Malley squeezed him out of the organization Rickey was a teetotaler while O Malley enjoyed alcoholic beverages and tobacco 10 As O Malley became more involved in affairs he became critical of Rickey the highest paid individual in baseball counting salary attendance bonuses and player contract sales commissions 12 O Malley and Rickey had very different backgrounds and philosophies 12 It was O Malley who put pressure on Rickey to fire manager Leo Durocher who O Malley felt was a drain on attendance 33 In board of directors meetings O Malley also opposed Rickey s extravagances 34 When he was with his political friends he made fun of Rickey at every chance 35 Daily News columnist Jimmy Powers would deride Rickey for selling off players and for general miserliness 35 When Rickey asked O Malley the team lawyer if he should sue O Malley said no Powers campaign became so public that after the 1946 season Rickey gave each player a new Studebaker which gave O Malley a Dodgers shareholder reason to speak ill of Rickey in the press 35 36 It got to the point where everything Rickey did was something O Malley derided O Malley thought Rickey s construction of the state of the art Vero Beach spring training facility known as Dodgertown was extravagant he thought Rickey s investment in the Brooklyn Dodgers of the All America Football Conference was questionable he fought Rickey on the team s beer sponsor and he demanded that players return their 1947 World Series rings before receiving the new ones Rickey ordered 37 As team lawyer O Malley had a role in breaking the racial barrier as well In particular he had a significant role in Rickey s top secret search for suitable ballplayers to break the color barrier and then later he had a role in assessing the ongoing legal risks to the franchise 12 Other accounts however suggest that he played a lesser role in Robinson s signing Control Edit When co owner Smith died in July 1950 O Malley convinced his widow to turn over control of the shares to the Brooklyn Trust Company which O Malley controlled as chief legal counsel Rickey s contract as general manager was set to expire on October 28 1950 Rickey s Dodgers stock was held on margin and he had fully leveraged his life insurance policy O Malley lowballed Rickey with an offer of 346 000 the purchase price Rickey demanded 1 million 11 262 794 today 38 O Malley eventually pursued a complicated buyout of Rickey who had received an outside offer from William Zeckendorf of 1 million for his interests 39 There were varying accounts about the sincerity of the offer because Zeckendorf and Pittsburgh Pirates owner John Galbreath were fraternity brothers but there is a lot of evidence that he had a sincere interest in acquiring the team 40 The outside offer triggered a clause in the partnership agreement whereby the asking price of a third party had to be matched if a current owner wanted to retain control and the third party would be compensated 50 000 The canceled 50 000 check would later include Rickey s signature showing that Zeckendorf turned over the 50 000 to Rickey 41 O Malley replaced Rickey with Buzzie Bavasi 10 O Malley became the president and chief stockholder owner on October 26 1950 30 O Malley assumed the title of president from Rickey who was a trailblazer in baseball both for instituting the farm system and for breaking the racial barrier with Jackie Robinson 42 According to pitcher Clem Labine and noted author Roger Kahn the first thing O Malley did when he took over was assign Bavasi to enamor himself to Dick Young of the Daily News so that O Malley would not have to worry about ever getting bad press from the Daily News 43 After the ownership transfer O Malley s rivalry with Rickey became very public O Malley forbade the speaking of Rickey s name in Dodgers offices with transgressors being subjected to a fine He abolished Rickey s title of General Manager so that no front office person could perpetuate Rickey s role In addition when Rickey assumed the title with the Pittsburgh Pirates O Malley arranged for the Dodgers to omit the Pirates from their spring training schedule 39 Nonetheless after the transfer the Dodgers remained successful under O Malley they won the National League pennants in 1952 1953 1955 the year of their first World Series championship and 1956 Under O Malley the Dodgers were the most overtly political post World War II franchise 44 In 1951 Brooklyn native and United States Congressman Emanuel Celler s Judiciary Committee investigated whether the reserve clause was in violation of federal anti trust laws Celler represented half of Brooklyn in Congress and O Malley used the local press such as the Brooklyn Eagle to pressure Celler into backing off of the issue 45 During the 1951 season the Dodgers engaged former West Point varsity baseball player and U S Army General Douglas MacArthur to lure war veterans 46 O Malley attempted to entice him to take the post of Commissioner of Baseball 47 After the 1956 season O Malley sold Ebbets Field to Marvin Kratter and agreed to lease the stadium for three years 48 Robinson had been a Rickey protege and O Malley did not have the same respect for Robinson that Rickey did 49 O Malley referred to him as Rickey s prima donna 50 Robinson did not like O Malley s choice for manager Walter Alston Robinson liked to argue with umpires and Alston rarely did so Robinson derided Alston in the press 51 In 1955 Alston played Don Hoak at third base during the exhibition season Robinson voiced his complaints to the press 52 Robinson did not get along with Bavasi either and the three seasons under Alston were uncomfortable for Robinson Robinson announced his retirement in Look magazine after the 1956 season 53 Ebbets Field built in 1912 13 was the Dodgers home in Brooklyn before O Malley moved the club to Los Angeles in 1957 The signing of Robinson brought the team international fame making O Malley an international baseball ambassador to celebrities such as Iraq s King Faisal II 54 In 1954 Dodgers scout Al Campanis signed Sandy Koufax in large part for two reasons according to a memo to O Malley that said No 1 he s a Brooklyn boy No 2 he s Jewish Bavasi noted that there were many people of the Jewish faith in Brooklyn 55 During the 1955 season Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella had a medical billing controversy regarding neurosurgery services by Manhattan doctor Dr Samuel Shenkman Shenkman billed 9 500 an amount which Campanella forwarded to the Dodgers and the Dodgers refused to pay O Malley felt the doctor was overcharging It appears that Dr Shenkman thought he was operating on Roy s bankroll 56 The Dodgers had convinced Campanella to have the surgery after enduring a slump in 1954 following MVP seasons in 1951 and 1953 The surgery was intended to restore complete use of his hand 57 Despite having won the National League pennants in 1947 1949 1952 and 1953 they lost to the New York Yankees in the World Series each time which frustrated O Malley and all Dodgers fans 58 In 1955 the team won the World Series for the first time in their history However attendance declined from a peak of 1 7 million in 1946 and 1947 to just over one million per year in the mid 1950s With the advent of the affordable automobile and post war prosperity Brooklyn s formerly heterogeneous middle class fan base for the Dodgers began to splinter 59 A large white flight took place and Ebbets Field s shabby condition and lack of parking spaces led to the loss of fans who relocated to Long Island 60 Wrigley Field in Los Angeles shown here was bought by O Malley in 1956 in order to secure the rights to the Los Angeles market for the Dodgers O Malley tried to raise money and get the political backing to build a new ballpark elsewhere in Brooklyn The one person whose backing he needed was Robert Moses a powerful figure who influenced development in New York through the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority O Malley envisioned a domed stadium near the Long Island Rail Road station on Brooklyn s west end 10 and even invited R Buckminster Fuller to design the structure Fuller in conjunction with graduate students from Princeton University constructed a model of the Dodgers Dome 61 Moses did not like O Malley and derided O Malley s pro Brooklyn and pro Irish sentiments in the press 62 O Malley wanted to build a new Brooklyn Dodgers stadium at Flatbush and Atlantic Avenue but Moses wanted the Dodgers to move to Queens and play in Flushing Meadows Park the location where the New York Mets play today Although O Malley lined up bipartisan political support including New York Governor W Averell Harriman Moses blocked the sale of the land necessary for the planned new Brooklyn stadium 63 O Malley bought the Chicago Cubs minor league baseball team the Los Angeles Angels as well as their stadium Wrigley Field from Philip Wrigley in 1956 at the winter baseball meetings and during spring training Los Angeles Mayor Norris Poulson traveled to the Dodgers training camp at Vero Beach Florida in an attempt to lure the franchise 10 64 O Malley met with Moses at Moses home after purchasing the Angels to discuss final offers from New York to no avail 65 O Malley noticed the great success of the Milwaukee Braves after their move from Boston in 1953 10 They had a 43 000 seat stadium parking for 10 000 cars and an arrangement for no city or real estate taxes 66 He also felt the limitations of the small landlocked Ebbets Field which held less than 32 111 fans and accommodated only 700 parking spaces 10 28 30 Attendance between 1950 and 1957 was between 1 020 000 in 1954 and 1 280 000 in 1951 66 O Malley had sold the ballpark to Marvin Kratter for about 2 000 000 on October 31 1956 67 The deal included a five year lease that allowed the Dodgers to move out as soon as the proposed domed stadium in Downtown Brooklyn was ready for business 68 Ultimately O Malley decided to leave Brooklyn for Los Angeles in 1957 1 2 69 Robert Moses authority Robert Caro and other contemporaneous sports historians felt that Moses was more to blame for the Dodgers leaving 70 71 72 The 1956 season had marked the end of the Jackie Robinson era in which the Dodgers won six pennants lost two pennant series and finished as low as third only once in ten years and the new era would begin in a new home 10 During the 1957 season he negotiated a deal for the Dodgers to be viewed on an early pay TV network by the Skiatron Corporation subject to the approval of other teams and owners The rest of baseball was not ready for the risks of such a venture and it did not pan out at the time 73 Move to Los Angeles Edit O Malley is considered by baseball experts to be perhaps the most influential owner of baseball s early expansion era 74 Following the 1957 Major League Baseball season he moved the Dodgers to Los Angeles and New York s Dodgers fans felt betrayed 5 O Malley was also influential in getting the rival New York Giants to move west to become the San Francisco Giants thus preserving the two teams longstanding rivalry He needed another team to go with him for had he moved out west alone the St Louis Cardinals 1 600 mi 2 575 0 km away 75 76 would have been the closest National League team The joint move made West Coast road trips more economical for visiting teams 10 28 O Malley invited San Francisco Mayor George Christopher to New York to meet with Giants owner Horace Stoneham 10 Stoneham was considering moving the Giants to Minnesota 77 but he was convinced to join O Malley on the West Coast at the end of the 1957 campaign Since the meetings occurred during the 1957 season and against the wishes of Commissioner of Baseball Ford Frick there was media gamesmanship 78 On April 15 1958 the Dodgers and Giants ushered in West Coast baseball at Seals Stadium 79 80 When O Malley moved the Dodgers from Brooklyn the story transcended the world of sport and he found himself on the cover of Time 81 The cover art for the issue was created by sports cartoonist Willard Mullin 82 long noted for his caricature of the Brooklyn Bum that personified the team The dual moves broke the hearts of New York s National League fans but ultimately were successful for both franchises and for Major League Baseball as a whole 5 83 In fact the move was an immediate success as well since the Dodgers set a major league single game attendance record in their first home appearance with 78 672 fans 10 During the first year after the move the Dodgers made 500 000 more profit than any other Major League Baseball team and paid off all of their debts 72 This did not assuage many Dodgers fans in New York many years later newspaper writers Pete Hamill and Jack Newfield each challenged the other to choose the three worst people of the 20th century Independently they produced identical lists Hitler Stalin O Malley 84 In the years following the move of the New York clubs Major League Baseball added two completely new teams in California as well as two in Texas two in Canada two in Florida one each in the Twin Cities Denver and Phoenix and two teams at separate times in Seattle In addition the Athletics who had already moved to Kansas City moved to Oakland Kansas City would get a new team the year after the A s moved to Oakland The National League returned to New York with the introduction of the New York Mets four years after the Dodgers and Giants had departed for California When he made the decision to relocate in October 1957 to Los Angeles O Malley did not have an established location for where the Dodgers would play in 1958 O Malley worked out a deal with Los Angeles County and the state of California to rent the Los Angeles Coliseum for 200 000 per year for 1958 and 1959 plus 10 of the ticket revenue and all concession profits for the first nine games of each season following an opening series with the San Francisco Giants 85 The Dodgers temporarily took up residence while they awaited the completion of 56 000 seat capacity Dodger Stadium built for 23 million The Dodgers were soon drawing more than two million fans a year They remained successful on the field as well winning the World Series in 1959 1963 and 1965 The Los Angeles Angels also played in Dodger Stadium from 1962 to 1965 86 Controversy regarding land deal with city of Los Angeles Edit Dodger Stadium May 2007 The dealings with the city of Los Angeles after the Vero Beach meeting raised questions The initial offer of 500 acres 2 02 km2 and tax exemptions was determined to be illegal and improper 64 The minor league San Diego Padres owners led an opposition effort to stop the transfer of 352 acres 1 42 km2 in Chavez Ravine via a referendum 10 O Malley engaged in an extensive marketing and media campaign that helped the referendum pass but there were extensive subsequent taxpayer lawsuits 87 The plaintiffs initially prevailed in some of these suits 88 Finally during the middle of the 1959 season the Los Angeles City Council was able to approve the final parcel for the stadium 89 One legendary negotiation with the city over concession revenue is that in O Malley s move to the Coliseum he agreed to accept concession revenues from only half the team s games the home half 90 The land was eventually transferred by the Los Angeles city government to O Malley by an agreement which required O Malley and the Dodgers to design build privately finance and maintain a 50 000 seat stadium develop a youth recreation center on the land O Malley was to pay 500 000 initially plus annual payments of 60 000 for 20 years and pay 345 000 in property taxes starting in 1962 putting the land on the tax rolls Also the Dodgers would transfer team owned Wrigley Field then appraised at 2 2 million to the city The city exchanged 300 acres more or less in the Chavez Ravine area while L A County Supervisors unanimously agreed to provide 2 74 million for access roads In addition the Dodgers also had to pay 450 000 for territorial rights to the Pacific Coast League whose Los Angeles Angels and Hollywood Stars suspended play 91 Management philosophy Edit Vin Scully and Tommy Lasorda were long time O Malley employees His son Peter O Malley described his management style as follows As president the way he ran the business he believed in stability and very little turnover It was the strength of the organization The management team worked as well as the team on the field 7 This is evidenced in many ways including the long tenure of both Walter Alston and Tommy Lasorda as Dodgers managers and Vin Scully the broadcast voice of the Dodgers Alston was repeatedly rehired to consecutive one year contracts from 1954 1976 until he retired Then Lasorda who had been a long time employee in as a coach and minor league baseball manager took over as manager for another 20 years 28 Scully was the voice of the Dodgers for 67 seasons until his retirement in 2016 the infield of first baseman Steve Garvey second baseman Davey Lopes shortstop Bill Russell and third baseman Ron Cey was the longest running intact infield in major league history 28 Furthermore O Malley is said to have kept Bowie Kuhn in office as the Commissioner of Baseball until O Malley s death 28 O Malley rewarded loyal employee Bavasi by allowing the San Diego Padres franchise to establish an expansion team with Bavasi as president in Southern California 92 Alston said O Malley convinced him that when he signed his first one year contract it could be a lifetime job by pointing out that signing one year contracts can mean a lifetime job if you keep signing enough of them 93 Although O Malley had good stories of loyalty with some employees there were several stories of O Malley s frugality 94 Although O Malley was loyal to his employees he did not take kindly to demands from employees such as manager Charlie Dressen s request for a three year contract When Dressen requested a multi year contract after losing a second consecutive World Series to the Yankees he was released 95 Then when he hired Walter Alston as a replacement he made it clear to the press that Alston would only receive one year contracts and would not attempt to show up the management in the national media 96 There were rumors that Alston even signed blank contracts in the fall and showed up in the spring to find out his salary 96 O Malley also did not support those who remained friends with Rickey which was a large factor in Red Barber quitting as Dodgers announcer 97 O Malley also engaged in several high profile salary disputes with his players In 1960 he refused to pay right fielder Carl Furillo for the 1960 season after he was released early due to injury which led Furillo to sue the team Because of this O Malley allegedly blacklisted Furillo from any job in baseball 98 In 1966 Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale who employed the same lawyer engaged in a joint contract holdout 99 They had earned 70 000 and 75 000 respectively during the 1965 season 99 during which the Dodgers won the World Series 100 and O Malley offered 105 000 and 95 000 for the 1966 season 99 At the time Willie Mays was Major League Baseball s highest paid player at 125 000 per year and multi year contracts were very unusual 100 They demanded three year 167 000 per year contracts and after holding out until less than two weeks before Opening Day they received one year 130 000 and 115 000 contracts respectively 99 O Malley liked clubhouse turmoil only slightly less than free agent disloyalty 101 When he traded Maury Wills to the Pittsburgh Pirates following consecutive National League pennants it was attributed to Wills having quit during the middle of the Dodgers post season tour of Japan 102 Retirement from presidency Edit On March 17 1970 Walter turned over the presidency of the team to his son Peter remaining as Chairman until his death in 1979 Peter O Malley held the position until 1998 when the team was sold to Rupert Murdoch 103 104 The team remained successful on the field under Peter and won the World Series in both 1981 and 1988 They remained successful at the box office as well by the end of the 1980s they had not only became the first franchise to draw three million fans but also they had done it more times than all other franchises combined 28 During the 1970s O Malley was credited for stagemanaging Lasorda s career Lasorda become known for his die hard Dodgers cliches such as describing the color of his blood by saying Cut me I bleed Dodger blue 105 It was even said that the reciprocal loyalty and respect between Lasorda and O Malley was so high that O Malley gave Lasorda a tombstone as a gift that had an inscription that read TOMMY LASORDA A DODGER 101 The McKeevers held their 25 interest in the Dodgers until 1975 when Dearie McKeever died They sold out to O Malley making him the sole owner of the Dodgers 106 Also during 1975 the Dodgers franchise was embroiled in the Andy Messersmith controversy that led to the Seitz decision which struck down baseball s reserve clause and opened up the sport to modern free agency Messersmith and the Dodgers were unable to come to contract terms in part because of a then unheard of no trade clause demand and Messersmith pitched the entire season without a contract under the reserve clause which stated that team has the right to extend the prior years contract one year if a player does not agree to terms Teams had previously had the right to continue such re signings year after year 8 This gave owners the right to issue take it or leave it offers to the players 8 Although the Dodgers and Messersmith nearly hammered out a deal monetarily they could not come to terms on the no trade clause Supposedly Major League Baseball instructed the Dodgers not to surrender such a clause for the good of the game 8 The Seitz decision limited the re signings to one year and since Messersmith performed quite well in 1975 winning a Gold Glove Award and leading the National League in complete games and shutouts while finishing second in earned run average he was a valuable talent He earned offers from six different teams 8 Messersmith became the first free agent except for Catfish Hunter who had been declared a 1974 free agent by breach of contract O Malley felt the price wars would be the downfall of baseball because the fans only have so much money 8 The scenario led to an eighteen day lockout during spring training in 1976 over the prospect of dozens of players playing becoming free agents and the inability to redesign the reserve clause 8 Death and legacy EditO Malley was diagnosed with cancer and he sought treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota He died of congestive heart failure on August 9 1979 at the Methodist Hospital in Rochester 1 107 O Malley had never returned to Brooklyn before his death He was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City California 13 107 His wife Kay had died a few weeks earlier 108 Although O Malley had later retired and had relinquished control of the Dodgers before his death he is still hated in Brooklyn not only for moving the Dodgers but also for forcing out legendary general manager Branch Rickey from the team in 1950 At one time Brooklyn Dodgers fans hated O Malley so much that he was routinely mentioned along with Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin as the most villainous 20th century men 28 one version of a joke went If a Brooklyn man finds himself in a room with Hitler Stalin and O Malley but has only two bullets what does he do Shoot O Malley twice 83 109 Some still consider him among the worst three men of the 20th century 110 Much of the animosity was not just for moving the team but robbing Brooklyn of the sense of a cohesive cultural and social identity that a major sports franchise provides 5 60 Despite the long standing animosity of Brooklyn fans and their supporters in baseball O Malley was posthumously inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008 after having been elected by the Veterans Committee with the minimum number of votes necessary for induction 7 His legacy is that of changing the mindset of a league that had the St Louis Cardinals as its southernmost and westernmost team the Philadelphia Athletics of the American League had moved to Kansas City just three years prior Tommy Lasorda said upon hearing of his election to the Hall He s a pioneer He made a tremendous change in the game opening up the West Coast to Major League Baseball 7 When asked how he wanted to be remembered O Malley said for planting a tree 7 The tree provided the branches to open up the West Coast to baseball but O Malley s son remembers his father s 28 years on Major League Baseball s executive council as service that was instrumental in the early stages of the game s international growth 7 His contributions to baseball were widely recognized even before his Hall of Fame election he was ranked 8th and 11th respectively by ABC Sports and The Sporting News in their lists of the most influential sports figures of the 20th century 5 On July 7 2009 Walter O Malley was inducted into the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame along with two other Dodger icons slugger Steve Garvey and announcer Vin Scully 111 Over the years we have learned more of his decade long quest to build a new stadium in Brooklyn and about how those efforts were thwarted by city officials Perhaps this induction will inspire fans who themselves started new lives outside the borough to reconsider their thoughts about Walter O Malley said John Mooney curator of the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame He privately built one of baseball s more beautiful ballparks Dodger Stadium and set attendance records annually While New York is the home of the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame it seeks to honor inductees whose impact was and is national O Malley s detractors say that he was not a visionary for taking baseball west They say the game was naturally heading toward geographical expansion and O Malley was just an opportunist Rather than truly being a leader these detractors say his leadership was a manifestation of making the most money 112 Popular culture EditO Malley was mentioned several times in Danny Kaye s 1962 song tribute The D O D G E R S Song Oh Really No O Malley which spins a tale of a fantasy game between the Dodgers and the Giants At one point the umpire s call goes against the home team Down in the dugout Alston glowers Up in the booth Vin Scully frowns Out in the stands O Malley grins Attendance 50 000 So what does O Malley do CHARGE O Malley was featured prominently in the HBO documentary film Brooklyn Dodgers Ghosts of Flatbush which chronicled his executive management of the Brooklyn Los Angeles Dodgers The documentary focuses on the post World War II glory years of the franchise and presents a compelling case that O Malley truly wanted to keep the Dodgers in Brooklyn in a stadium near the Long Island Rail Road s Atlantic Terminal but he was unable to get the proper support from Moses 109 References Edit a b c d e f g h i Walter O Malley Biography Early Years O Malley Seidler Partners LLC Archived from the original on March 26 2007 Retrieved February 14 2007 Walter Francis O Malley son of Edwin Joseph and Alma Feltner O Malley was born in the Bronx New York on October 9 1903 a b Baseball Club Holds Edge in Chavez Ravine Test The New York Times June 4 1958 The proposal to give the Dodgers a 300 acre baseball stadium site in Chavez Ravine appeared to be winning in Los Angeles municipal election tonight Zimbalist Andrew January 12 1997 Not Suitable for Families U S News amp World Report U S News amp World Report Archived from the original on May 24 2011 Retrieved April 26 2008 Hoffer Richard May 9 1994 Dark Days in La La Land Time Archived from the original on November 13 2007 Retrieved April 26 2008 a b c d e McGookin Steve September 28 2007 Fifty Years Of Loss Forbes Archived from the original on November 18 2007 Retrieved April 26 2008 Stout p 334 a b c d e f Gurnick Ken December 3 2007 O Malley family rejoices in Hall election MLB Advanced Media L P Archived from the original on December 7 2007 Retrieved December 8 2007 a b c d e f g Phillips B J April 26 1976 A New Look for the Old Ball Game Time Archived from the original on June 14 2009 Retrieved April 30 2008 Wulf Steve January 20 1997 Baseball s Blue Sale Time Archived from the original on January 13 2005 Retrieved April 26 2008 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Walter in Wonderland Time April 28 1958 Archived from the original on January 14 2009 Retrieved April 28 2008 a b c d Shapiro p 22 a b c d e Dorinson Joseph and Joram Warmund ed October 1998 Jackie Robinson Race Sports and the American Dream M E Sharpe p 166 ISBN 0 7656 0317 9 a b Walter F O Malley Leader of Dodgers Move to Los Angeles Dies at 75 The New York Times August 10 1979 Archived from the original on July 23 2018 Retrieved February 14 2007 Walter F O Malley the man who took the Dodgers out of Brooklyn and opened the West Coast to major league baseball died yesterday in Rochester Minnesota He was 75 years old The son of a commissioner of public markets he attended Jamaica High School in Queens and Culver Military Academy on Indiana where he played on the baseball team until a broken nose finished his playing career Klitzman Zach Ruth Koufax Aaron O Malley Long time Dodgers owner becomes first Penn alum to get Cooperstown invite Archived 2018 08 13 at the Wayback Machine The Daily Pennsylvanian January 17 2008 A Pioneer Owner and Spoon Man in the Hall of Fame Archived 2016 03 04 at the Wayback Machine University of Pennsylvania Alumni Profiles The Pennsylvania Gazette Sept October 2008 a b c d Golenbock p 85 a b c Boxerman Burton A 2003 Ebbets to Veeck to Busch Eight Owners Who Shaped Baseball ISBN 0 7864 1562 2 Archived from the original on 2021 11 10 Retrieved 2020 12 05 the Board of Education and the New York Telephone Company After the partnership dissolved Walter O Malley started WF O Malley Engineering Company Shapiro p 23 1931 New York City Marriage Index Daughter to Mrs W F O Malley The New York Times May 24 1933 Terry O Malley Seidler Mother of 10 She Manages to Get By Los Angeles Times April 15 1981 Terry O Malley Seidler mother of 10 is a transplanted Brooklyn woman who owns half of the Dodgers She is known in the National League as the other O Malley Her brother Peter who also owns half is the president of the club and runs it Son Born to Walter O Malleys The New York Times December 25 1937 Kay O Malley 72 Wife of Dodgers Owner Dies Los Angeles Times July 14 1979 Kay O Malley wife of board chairman Walter F O Malley of the Los Angeles Dodgers died at her Hancock Park home Thursday evening of acute cardiorespiratory arrest a b c Shapiro p 20 Shapiro p 21 a b c Shapiro p 24 Shapiro p 25 a b c d e f g h i Walter O Malley baseballbiography com Retrieved January 23 2008 Under the ownership of Walter O Malley who became the National League s most influential owner the Los Angeles Dodgers became the most prosperous and most stable franchise in major league baseball Marzano pp 86 87 a b c Dodgertown O Malley Seidler Partners LLC Archived from the original on December 12 2007 Retrieved January 24 2008 Stout p 120 Golenbock p 84 Golenbock p 203 Dorinson Joseph and Joram Warmund ed October 1998 Jackie Robinson Race Sports and the American Dream M E Sharpe p 172 ISBN 0 7656 0317 9 a b c Golenbock p 105 Marzano pp 123 124 Golenbock p 249 Golenbock p 250 a b Dorinson Joseph and Joram Warmund ed October 1998 Jackie Robinson Race Sports and the American Dream M E Sharpe p 168 ISBN 0 7656 0317 9 Stout p 164 7 Golenbock p 251 O Malley Elected To Succeed Rickey As Dodger President Rickey Congratulates His Successor The New York Times October 27 1950 Branch Rickey baseball s 69 year old wizard resigned the presidency of the Brooklyn Dodgers yesterday and Walter F O Malley 47 year old Brooklyn lawyer was elected to succeed him Golenback p 302 Prince p 23 Prince p 62 63 Prince p 30 Prince p 31 Sullivan p 77 Golenbock p 270 Stout p 160 Golenbock p 373 Golenbock p 385 Golenbock p 424 Hey King Time August 25 1952 Archived from the original on October 23 2012 Retrieved April 30 2008 Mr Cool amp the Pros Time October 22 1965 Archived from the original on February 3 2011 Retrieved April 30 2008 Double Trouble Time June 6 1955 Archived from the original on December 15 2008 Retrieved April 30 2008 Prince p 64 65 September Habit Time September 19 1955 Archived from the original on December 15 2008 Retrieved April 30 2008 Kahn Roger 1972 The Boys of Summer Harper amp Row ISBN 9780060122393 pp xv xvi a b Sam Anderson September 17 2007 Exorcising the Dodgers New York Archived from the original on February 12 2008 Retrieved February 8 2008 The Dodgers Dome from Events and Discoveries Sports Illustrated October 31 1955 pp13 14 Prince p 63 Corliss Richard August 24 1992 Build It and They Will MIGHT Come Time Archived from the original on August 12 2010 Retrieved April 26 2008 a b Sullivan p 95 Sullivan p 128 a b Golenbock p 432 Real Estate Tycoon Buys Ebbets Field The Associated Press AP Wednesday October 31 1956 Retrieved March 3 2023 Time Clock November 12 1956 TIME magazine Monday Nov 12 1956 Retrieved March 3 2023 The Dodgers Settle Down at Last in Chavez Ravine The New York Times April 10 1962 Los Angeles April 9 1962 United Press International Eager citizens proud civic leaders and jubilant baseball dignitaries today joined to dedicate the Los Angeles Dodgers new multimillion dollar 56 000 seat stadium in Chavez Ravine Prince p 108 Prince p 145 a b Marzano p 203 Sullivan p 36 Veterans elect five into Hall of Fame Two managers three executives comprise Class of 2008 National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Inc December 3 2007 Archived from the original on December 4 2007 Retrieved January 19 2008 Worldwide Timetable PDF American Airlines November 1 2007 Archived from the original PDF on March 12 2007 Retrieved November 24 2007 Identifying Locations colostate edu Archived from the original on February 8 2008 Retrieved November 24 2007 Metropolitan Stadium Minnesota Twins 1961 1981 Ballpark Digest Archived from the original on May 12 2008 Retrieved May 16 2008 Scoreboard Time May 20 1957 Archived from the original on July 18 2007 Retrieved April 30 2008 Franchise Timeline 1950s sfgiants com Archived from the original on April 14 2021 Retrieved April 14 2021 1958 Welcome to the West MLB com Archived from the original on April 15 2014 Retrieved September 6 2013 Walter O Malley Time April 28 1958 Archived from the original on January 17 2008 Retrieved April 28 2008 Sporting Cartoons Time August 25 1958 Archived from the original on January 14 2009 Retrieved April 30 2008 a b Streisand Betsy August 5 2007 L A Here They Came The Dodgers move to California and the world follows U S News amp World Report Retrieved April 26 2008 Legendary journalist and author Pete Hamill a tabloid hero and teller of New York tales dead at 85 New York Daily News Archived from the original on 2020 08 05 Retrieved 2020 08 06 Scoreboard Time January 27 1958 Archived from the original on January 31 2011 Retrieved April 30 2008 Perlmutter Emanuel October 10 1957 Mayor Is Blamed For Dodger Move City Administration Scored By G O P O Malley Tie To Transit Unit Cited Authority Defends Contract The New York Times Archived from the original on July 23 2018 Retrieved February 14 2007 Ravine Roadblock Time July 28 1958 Archived from the original on July 27 2010 Retrieved April 30 2008 Relief Pitcher Time June 16 1958 Archived from the original on January 31 2011 Retrieved April 30 2008 Charge Time August 3 1959 Archived from the original on February 1 2011 Retrieved April 30 2008 Golenbock p 442 Samuelsen Rube October 16 1957 L A Council Invites Bums To Play Ball The Sporting News Off to Splitsville Time June 7 1968 Archived from the original on October 29 2010 Retrieved April 30 2008 Boss of the Babes Time August 6 1973 Archived from the original on December 14 2008 Retrieved April 30 2008 Golenbock p 437 8 Managers Are Expendable Time October 26 1953 Archived from the original on December 22 2008 Retrieved April 30 2008 a b Golenbock p 370 Golenback p 366 7 Prince p 64 a b c d Sic Transit Tradition Time April 8 1966 Archived from the original on February 22 2008 Retrieved April 30 2008 a b Double Play Time March 25 1966 Archived from the original on April 20 2010 Retrieved April 30 2008 a b Phillips B J October 24 1977 Nice Guys Always Finish Time Archived from the original on December 15 2008 Retrieved April 30 2008 Down Go the Mighty Time December 16 1966 Archived from the original on February 22 2008 Retrieved April 30 2008 Peter O Malley 30 year old son of the president Walter F O Malley was promoted today to the post of executive vice president of the Los Angeles Dodgers The New York Times December 19 1968 Baseball s Blue Sale Time January 20 1997 Archived from the original on January 13 2005 Retrieved August 21 2007 By transplanting the beloved Bums to California in 1958 the unsentimental Walter O Malley had ushered the era of Big Business into baseball last week Peter claimed that the current game s corporate scale economics were forcing him to sell The Dodgers No Longer Seeing Red Time May 23 1977 Archived from the original on October 24 2012 Retrieved May 1 2008 Marzano p 93 a b Walter O Malley Owner of Dodgers Dies at 75 Considered One of Baseball s Most Powerful Men He Brought His Team to Los Angeles in 1958 Los Angeles Times August 9 1979 Walter Francis O Malley the man who brought the Dodgers to Los Angeles died Thursday of congestive heart failure He was 75 Walter O Malley chairman of the board of the Los Angeles Dodgers was admitted to Methodist Hospital in Rochester The New York Times Associated Press February 24 1978 Archived from the original on July 23 2018 Retrieved February 14 2007 a b Starr Mark July 11 2007 The Bums Are Still a Rush Newsweek Archived from the original on October 22 2009 Retrieved April 26 2008 Coatney Mark January 7 1997 No Breaks in Brooklyn Time Archived from the original on December 22 2008 Retrieved April 26 2008 Healey Mark July 6 2009 Irish Baseball Hall Of Fame To Induct O Malley Baseball Digest Archived from the original on July 9 2009 Retrieved July 8 2009 Stout p 334 5 Further reading EditDorinson Joseph and Joram Warmund ed October 1998 Jackie Robinson Race Sports and the American Dream M E Sharpe pp 166 168 ISBN 0 7656 0317 9 accessed online at google books on 2008 01 24 Golenbock Peter 1984 Bums An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers New York G P Putnam s Sons ISBN 0 399 12846 8 Marzano Rudy 2005 The Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1940s How Robinson MacPhail Reiser and Rickey Changed Baseball Jefferson North Carolina McFarland amp Company ISBN 0 7864 1987 3 McCue Andy 2014 Mover and Shaker Walter O Malley the Dodgers and Baseball s Westward Expansion Lincoln Nebraska University of Nebraska Press ISBN 978 0 80 324508 2 Murphy Robert 2009 After Many a Summer The Passing of the Giants and Dodgers and a Golden Age in New York Baseball New York Union Square Press ISBN 978 1 40 276068 6 Prince Carl E 1996 Brooklyn s Dodgers The Bums The Borough and the Best of Baseball 1947 1957 New York Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 509927 3 Shapiro Michael 2003 The Last Good Season Brooklyn the Dodgers and Their Final Penant Race Together New York Doubleday ISBN 0 385 50152 8 Stout Glenn Richard A Johnson photos and editing The Dodgers 120 Years of Dodgers Baseball Houghton Mifflin Company 2004 Boston New York ISBN 0 618 21355 4 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Walter Francis O Malley Official website Walter O Malley at the Baseball Hall of Fame O Malley archive at Los Angeles TimesPreceded byBranch Rickey President of the Brooklyn Los Angeles Dodgers1950 1970 Succeeded byPeter O MalleyPreceded bynone Chairman of the Los Angeles Dodgers1970 1979 Succeeded byPeter O Malley Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Walter O 27Malley amp oldid 1148343823, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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