Short Stops

Mystery Letters Solved

For years a Dodger Stadium door on the Club Level had the unusual string of letters spelling “MYOMACS” on it, puzzling fans who would walk by. The combination of letters, though, was no eye chart but the entrance to Walter O’Malley’s executive dining room.

The letters were strung together in recognition of O’Malley’s business lunches that he enjoyed while in Brooklyn’s Hotel Bossert at Room 40. Each day about 12:30 p.m., O’Malley and some of his top executives, civic leaders and other guests would walk from the offices at 215 Montague Street to the nearby hotel for lunch and meetings.

L-R: George Barnewall, Vice President and Treasurer of the Brooklyn Dodgers; Walter O’Malley; Brooklyn Judge and Director, Dodger Board of Directors, Henry Ughetta; Branch Rickey; Bud Holman, Director, Dodger Board of Directors; and Montreal Royals President Hector Racine. Incoming Dodger President Walter O’Malley shakes hands with Branch Rickey in Room 40 at the Hotel Bossert, Brooklyn, New York on October 26, 1950. Historic Room 40 was used for frequent lunches by Dodger executives, often with their guests, and business meetings.

Photo by Barney Stein

In honor of three of those regulars who spent so much time with him in Room 40, the unofficial moniker of the Dodger Stadium executive dining room, the letters were painted on the outside door. MYOMACS was really a combination of four names: Charles Mylod, O’Malley, Ed McLoughlin and Everett McCooey.

SOURCE: BOB HUNTER, LOS ANGELES HERALD-EXAMINER, JULY 25, 1967