This Day in Walter O’Malley History:
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Brooklyn Dodgers General Counsel Walter O’Malley represents Leo Durocher and Ebbets Field special policeman Joseph Moore in Brooklyn Felony Court on felonious assault charges. John Christian, a fan in the stands at Ebbets Field who had heckled the Dodgers, said that Moore and Dodger Manager Durocher struck him on the head and face after the Dodger game against Philadelphia on June 9. Magistrate James A. Blanchfield postponed the hearing until July 9 after the Assistant District Attorney Clarence Wilson explained that Christian was unable to speak because his jaws and teeth were wired shut. The case finally was heard in Kings County Court in April, 1946 and Durocher and Moore were acquitted of assault charges by a jury, which deliberated for 38 minutes before returning a not-guilty verdict. New York Times, April 26, 1946
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Writing to his close associate George V. McLaughlin, President of the Brooklyn Trust Company, Walter O’Malley discusses his desire for a new stadium to replace aging Ebbets Field, “Be good enough to let me have the benefit of your thoughts on the following: I would also like to talk the problem out with Bob Moses. We need a new ball park. It should be privately built and maintained. The Milwaukee story is an interesting one but I would prefer to exploit the possibility of private ownership. We could not acquire land suitably located without the condemnation assistance of the government. Title 1 of the Federal Housing Act of 1949 would probably have to be used. I am convinced that a ball park would have to have some use in addition to baseball in order to justify the capital investment...In 1947, I persuaded John Smith and Branch Rickey to retain (designer) Emil Praeger to make a study of possible sites for a new ball park. In March 1948, Praeger recommended a site in an interesting report together with exhibits, diagrams and plans. Last year I asked Praeger to bring his report up to date and to advise me if such a stadium were to be built could it also serve as a parking garage.”
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In a letter, Walter O’Malley describes the process used to build Holman Stadium at Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Florida to William Walsingham, Jr., Vice President of the St. Louis Cardinals. “The Vero Beach stadium was let on competitive bidding. The excavation, fill, mounds, concrete and reserve seats cost $50,000 even for 5000 seats. The house is scaled very high in favor of box seats of which there are 40% or 2000. This percentage can be varied depending on local conditions. The lights came from our abandoned Cambridge, Maryland park so there is no true cost figure on that. The ticket office, 4 public toilet rooms and clubhouse with plumbing cost $12,000, the press box $1,000. Holman Stadium, located as it is in a country atmosphere and in a small well mannered community, has a minimum of security enclosure...Capt. (Emil) Praeger, who was the chief engineer of the Navy during the last war is very much interested in this type of project and I am sure his fee would be very modest to adapt our plans to some other site.”
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After a lunch meeting with Hon. Lactance Roberge, City Treasurer of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Walter O’Malley writes a letter and sends him lengthy comments regarding his ideas for a new Montreal stadium. O’Malley writes in part, “The stadium should be equally suitable for baseball 77 games a year plus championship playoffs and Little World Series and for professional football ten games per year. Our plans provide for a rotating section of seats to place the majority of the high income producing seats at the 50 yard line. It is imperative that the stadium have no obstructed view seats, no posts or columns. The entire stadium should be covered by a translucent dome on which we have completed our engineering studies. The dome is essential. Other stadia of the traditional 1900 concept are outmoded today. We must put the patrons in a comfortable climate controlled atmosphere. Cost is important to a business man. By using methods of construction such as Capt. (Emil) Praeger and I used in building a small stadium at Dodgertown, Vero Beach, Florida, we demonstrated that we could cut the cost of traditional stadium in half by applying modern techniques to sound engineering design.”
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David Dixon, whose brainchild to build the Superdome in New Orleans, meets with Walter O’Malley at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. As a young businessman, Dixon was intrigued by a newspaper article about O’Malley’s involvement with inventor R. Buckminster Fuller to build baseball’s first dome stadium in Brooklyn in the mid-1950s. Dixon wanted to discuss O’Malley’s knowledge regarding dome stadiums. The next year, the NFL awarded a team to New Orleans, while the Louisiana Legislature gave the green light to build the Superdome.
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Hideo Nomo of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Shigetoshi Hasegawa of the Los Angeles Angels become the first Japanese players to appear in the same Major League game when the Angels and Dodgers begin interleague play.
