This Day in Walter O’Malley History: June 13

In a letter to Lawrence Lohman, Vice President of CBS, Walter O’Malley writes, “You will recall I wrote you sometime ago asking advice on which was the proper color television set to purchase as I want to be prepared to see your first color telecast. Also, be good enough to have your promotional department alert to our interest in being the first baseball club to have at least one game telecast in color. I am sure that we could clear what might initially appear to be obstacles. I believe such a telecast would receive tremendous sports page publicity.”

A delegation of Brooklyn Dodger executives, including Walter O’Malley, attend Hector Racine Memorial Night in Montreal. The former president of the Montreal Royals passed away in Florida on March 12, 1956. O’Malley presented the club with a plaque honoring Racine’s memory. Under Racine’s presidency, the Royals won more pennants, playoffs and Little World Series than any club in International League history to date. On November 16, 2021, Racine was posthumously inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

Walter O’Malley responds to a “Confident Living” column by Rev. Norman Vincent Peale in the New York Herald Tribune in which Dr. Peale writes about his stepmother attending her first baseball game ever at Ebbets Field and being cut on the head by a tin can thrown by unruly youngsters. In his letter to Dr. Peale, O’Malley says, “Let me say that I am, of course, distressed, as is the entire organization to learn about your stepmother’s experience. The Dodgers admit approximately 300,000 youngsters, veterans, blind and wheel chair patrons each year free. The youngsters come under the supervision of Dr. Howard Anderson, Executive Secretary, YMCA, Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn. Dr. Anderson and I fully appreciate that we do get some bad youngsters in a group. Should we stop the program Dr. Peale, because of a few of the youngsters act like delinquents. Your account of the incident has done irreparable damage to this program and to the Dodger organization. Obviously, we can stop the bad publicity if we stop the Knot Hole program. Your stepmother was not further identified in your column but I do ask that you convey to her my deep personal sympathy. I think I would like her, the last quote in your column shows that she has what it takes.” After she was cleaned up and bandaged, Dr. Peale’s stepmother said, “I’m going right back and see the finish of my first game if it kills me.” Norman Vincent Peale, New York Herald Tribune, June 3, 1956

The Brooklyn Catholic Youth Organization (C.Y.O.) Dinner in honor of Walter O’Malley is held at the C.Y.O. Coney Island Day Camp. Dinner Chairman is Hon. Henry L. Ughetta, a judge in Brooklyn’s Appellate Division and a Dodger Director.