1. In 2008, O'Malley was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame for his contributions to and influence on the game of baseball.
65 Facts About Walter O'Malley
1. 2.
Walter O'Malley 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.
3.
In 1970, Walter O'Malley ceded the team presidency to his son, Peter.
4.
Walter O'Malley would become the first chairman of the Dodgers, a title established for him, and remain so until his death in 1979.
5.
Walter O'Malley bequeathed the team to his children Peter O'Malley and Terry O'Malley Seidler upon his death in 1979.
6.
Walter O'Malley was born on October 9,1903, in The Bronx, New York City.
7.
Walter O'Malley was the only child of Edwin Joseph O'Malley, who worked as a cotton goods salesman in the Bronx in 1903.
8.
Edwin Walter O'Malley later became the Commissioner of Public Markets for New York City.
9.
Walter O'Malley grew up as a Bronx-born New York Giants fan.
10.
Walter O'Malley frequently attended Giants games at the Polo Grounds with his uncle Clarence.
11.
Walter O'Malley was a Boy Scout who rose to the rank of Star Scout.
12.
Walter O'Malley attended Jamaica High School in Queens from 1918 to 1920 and then the Culver Academy in Indiana.
13.
Walter O'Malley 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.
14.
Walter 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.
15.
Edwin O'Malley's dry goods business was failing and Walter had to help run the business.
16.
Walter O'Malley allowed a struggling lawyer to use space in his office and paid for his own clerkship.
17.
Subsequently, Walter started the Walter F O'Malley Engineering Company and published the Subcontractors Register with his uncle, Joseph O'Malley.
18.
Walter O'Malley eventually concentrated on the field of law, starting with work on wills and deeds.
19.
Walter O'Malley developed the business habits of smoking cigars and of answering questions only after taking two puffs.
20.
Walter O'Malley 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.
21.
McLaughlin hired Walter O'Malley to administer mortgage foreclosures against failing businesses for the Trust Company.
22.
Walter O'Malley earned McLaughlin's confidence by acting in numerous capacities including bodyguard, valet, chauffeur, adopted son, confidant and right-hand man.
23.
Walter O'Malley was chosen to protect the company's financial interests in the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1933.
24.
Walter O'Malley served as designated driver for the hard drinking McLaughlin.
25.
In 1942, when Larry MacPhail resigned as general manager to serve in the United States Army as a lieutenant colonel, Walter O'Malley was appointed the attorney for the Dodgers, and he obtained a minority ownership interest on November 1,1944.
26.
Branch Rickey, who had built the St Louis Cardinals into champions, replaced MacPhail, and Walter O'Malley began to accumulate stock in the Dodgers.
27.
Rickey was a teetotaler, while Walter O'Malley enjoyed alcoholic beverages and tobacco.
28.
When co-owner Smith died in July 1950, Walter O'Malley convinced his widow to turn over control of the shares to the Brooklyn Trust Company, which Walter O'Malley controlled as chief legal counsel.
29.
Walter O'Malley lowballed Rickey with an offer of $346,000.
30.
Walter O'Malley became the president and chief stockholder on October 26,1950.
31.
Walter 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.
32.
Walter O'Malley forbade the speaking of Rickey's name in Dodgers offices with transgressors being subjected to a fine.
33.
Walter O'Malley abolished Rickey's title of general manager so that no front office person could perpetuate Rickey's role.
34.
Celler represented half of Brooklyn in Congress and Walter O'Malley used the local press such as the Brooklyn Eagle to pressure Celler into backing off of the issue.
35.
Walter O'Malley attempted to entice him to take the post of Commissioner of Baseball.
36.
Jackie Robinson had been a Rickey protege, and Walter O'Malley did not have the same respect for Robinson that Rickey did.
37.
Walter O'Malley tried to raise money and get the political backing to build a new ballpark elsewhere in Brooklyn.
38.
Moses did not like Walter O'Malley and derided Walter O'Malley's pro-Brooklyn and pro-Irish sentiments in the press.
39.
Walter 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.
40.
Walter 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.
41.
Walter O'Malley met with Moses at Moses' home after purchasing the Angels to discuss final offers from New York to no avail.
42.
Walter O'Malley noticed the great success of the Milwaukee Braves after their move from Boston in 1953.
43.
Walter O'Malley had sold the ballpark to Marvin Kratter for about $2,000,000 on October 31,1956.
44.
Ultimately, Walter O'Malley decided to leave Brooklyn for Los Angeles in 1957.
45.
Walter O'Malley was influential in getting the rival New York Giants to move west to become the San Francisco Giants, thus preserving the two teams' longstanding rivalry.
46.
When Walter O'Malley moved the Dodgers from Brooklyn the story transcended the world of sport and he found himself on the cover of Time.
47.
When he made the decision to relocate in October 1957 to Los Angeles, Walter O'Malley did not have an established location for where the Dodgers would play in 1958.
48.
Walter O'Malley engaged in an extensive marketing and media campaign that helped the referendum pass, but there were extensive subsequent taxpayer lawsuits.
49.
Furthermore, Walter O'Malley is said to have kept Bowie Kuhn in office as the Commissioner of Baseball until Walter O'Malley's death.
50.
Walter 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.
51.
Walter O'Malley did not support those who remained friends with Rickey, which was a large factor in Red Barber quitting as Dodgers announcer.
52.
Walter O'Malley engaged in several high-profile salary disputes with his players.
53.
Walter O'Malley liked clubhouse turmoil only slightly less than free agent disloyalty.
54.
On March 17,1970, Walter O'Malley turned over the presidency of the team to his son Peter, remaining as chairman until his death in 1979.
55.
Peter Walter O'Malley held the position until 1998 when the team was sold to Rupert Murdoch.
56.
Walter O'Malley felt the price wars would be the downfall of baseball because the fans only have so much money.
57.
Walter O'Malley was unable to speak above a whisper the rest of her life.
58.
Walter O'Malley was a smoker who golfed occasionally, but more commonly gardened for recreation.
59.
Walter O'Malley died of congestive heart failure on August 9,1979, at the Methodist Hospital in Rochester.
60.
Walter O'Malley was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.
61.
Walter O'Malley's legacy is that of changing the mindset of a league that had the St Louis Cardinals as the National League's southernmost and westernmost team.
62.
Walter O'Malley made a tremendous change in the game, opening up the West Coast to Major League Baseball.
63.
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.
64.
Walter O'Malley was mentioned several times in Danny Kaye's 1962 song tribute "D-O-D-G-E-R-S ", which spins a tale of a fantasy game between the Dodgers and the Giants.
65.
The documentary focuses on the post World War II glory years of the franchise and presents a compelling case that Walter 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 urban planner Robert Moses.