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Had fate taken a different turn, John F. Kennedy would have been president, all right, but not of the United States. In 1950, Joseph Kennedy was looking for something different for his son to do and he made several inquiries to O’Malley. The elder Kennedy wanted to buy controlling stock interest in Brooklyn and then hand the reins to his intelligent son.
“It seemed that Joe Kennedy was worried about Jack’s war injury,” said O’Malley. “Jack was then a freshman congressman, and his back was giving him a lot of trouble. Joe Kennedy said he had high hopes for Jack in politics, but he had begun to wonder if the boy was up to it physically. He said Jack was fond of baseball and, if politics was out, he might like to run a ballclub. Joe Kennedy said he was ready to meet anybody’s price for a controlling interest, with the idea of putting Jack in as club president.
“Then, while things were still in the early talking stage, North Korea invaded South Korea. (President) Truman sent troops, the Chinese came in, there were wild rumors out of Moscow, and Joe Kennedy decided that World War Three was upon us. He called off everything and predicted that soon there wouldn’t be baseball at all.
“Years later I saw Jack Kennedy at the White House. I said to him, ‘Mr. President, just think. You might have been president of the Brooklyn Dodgers.’ He laughed and said, ‘Walter, there are moments when I wish I were.’”37
Following the 1951 heartbreak at the Polo Grounds, O’Malley decided to turn his fortunes around by wearing a good luck cat’s eye ring, which was once owned by financier Diamond Jim Brady. It was “given to him by a friend who insists if the Flatbush boss had worn it last year, it would have prevented the ‘Miracle of the Giants.’”38 A little luck of the Irish, or cat’s eye in this case, certainly couldn’t hurt and it didn’t.
As a major proponent of the idea of subscription television, O’Malley investigated the possibility of Pay TV for the Dodgers in Brooklyn as far back as 1951-52. He realized that a subscription TV service would add to the coffers of the ballclub, build additional interest in the Dodgers and reach many more fans than were attending games in person at Ebbets Field. “As far back as ’51-’52, when TV revenue was less than half it is today, O’Malley was talking about selling the games at 50 cents a shot. He even suggested that, given the go-ahead signal, a group financing him would wire some representative city, assuming the entire cost. At that time, he figured installation costs, per set, would run about $125.”39
O’Malley believed “that the time has passed when an operation like big league baseball can depend upon the revenue from gate receipts alone.” He said, “Even if we didn’t telecast, there isn’t a night in the week that our attendance won’t be affected by something like Milton Berle or ‘I Love Lucy.’ And we need night games, since too few people are free to come out in the afternoon.”40
A hot topic, subscription TV would become stalled because of strong opposition by the movie and TV industries, but, once again, O’Malley’s foresight into its revenue-producing potential for baseball was right on target, just 20 years ahead of its time. He was also correct in his desire to bring the fans closer to the players, as he designed the first Autograph Day in the history of Ebbets Field in June 1952, with Dodgers stationed in booths under the grandstand to sign.
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The Dodgers issued an apology to their fans following their playoff loss to the New York Giants in 1951. |
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Walter O’Malley appears on television with Dodger broadcaster Vin Scully. |
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Walter O’Malley’s idea of bringing fans closer to the players results in the first Autograph Day at Ebbets Field in June 1952. |
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