 |
“We tried for 10 long years to acquire land, which we were going to pay for, to build a stadium, which we were going to pay for, all without success,” said O’Malley. “When a high-ranking official told us we ‘didn’t have a chance,’ I told him good-bye.”79
Members of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors met on Tuesday, September 17 to vote on a resolution “determining that County of Los Angeles will make available $2,740,000.00 to City of Los Angeles for public approach road improvements to the Chavez Ravine area and instructing chief administrative officer and road commissioner relating to funds required.” The resolution was adopted by a unanimous 5-0 vote of the County Supervisors, including Kenneth Hahn, John Anson Ford, Herbert C. Legg, Burton W. Chace and Warren M. Dorn to include the commitment of funds in the 1958-59 budget (Motor Vehicle Fund) to the City of Los Angeles. The Supervisors emphasized that “Major League Baseball would be a recreational and economic asset to this community.”
The Dodgers and Pittsburgh Pirates played the last game in Ebbets Field on September 24, 1957, as Danny McDevitt and the Dodgers shut out the Pirates, 2-0. It was an understandably solemn affair before 6,702 fans.
In what would be the final game as the Brooklyn Dodgers, they lost, 2-1, in Philadelphia and the last person to record a pitch was none other than left-hander Sandy Koufax. The Brooklyn-born Koufax relieved Roger Craig in the bottom of the eighth inning, walked two batters and struck out Willie Jones to close out the chapter.80
The October 1 deadline by the National League to approve a shift in location for two members clubs — the Giants and the Dodgers — was extended so that O’Malley could complete all his negotiations.
Wyman related that prior to the vote of the Los Angeles City Council to make an agreement to bring the Dodgers west, she was asked to talk to O’Malley on the telephone to see if he was totally committed to making the move. She nearly gasped when she heard his response.
“I talked to him (O’Malley) before the last vote (October 7, 1957). We made a phone call, (Mayor Norris) Poulson and I. Poulson was so nervous, he couldn’t talk to him and he put me on the phone,” said Wyman. “He said to me and it was very difficult, because up to that point we had never had a definitive thing that said ‘I am coming. I am coming.’ It was never that clear. In any statement, you can go through anything he ever said and you won’t find it in New York, or our papers, or anywhere. And that last night I said ‘Walter.’ I said ‘Mr. O’Malley’ and I was ‘Mrs. Wyman’ at that point. But, I said, ‘Tell us. I am going to the floor (it was at night. We had a night session’). And I said, ‘I would like to say you are coming.’ He said, ‘Mrs. Wyman, I am grateful for everything you have done, I am grateful for everything the mayor has done, but I have to tell you if I could get my deal in New York, I’d rather stay in New York.’ I said, ‘My God I can’t go to the council.’ He said, ‘I think everything is right for me there in L.A. I think baseball is an unknown out there.’ He said a lot of positive things. So I decided that I never would really tell the council, to tell you the truth, what the conversation was unless I was asked. And I did say the positive parts of the conversation. I mean I really used it as a tool. But, my colleagues never said, ‘Did he say he was absolutely coming?’ So, I never had to answer it. So, I really felt that if I had to say that, I would not have gotten the 10 votes.”81
|
|
|
|
When Danny McDevitt blanked the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-0, on Sept. 24, 1957, it marked the end of an era at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field. |
 |
|
|
The scoreboard at Ebbets Field provides details of the Brooklyn Dodgers’ final home game. |
|
|
|
Five days after their last home game, the Brooklyn Dodgers played their final game, losing 2-1 at Philadelphia. |
|
|
