TIME Magazine Cover

Walter O’Malley appeared on the cover of TIME through famed news artist Boris Chaliapin’s rendering on April 28, 1958. O’Malley was the first principal Major League Baseball owner to have appeared on the cover of TIME since Jacob Ruppert of the New York Yankees was featured on September 19, 1932. Charlie Finley of the Oakland A’s was the third and last principal baseball owner to be on a TIME cover (August 18, 1975) last century.

Chaliapin traveled from Paris, after a forced training program by the Soviets into sculpting did not suit his artistic talents there, to New York. Originally from Russia, Chaliapin, the son of opera star Fyodor Chaliapin, was commissioned for a TIME magazine cover of Jawaharlal Nehru. He later became the “C” in the famed “ABCs” of TIME cover artists which included Boris Artzybasheff and Ernest Hamlin Baker. More than half of TIME’s covers from 1939 and 1970 were designed by one of the three artists.

Players who once wore the Dodger uniform and were featured on the cover of TIME include Wilbert Robinson (August 25, 1930), Leo Durocher (April 14, 1947), Jackie Robinson (September 22, 1947) and Roy Campanella (August 8, 1955). Additional baseball players who worked or played for the Dodgers, but appeared on TIME in another club’s uniform, included George Sisler, Eddie Stanky, Rocky Colavito, Casey Stengel and Juan Marichal. Besides the select few owners, other non-baseball players to appear on TIME include announcer Graham McNamee (October 3, 1927), Albert “Happy” Chandler (September 1, 1938, then Governor of Kentucky) and Peter Ueberroth (October 17, 1983, then Chairman, Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee).