This Day in Walter O’Malley History:

  • On its editorial page titled “Credit Where Credit is Due,” The Sporting News writes this about Walter O’Malley, “Some critics charged that Dodger boss Walter O’Malley was getting a handout in the form of land on which he proposed to build Dodger Stadium. O’Malley and the Dodgers, it turned out, paid their dues and then some before Dodger Stadium opened in 1962. Indeed, the Dodgers have proved model citizens, maintaining a beautiful park (at their expense, not the city’s, as is the case with municipal arenas). And the Dodgers contribute $950,000 a year to the city in real estate taxes alone...Dodger Stadium is still the only major outdoor sports edifice built by a club owner since Yankee Stadium in 1923. Los Angeles’ bargain with O’Malley stands in vivid contrast to what happened in San Francisco. There the city spent $15 million building Candlestick Park to house the Giants. Barely 10 years later, the city shelled out another $8.5 million renovating a structure which never will rival Dodger Stadium in beauty, utility, quality of construction or any other gauge you’d care to use.”