Alexander: Walter O’Malley, visionary, gets his flowers from Dodgers (2024)

LOS ANGELES — Walter O’Malley was added to Dodger Stadium’s Ring of Honor Saturday evening, alongside broadcasters Vin Scully and Jaíme Jarrin and the 12 men who have had their uniform numbers retired by the club.

My feeling? What took the club so long?

O’Malley was a seminal figure not only in Dodgers’ history but the histories of, in order, major league baseball, all of professional sports, the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco and the entire West Coast. (Maybe, even, America in total, although I’m sure people from New York will debate that to this day.)

By moving the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1958 – and not incidentally convincing Giants owner Horace Stoneham to move his team from the Polo Grounds to San Francisco, after Stoneham had considered transferring his team to Minneapolis – O’Malley maintained one of baseball’s most historic rivalries and transformed pro sports’ map forever.

Remember, when the Dodgers and Giants got to California, the Rams and 49ers were already here but the NFL was still a secondary attraction, hard as that is to believe.

Everything else that we have? That would be 22 of what would be considered big league franchises throughout California. The Dodgers and Giants paved the way. And many of them play in facilities influenced by the concepts that architect Emil Praeger used in designing Dodger Stadium

None of this, I’m sure, was part of Walter O’Malley’s thought process. His dilemma? The Dodgers had outgrown tiny Ebbets Field, and O’Malley’s desire to build a new domed stadium in Flatbush – a dome, by the way, a full decade before Houston would actually build one – was blocked at every turn by New York’s urban planning czar, Robert Moses.

(Incidentally? The reason the Houston Astros and New York Mets came into being via expansion in 1962, five years after the Dodgers and Giants left New York? Credit – or, if you prefer, blame – O’Malley.)

Yes, he transformed pro sports’ map. And yet, as his son pointed out Saturday, when Walter O’Malley sought and received approval to move the Dodgers to Los Angeles – the official announcement was Oct. 8, 1957 – he didn’t have a place to play.

“The Coliseum was an option,” Peter O’Malley said. “The Rose Bowl was an option and (the minor league) Wrigley Field was an option. But he didn’t have a handshake with any of them. And they (the league) approved the move. Somebody must have said, ‘Hey, Walter, where are you going to play?’ They believed that he could get it done. But it took courage to move here without a place to play.”

The Coliseum turned out to be the Dodgers’ temporary, if misshapen, home from 1958 through 1961, and the three games of the 1959 World Series played there set postseason attendance records that for obvious reasons (i.e., number of seats available) still stand: 92,394 for Game 3, 92,650 for Game 4 and 92,706 for Game 5.

But Walter O’Malley didn’t want to be anybody’s tenant. His concept in Brooklyn was for a stadium that would belong to the team and not the city. The same was true here.

“He wanted to own it, maintain it, secure it, etc.,” Peter O’Malley said, noting the contrast with Stoneham, who wanted a publicly built and financed park and got it in San Francisco, with Candlestick Park. And we will avoid snickering about what San Francisco wound up with all of those years, except to note that during the debate over building Dodger Stadium, there was an argument that giving O’Malley the land to build his own park was a more wasteful use of resources than having the municipality build it and pay for it.

Sounds strange now, doesn’t it?

The rebuttal then? The late Roz Wyman, who as a young city councilwoman in the 1950s was one of the point people in the city’s attempt to bring the Dodgers west, noted in a 2020 interview that “if we (the city) owned it, there’s no taxes, there was nothing (we) could get from it if we own the stadium. Their first year they paid up to half a million on something that had produced nothing. It had stayed dormant for years, the land up there.”

Imagine how much the tax bill is today.

The helicopter ride over Chavez Ravine that O’Malley took with then L.A. county supervisor Kenneth Hahn sold him on L.A. The controversy over the eviction of the last residents of the area, largely Latino, festers in some quarters to this day, though in fairness the property had been targeted for a public housing development in the early 1950s. It’s not inconceivable that O’Malley stepped into a touchy situation not of his making.

But the Dodgers had to win a referendum on the stadium, fought not on behalf of the affected residents but of those convinced that O’Malley was getting 300 acres of land in a sweetheart deal. After the opponents’ final legal appeals were shut down, construction began in September, 1959, the stadium opened April 10, 1962, and the process in between involved moving millions of cubic tons of dirt to achieve a ballpark built into a hillside.

“I remember he got off an airplane (in L.A.) and he was served” with legal papers, Peter O’Malley said. “So he got surprised. He got surprised by the referendum. He got surprised by the legal challenges … I didn’t really detect a lot of focus (on that). More than focus, it took a lot of belief that what he was doing could work and would work out well, which it has.”

Oh, has it. Let it be noted, as former Dodger pitcher and current broadcaster Orel Hershiser noted in his remarks at Saturday’s ceremony, that Dodger Stadium is more than four years older than the Oakland Coliseum, yet one is as vibrant as ever and the other is about to be abandoned.

Or consider this trend: Several major professional sports facilities in Los Angeles built since Dodger Stadium have been privately built, financed and maintained – the Forum, which opened on the final weekend in 1967, the arena originally known as Staples Center in October, 1999, SoFi Stadium in September 2020 and the Clippers’ new Intuit Dome, which opens this coming Thursday with a Bruno Mars concert.

“My dad can’t get credit for that,” Peter said. “But that is wonderful.”

jalexander@scng.com

Originally Published:

Alexander: Walter O’Malley, visionary, gets his flowers from Dodgers (2024)

FAQs

How much did the O Malleys sell the Dodgers for? ›

Five months after he revealed his intention to sell the Dodgers, O'Malley entered into serious negotiations with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. A record-breaking deal valued at $311 million was reached and eventually approved by MLB team owners in March 1998. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

How long did Walter o malley own the Dodgers? ›

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.

Who was the guy who moved the Dodgers? ›

Few men in sports history have been vilified to the extent Walter O'Malley was when he moved the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles in 1957. Over recent decades, New York City Parks Commissioner Robert Moses has begun to share some, if not all, of the blame for the Dodgers' move.

Why did O Malley move the Dodgers? ›

But owner Walter O'Malley wasn't satisfied. He wanted a new stadium: Ebbets Field was a jewel, but it was a jewel of a bygone era -- rickety and small and short on parking in the new age of automobiles -- and O'Malley had a full decade haggling with city officials over building the Bums a new home.

Does the O'Malley family still own the Dodgers? ›

Peter O'Malley (born December 12, 1937) is an American former owner (1979–98) and president (1970–98) of the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He currently is a part-owner of the San Diego Padres since 2012.

Who makes the most money on the Dodgers? ›

Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani breaks the bank. Two-way star Shohei Ohtani signed a record-setting $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers in December − by far the richest in baseball history.

Who owns Dodgers right now? ›

Front Office Directory. Mark Walter is the chairman and controlling owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and an investor, conservationist and social-justice advocate. He also leads the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation.

Who is leaving the Dodgers in 2024? ›

Roster departures

The Dodgers declined the 2024 options on pitchers Lance Lynn, Alex Reyes, Joe Kelly and Daniel Hudson making them all free agents.

How much are Dodgers worth? ›

The Los Angeles Dodgers are the second most valuable franchise in the league with a franchise value of 4.08 billion U.S. dollars. In 2021, the Dodgers generated around 565 million U.S. dollars in revenue and the team's operating loss for that season amounted to 7.9 million U.S. dollars.

Why did O Malley get suspended? ›

Sean O'Malley was suspended in 2019 for testing positive for ostarine - the same substance that Ryan Garcia is being accused of taking. O'Malley has always maintained his innocence, with USADA even acknowledging that the positive test was the result of a contaminant.

How did Dodger get their name? ›

The term "Trolley Dodgers" was attached to the Brooklyn ballclub due to the complex maze of trolley cars that weaved its way through the borough of Brooklyn. The name was then shortened to just "Dodgers." During the 1890s, other popular nicknames were Ward's Wonders, Foutz's Fillies and Hanlon's Superbas.

Why did the Dodgers really leave Brooklyn? ›

Despite the team's enduring popularity in Brooklyn—they finished first or second in NL attendance in seven of the nine seasons between 1949 and 1957—team owner Walter O'Malley moved the franchise to Los Angeles in 1958 in order to capitalize on the financial windfall that was likely to come from Major League Baseball's ...

How much were the LA Dodgers sold for? ›

On March 27, 2012, embattled owner Frank McCourt agreed to sell the Los Angeles Dodgers franchise to Guggenheim Baseball Management for a record $2 billion. It ended a months-long process as it was in November of 2011 that McCourt signed off on selling the team, Dodger Stadium and the surrounding real estate.

Who sold the most Dodgers jersey? ›

Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Shohei Ohtani owns the best-selling jersey in the majors since Opening Day, MLB announced on Friday.

How much did Fox buy the Dodgers for? ›

A media arms race ensued. O'Malley agreed a $311 million sale to Fox in September 1997. Many observers branded this a gross overpay – double the record fee for an MLB franchise – but Murdoch was a genius at projecting future value, and he foresaw the coming explosion of sports media rights.

What happened to David Price of the Dodgers? ›

Price finished his career with the Dodgers in the 2021 and 2022 seasons. He was a spot starter and reliever in L.A., but by then, he'd already cemented his legacy as one of the best pitchers of his era. For his career, Price won 157 games and compiled a 3.32 ERA.

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