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| Introduction |
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| The Early Years |
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| Entering The... |
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| The Dodger Saga |
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| A New Era Begins |
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| Ebbets Field Revisited |
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| The Memorable... |
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| Searching for New... |
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| L.A. Sends a Message |
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| This is Next Year! |
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| Putting Their Domes... |
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| The Political Game |
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| 1957 |
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| Page 36 |
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| Page 37 |
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| Page 38 |
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| Page 39 |
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| Page 40 |
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| Page 41 |
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| Page 42 |
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| Page 43 |
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| Page 44 |
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| Page 45 |
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| Page 46 |
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| Page 47 |
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| Page 48 |
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| Page 49 |
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| Los Angeles Bound |
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| Where to Play in L.A. |
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| Curveball Right... |
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| The Red Head is a... |
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| 1959: A Year of... |
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| Home Sweet Home |
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| Construction of... |
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| L.A.'s Sparkling New... |
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| 1963: A Taxing Year... |
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| The Business of.. |
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| Growing the Game... |
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| Moving to Chairman... |
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| The Last Inning |
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O’Malley also had reason to be disenchanted with government officials, who placed a five percent admission tax on baseball tickets beginning in 1954. This added up to a hefty sum for the city, O’Malley once stating that the Dodgers had to pay some $165,000 in one year for this new tax, in addition to traditional property taxes.
Stark, president of the New York City Council, supported and proposed another wild idea on March 25, 1957, a baseball stadium on part of the Parade Grounds in the Prospect Park section of Brooklyn, which left O’Malley nearly speechless. Stark made the proposal through the Brooklyn Sports Center Authority. He supported the new idea because “the city could deed to the Sports Authority nine and one-half acres on which could be built a 50,000-seat stadium, with underground parking facilities.” Stark objected to the Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues site because “of the exorbitant cost of the land.”67
“I am disappointed to learn of Mr. Stark’s new idea,” said O’Malley from his Dodgertown headquarters in Vero Beach. “Of late he seemed to show some interest in the Dodgers’ plan.”
On March 31, 1957, O’Malley wrote a personal letter to editor Frank D. Schroth at The News in Brooklyn stating, “Chester (Allen) has been a tremendous disappointment — not only as President of the Chamber of Commerce but also as a member of the Sports Center Authority. For your personal information, I have given up of ever getting the politicians and the saboteurs together. My efforts from now on will be quite seriously in the direction of a move. My guess is that he is trying to cover his back-trail against possible adverse publicity should the matter flop...To this day he has not even taken the trouble to look at the (stadium) model or plans. If (Robert) Moses has Parade Ground ideas, would he feel the same way about the Fort Greene Park? Now you see the inconsistency of the Irish mind. In one paragraph, I am sailing to a distant port and in the last above one, I am still trying to keep my anchor in Brooklyn.”
On April 11, 1957, O’Malley wrote an internal memo that addressed his thoughts on a number of issues: “While I was at a conference with Commissioner (Ford C.) Frick at his office Robert Moses called and I suggested that I drop out to his house later in the afternoon. I met Bob at his home in Babylon and we frankly discussed the general political apathy toward the new stadium in Brooklyn. Bob said there was not a chance of the Atlantic & Flatbush site being approved. Market men presented a problem and perhaps more important was the Borough President’s determination that the site was wrong. Borough President (John Cashmore) shows some interest in the site on the other side — the one which Clarke & Rapuano recommended. I told Bob that either site would be acceptable to us although we did prefer the LIRR one. Bob suggested that I be realistic and appreciate that the political implications were such that we just could not work out a solution in Brooklyn unless we were interested in the Parade Grounds. We discussed this quite frankly and we both can see many objections to it, minimum rapid transit facilities and also minimum parking. I then suggested that inasmuch as Bob was willing to give up park land which up until this point I thought was “verboten” would he then consider letting us build our own stadium on a lease basis in Ft. Greene Park. He told me that this could not be done — that the topography was against it and also Park Department needs. I told him that if the Dodgers would have to go out of Brooklyn any site would have to be weighed against such available locations such as Los Angeles. In other words, the Brooklyn Dodgers would not be Brooklyn anywhere else.”
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