Walter O'Malley Moves the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles - Case Study Example

Walter OMalley moves the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles Walter O’Malley was the president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, which was later named Los Angeles Dodgers. Los Angeles Dodgers was one of the most loved baseball teams, after the shift of the team from Brooklyn to LA. Walter Francis O’Malley was born to Edwin Joseph and Alma Feltner O’Malley on 9th October 1903, in New York. He attended Jamaica High School for two years. Later he joined the Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana. It was in Culver that he developed the interest of writing about sports and became the associate editor for the student newspaper. He tried his hand at baseball in Culver, but his career was cut short as he was hit on the nose by ball. He then graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Here, he was twice elected as the class president due to his leadership qualities and his understanding of politics. At Pennsylvania he received the prestigious ‘Spoon Man’ award and graduated as an outstanding student. Later, he earned his Law degree from Fordham University. O’Malley started his family on 5th September 1931, when he married his childhood sweetheart, Kay Hanson. Later, he had two children, daughter Terry and his son Peter. As a youngster Walter was a huge baseball fan, specifically the New York Giants. In his early career he worked as a depression era bankruptcy lawyer. George V. McLaughlin, President of the Brooklyn Trust Company and a member of Robert Moses Triborough Bridge (and later Tunnel) Authority, was a friend of Walter. The Brooklyn Trust had many mortgages on properties whose value had depreciated during the era of the depression. OMalley offered McLaughlin legal assistance in an effort to extract value from the worthless properties, through selling off collateral, mortgage foreclosures and rewriting payment terms. This led to O’Malley making a big career move permanently leaving his New York law career and joining the Dodgers as their full time Vice President and General Council. In 1944 he purchased 25 percent of the stocks of the estate along with Dodger President Branch Rickey and Andrew Smiths. The estate of Charles Ebbets, included half the stock his family owned in the Brooklyn Dodgers. OMalley and Branch Rickey together bought the Ebbets shares in 1945. Later, by 1950, OMalley had full control of the team. Although the team was doing very well the stadium had many short comings. There were problems with the space for parking, plumbing was bad, and the audiences were very uncomfortable as there was not enough space to seat the crowd. O’Malley then wanted to build a new stadium for the Dodgers. However, after a lot of effort he did not get sufficient space to build the stadium and then decided to shift the team from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. Many people had misunderstood O’Malley’s move and were upset as they did not know the whole story. Michael Shapiro said "As a child in Brooklyn I learned to hate Walter OMalley. My hatred was dark and personal, for OMalley had ruined my life...He had taken the Dodgers away to Los Angeles before I had ever gotten a chance to see them, and follow them, and love them. I was 4 when OMalley abandoned Brooklyn, and I grew up believing that had he not done this terrible thing, Brooklyn would have been a better place…OMalley was not just my villain. He was Brooklyns. He was the man whom Pete Hamill and Jack Newfield famously placed in their own triumvirate of evil, along with Hitler and Stalin. But, as I began to learn more about OMalley and about the circumstances of the Dodgers departure, I began to discover that perhaps - forgive me, Pete and Jack - Brooklyns hatred was misapplied. Could we have been hating the wrong man all these years?"1 O’Malley wrote to Capt. Emil Praeger for his ideas to either design a new ballpark in Brooklyn or renovate the present Ebbets field, in 1946. At that time, O’Malley was the General Counsel, Vice President and part owner of the Dodgers. Brooklyn Dodgers was one of the best baseball teams of the country. In the 1950s the team was doing quite well but the Ebbets Field’ condition was worsening. Due to weakening of plumbing the walkways sometime smelled like urine. Over the years more seats were added which made the ballpark very crowded and uncomfortable for the audiences. The seats were so close to the field that the fans could actually talk to the players, which was quite a distraction to the outfielders. The attendance at the Ebbets field suffered due to the condition of the field and the growing popularity of radio and the television. In 1955, which was the championship year for the Dodgers, the Ebbets field averaged only 13,400 fans per game, this was the lowest since 1945. Another factor for the drop was the racial tension caused as Jackie Robinson joined the team. Many African-Americans came to the ballpark, which led to many other families leaving as this increased discomfort among people. The New York Yankee’s attracted a huge number of fans when compared to the Brooklyn Dodger’s due to their stadium. A few of the reasons included parking space and accessibility in the Yankee stadium in South Bronx. To resolve this problem Walter O’Malley decided to build a new domed stadium for the Dodgers. He invited designer Norman Bel Geddes to design his dream. Walter O’Malley’s domed dream included foam rubber seats, retractable roof, a 7,000 car garage from which fans could enter the ballpark directly, heated in cold weather, automatic hot dog vending machines, a new lighting system, and a synthetic material in place of grass on the entire field and which could be painted any color. The project designed by Norman Bel Geddes was called “O’Malley’s Pleasure Dome”. Though, O’Malley had the funds to build his “Pleasure Dome”, he needed the appropriate place for the stadium. The land that O’Malley wanted to build the stadium on was occupied by Fort Greene Market, a Long Island Rail Road Depot, and number of other small businesses and was a part of the redevelopment plan. It was at the corner of Flatbush Avenues and Atlantic. Moses, the Slum Clearance Commissioner, had the power to determine where new housing would replace public housing, and where, parks, schools, libraries and hospitals would. Walter wrote a letter to Moses who was more than a little interested in O’Malley’s project. The letter read “It is my belief that a new ball park should be built, financed and owned by the ball club. It should occupy land on the tax roll. The only assistance I am looking for is in the assembling of a suitable plot and I hope that the mechanics of Title I (of the Housing Act of 1949) could be used if the ball park were also to be used as a parking garage”2 Moses had the power to categorize the stadium under Title I of the Housing Act of 1949, but refused O’Malley saying the stadium is not a Title I project. Moses was not willing to develop the as immense public transportation would have cut the highways and bridges system used by automobile transportation to the suburbs which Moses was trying to promote. This meant the Dodgers had to stay put, playing in the Ebbets field. The effect on Brooklyn however, would have been an improved and modern rail service, new meat market, and less traffic congestion in the redeveloped area. O’Malley was focused on convincing Moses for a solution on the matter and was trying to get the place to build the stadium there, him and other team owners received a letter from L.A. city clerk Walter C. Peterson on 23rd September 1954, expressing the City Councils desire to start a major league there. In September 1955 OMalley also received a letter from the L.A. City Council woman Rosalind Wyman putting forth her proposal to move the Brooklyn dodgers to Los Angeles. But as OMalley was focusing on a solution in Brooklyn for the stadium he sent a negative reply and did not accept the proposal. In 1955 the Dodgers had 10 victories and went 22-2. The Dodgers won 2-0, on October 4th 1955. Even with the success of Dodgers the attendance was a major concern for OMalley when compared to other clubs. Milwaukee Braves had relocated to a new municipal ballpark in 1953 and were drawing huge crowds of two million when compared to Ebbets one million. The parking space was a major problem, OMalley wanted Dodgers to remain competitive in all areas both on field and off field which required the Dodgers to build a more comfortable and spacious stadium. OMalley again turned to Moses who was the most powerful man in the city for help and asking him to sell the Atlantic-Flatbush site under Title I. Moses replied the ballpark did not fit Title I under the category of "for public purpose". He was interested in building picnic spots, roads and public housing, and he cared very little for spectator games. In January 1957, OMalley sent Moses a final warning, "Unless something is done in six months, I will have to make other arrangements. There is still a short time left before we could be forced to take an irrevocable step to commit the Dodgers elsewhere."3 OMalley persuaded Robert Moses for almost 4 years only to be disappointed, before he decided to move the Dodgers elsewhere. In his quest to remain in Brooklyn he had sold the Ebbets stadium and leased it back for 3 years to buy time for building a new stadium, as he had identified land he worked with the New York Governor-approved Brooklyn Sports Center Authority on the issue, and also paid the New York City admissions tax, which resulted in O’Malley paying of $165,000 per year. He had also exhausted all political possibilities and ideas. After the 1957 season and the refusal by the politicians for the land, without Robert Mosess support, OMalley was heart broken, disappointed and frustrated and he decided to move the Dodgers to Los Angeles. After seeing the 1956 World Series the Los Angeles officials wanted to attract a team towards Los Angeles and their major focus was on Washington Senators. At the same time OMalley expressed his interest of moving the Brooklyn Dodgers, to the Los Angeles officials and was offered a suitable piece of land to build his stadium in Chavez Ravine in L.A. The place was named after Julian Chavez a L.A. Councilman in the 1800s. OMalley knew that the rivalry between Dodgers and New York Giants was important for the business and needed to continue. So, he convinced Horace Stoneham owner of the Giants, who was also planning to relocate as his ballpark was ageing like the Ebbets stadium, to move to San Francisco the same year as the Dodgers wanted to move to Los Angeles. OMalley arranged a meeting of the San Francisco officials with Horace Stoneham, and helped him get the place in San Francisco. However, O’Malley had to face challenges in Los Angeles as well. O’Malley was offered to move to Los Angeles in 1955 by Rosalind Wyman. Rosalind was looking for something different to attract her voters in her bid for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council. Her idea was to bring Major League baseball to Los Angeles. A housing project on Chavez Ravine in L.A. had come to a halt in 1953 when Norris Poulson was elected Mayor. L.A. had to use the land it had. A proposal was made by Vincent X. Flaherty, a sports columnist, to build a baseball stadium. However, O’Malley showed no interest. Three years later Flaherty wrote to O’Malley again on the occasion of the 1956 World Series. O’Malley again rejected. Then Robert Moses refused to give the Dodgers land in Brooklyn and O’Malley accepted that. In 1957 negotiations were on to move the Dodgers to L.A. O’Malley then had to win the vote of acceptance before he got approval. The referendum on the move was a big hurdle. A few things included the delays in building the stadium and the lawsuits against the Dodgers. But in the end, the council voted 10 – 4 in favor of O’Malley and the deal was approved. In 1957 O’Malley spent a lot of time working on the possible agreement of the Dodgers move to Los Angeles. Negotiations went on in early July with the County Supervisors of Los Angeles was Harold “Chad” McClellan, former Under-Secretary of Commerce for International Affairs, who took over where earlier discussions had commenced in March and May in Vero Beach and Los Angeles respectively. The last efforts by the official in New York to keep the Dodgers failed, including Mayor Wagner’s attempt to accept Nelson Rockefeller’s offer to finance land for a new ballpark. O’Malley finally new it was time to head westward to new options. On 28th May 1957, at the National League meeting in Chicago the Dodgers and the Giant were granted permission to move to San Francisco and Los Angeles respectively, provided they moved together on 1st October 1957. Therefore, per the orders, on 1st October 1957 both teams relocated together. Just after six months on 8th April 1958 the Dodgers defeated the Giants in their first match in L.A. Ford Frick, the then Commissioner, oversaw the Westward move of baseball in an enthusiast opposition in New York. Apart from this, Frick also played an important role in speeding up the move of the financially-troubled Braves from Boston to Milwaukee. Walter O’Malley is one of sports top visionaries and businessmen, who built a first class stadium based on stability and long term success. He adorned a reputation as an astute owner of the most endured and loved baseball team the Dodgers. His move from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, helped the sport gain nation wide popularity and success. O’Malley’s greatest achievement was designing the Dodger Stadium, one the finest baseball ballparks. More than four decades after it opened, it remains one of Los Angeles’ most popular landmarks. On 3rd December 2007, Walter O’Malley was elected by the veterans Committee in its ballot of executive to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony was held in Cooperstown in New York on 27th July 2008. In December 1999, O’Malley was named the 11th most powerful person in Sports by The Sporting News. ABC Sports rated O’Malley one of the top 10 Most Influential ‘off the field’ persons in sports history, as voted by the Sports Century panel. Works Cited 1. O’Malley, Walter’s letter to William Tracy, Vice Chairman, Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, 25 June 1953. 2. Shapiro, Michael. "Forgiving the Demon of the Dodgers" New York Times, 16 March 2003. 3. Sullivan, Neil. The Dodgers Move West, US Oxford University Press, 1989, 108. Read More