This Day in Walter O’Malley History:
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A stuffed Santa Claus that had been in the O’Malley family for 30 years was pilfered from the front lawn of Walter and Kay O’Malley’s home in Amityville, Long Island, New York. Max Kase, "Briefkase", New York Journal-American, December 27, 1951 No Giants’ fan ever came forward to confess!
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In a response to Brooklyn Eagle publisher Frank D. Schroth, Walter O’Malley disputes Schroth’s claim that the Dodgers are searching for “public money” to build a new stadium in Brooklyn. “The third paragraph in your letter of December 22nd, bothers me as you must still have in your mind that I am looking for a municipally owned stadium. You must know that is not the case, Frank. The only government assistance I want is in its power to assemble a site which we will buy and on which we will build and maintain a stadium. We, of course, want it at a location where there can be all year round parking income as otherwise the cost of a new stadium would not be justified on the income from baseball fans. Can you have any serious doubt in your mind on this point. I really feel that I have been quite clear that we do not expect the government to finance and own our proposed new stadium.”
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The New York Board of Estimate unanimously approves an appropriation of $25,000 for a survey by the city-created Brooklyn Sports Center Authority to determine the feasibility of building a $30 million multi-purpose stadium, which would serve as home to the Dodgers. The three-member Brooklyn Sports Center Authority had asked for $300,000 to finance the study, but was awarded $25,000 by the Board of Estimate instructing the members to limit their study to the question of how to finance and build the proposed sports center. Walter O’Malley commented about the action “at first analysis appears disappointing” but pointed out “on the plus side” the Brooklyn Sports Center Authority members Charles J. Mylod, Robert Blum and Chester Allen were still on the job. “There is still a short time left,” he said, “before we could be forced to take an irrevocable step to commit the Dodgers elsewhere.” He also noted that the Dodgers had sold their stadiums in Montreal and Brooklyn to raise the $4 million it committed to invest in the new stadium. “We have done our part,” O’Malley said. Dominic Peluso and James Desmond, New York Daily News, December 12, 1956
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In thanking sports columnist Bob Hunter’s wife Coy for her homemade holiday cheesecake, Walter O’Malley also notes, “We really look forward to your cheese cake each year and of course, it is tops. Is it too early for you to make plans to be with us again this Spring at Dodgertown? You know we want you Coy, even if you leave Bob at home.” Bob Hunter wrote for the Los Angeles Examiner, Herald-Examiner and The Sporting News before his induction into the writers’ wing of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988 as recipient of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award.
