This Day in Walter O’Malley History: March 5

New York Post beat writer Gus Steiger reports from Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Florida, “Showing rare versatility for a club president, Walter O’Malley tinkered with the mechanism of ‘Overhand Joe No. 2’ to bring the pitching automaton around when it got balky.”

A reader of the Miami Herald writes a letter to the editor about the contributions of Walter O’Malley to youth baseball: “The Dodgers’ President is Walter O’Malley who I heard dubbed as the second Father Flanagan. “Y’see kids, he also heads the Brooklyn Amateur Baseball Foundation. The club supplies kids with bats and balls. He gets school ball fields where he hires Board of Education teachers to supervise the boys.” Betty Ward letter to Miami Herald, March 5, 1953

Actress Vera-Ellen visits Dodgertown in Florida while filming the movie “Big Leaguer” with Edward G. Robinson in nearby Melbourne. The actress told the Vero Beach Press Journal how delighted she was with the city of Vero Beach. “Oh, I just love your town,” she said. “I think I’ll change my name from Vera to Vero.” She was known for her film roles in “The Kid From Brooklyn,” “On the Town” and “White Christmas.” Robinson, who along with Vera-Ellen were treated to the hospitality of O’Malley with chilled fresh orange juice and a lunch of jumbo shrimp and steak, waved his cigar and said, “You mean that ball players get paid to come here?” Andy O’Brien, Weekend Picture Magazine, April 4, 1953

California Governor Goodwin J. Knight writes a letter which is to appear on April 18, 1958 in the Los Angeles Examiner officially welcoming the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants to the West Coast. “It’s a happy occasion to welcome major league baseball to the Pacific Coast, and I predict that first year attendance records, even the amazing turnout given the Milwaukee Braves on that club’s removal from Boston to Milwaukee, will be eclipsed in our two great metropolitan centers. I know that with Owners Walter O’Malley of the Dodgers, and Horace Stoneham of the Giants in the directorial seats; with their respective managers, Walt Alston and Bill Rigney displaying their baseball strategy and leadership; and with the amazing Willie Mays of the Giants, and our own Duke Snider, Gil Hodges and ‘Pee Wee’ Reese in there for the Dodgers, we are in for a lot of highly exciting games. I join with Vice President Richard M. Nixon and Mayor Norris Poulson in rolling out the red carpet for our Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants in what is a renewal of a generations’ old rivalry.”