This Day in Walter O’Malley History:
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The Dodgers and Walter O’Malley host 4,000 hospitalized soldiers, sailors and marines for a game at Ebbets Field through the Kings County Council of Jewish War Veterans of the United States.
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According to The Sporting News, “Walter O’Malley had 2,000 nuns as his guests (at a Dodger game) July 29, giving them the red carpet treatment, including the full course of baseball cuisine.” Bob Hunter, The Sporting News, August 19, 1967
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For the second consecutive year, Walter O’Malley makes a guest appearance on television’s Joey Bishop Show.
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Sports columnist Al Patton, writing in Proud Minorities Newspaper, states, “I recall the first time the late Mr. Abe Saperstein (owner of the Harlem Globetrotters) and I went to Dodger Stadium, he was as impressed as I. Abe remarked, ‘The luck of the Irish. Only O’Malley could have taken this ‘land of goats’ and turned it into one of the permanent landmarks of Los Angeles.’ A visit to Dodger Stadium can, at the outside, be compared to your visiting one of the world’s most efficient establishments. Whether in parking, seating, ticket sales, beer, peanuts and hot dogs, and most important, the action of the Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball team itself all exemplify professionalism...Forever will O’Malley’s Landmark and the name of the Dodgers be ‘class’ in Los Angeles. As if it were necessary, O’Malley has proved his overall ability to understand people and to create goodwill. Two major items of note that I remember are (1) the Harlem Globetrotters and the Los Angeles Dodgers being pitted against each other in a basketball game before 35,000 fans (can you imagine the spectacle of Wills against the talents of a Goose Tatum?), and (2) The East/West Major League Baseball Classic in honor of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., another spectacle.”
