This Day in Walter O’Malley History: August 5

Walter O’Malley gives a speech to the Catholic Maritime Club at the Mary Star of the Sea School. O’Malley discussed how he had hoped to build a new stadium in Brooklyn and reasons for bringing the Dodgers to Los Angeles. “If it’s greed that we want to build a ball park where people can park their cars, where people my age don’t have to walk up 200 feet to their seats, then I guess we’re greedy.” San Pedro News Pilot, August 6, 1959

The publishers of the Los Angeles Times, Norman Chandler and his son Otis, have a luncheon appointment with Walter O’Malley.

Walter O’Malley has an Irish twinkle in his eye when he writes a letter to actor Pat O’Brien. O’Brien recently had his autobiography published and O’Malley wanted the actor to know he was about to read the book. “You do not know it but you are going to Dodgertown, Vero Beach, Florida with me tomorrow morning...You will be present between the hard covers of your biography.” O’Malley then invited the actor and his wife to be his guests at Dodger Stadium at a game in the near future.

Pittsburgh Pirate outfielder Wilver Stargell hits what is believed to be the longest home run in Dodger Stadium history when he hits a ball 506 feet that carried over the right field pavilion.

John Waterbury of the New York architectural firm, Praeger, Kavanaugh, & Waterbury receives a glimmer of an idea by Walter O’Malley for Dodger Stadium. “One of these days,” O’Malley wrote, “I am going to renew my thinking about building private boxes such as mine on the Club Level from the Stadium Club to the Press Box. I keep thinking about this but have never found out how to recapture the seats that people have been enjoying since the stadium was built. As you know, we have a high percentage of box seats in the stadium so we could afford to make the change with each box having a toilet and also a heater for the cooler nights. It was quite an experience working with you and you know I have always been very fond of your patience and most respectful of Emil’s (Praeger) contributions.”

Don Sutton becomes the Dodgers’ all-time strikeout leader with 2,487 in his career in an 8-1 win over the Giants. He ranks 7th on the all-time Major League Baseball list in strikeouts with 3,574.