This Day in Walter O’Malley History: October 27

An editorial in the Brooklyn Eagle states in part, “Branch Rickey, the man who made the Brooklyn Dodgers a leading power in baseball, is definitely through in Brooklyn. While it has seemed in the cards for some time, all doubt was ended yesterday with his resignation as president of the club following the announcement that Walter F. O’Malley and Mrs. John L. Smith will exercise their right to purchase Mr. Rickey’s 25 percent share of stock in the Dodgers. That he is also through as general manager is clear as the new powers-that-be indicated his successor will be announced early next week. There is no question that Mr. Rickey’s going will be a great loss to the Dodgers. He developed their unexcelled farm system. He brought Jackie Robinson, thus opening the doors of the big leagues for Negro players. Much of the team’s strength has been because he is such a fine judge of potential stars...All eyes are now turned on Mr. O’Malley, who will be the new president of the club. He and Mrs. Smith will each own 37 1/2 percent of the stock by reason of their buying the Rickey shares and thus preventing realtor William Zeckendorf from getting them under the deal he recently consummated. Mr. O’Malley is no newcomer to baseball, having served on the Dodgers’ board for a number of years. There is no doubt he will do his best to bring the pennant to Brooklyn in 1951 and in the years to follow.”

Dodger Publicity Director Frank Graham, Jr. writes a thank you letter to Derry Lynch, a fan from Cork City, Ireland. Lynch sent an honest-to-goodness shillelagh to the Dodgers to help put a hex on the New York Yankees. Unfortunately, the Yankees overcame the curse and won their second consecutive World Series over the Dodgers in the World Series. Graham writes, “First of all I want to thank you for sending along the shillelagh. It was very thoughtful of you and created quite a sensation in the Dodger office. We should have taken your advice and used it against the Yankees. I am enclosing a copy of our 1953 team photograph which I thought you might enjoy.”

In his letter to William J. “Pat” O’Hara of the New York law firm of Jackson, Nash, Brophy, Barringer & Brooks, Walter O’Malley writes, “Your letter of October 20th indicates that you are taking yourself off the International Golf Tour and will now be working diligently and honestly as a member of a distinguished law firm. This comes as a great surprise. Seriously, Pat, all the best to you in your new association. I just returned from the Kaiser Open at Silverado. In the Pro-Am round I played with Ray Floyd, he shot a gross 65 but the next day without my guidance he blew to a 79. The next is the Acapulco Invitational in Mexico and then to Hawaii for the Hawaiian Open. In between times I am giving lessons.

New York Yankee owner George Steinbrenner III writes a letter to Dodger Chairman Walter O’Malley following the 1977 World Series between the clubs, won by the Yankees, four games to two. “I said it on the airplane on the way back to New York to my administrative people who were all sitting up front and I sincerely meant it — ‘Now that, gentlemen, (the Dodgers), is the way a baseball organization should be run.’ I meant that because it’s a model and it’s top-drawer all the way. That’s why I feel like a very lucky ‘pupil’ because, quite frankly, in my opinion you’re the best owner and operator that baseball has ever seen and probably will ever see, and I spent half my time in L.A. observing, making notes, and learning. I can’t tell you how impressed I am with everything about the Dodgers. I think we’d be smart in baseball if we had a course for all the owners and just let you be ‘the professor.’...In closing, just let me say what great competition it was and how great it was for baseball to meet the Dodgers in the World Series once again, and I hope that it’s going to be a regular annual event, because it was a great World Series. Best personal regards, George”