U.S. Presidents and Dodgers History

American Presidents make American history and the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers make American baseball history and sometimes they connect.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt acknowledged the remarkable appeal of the Brooklyn Dodgers. 

On an election campaign trip in October, 1944, FDR came into Ebbets Field through the center field gates in an open limousine. The day was wet and FDR was soaked in his clothes but he shrugged off the weather to make the appearance before the stadium crowd. The American President said before the microphone, “You know I come from the state of New York and I’ve got to make a terrible confession to you. I come from the state of New York and practically own New York City, but I have never been in Ebbets Field before. I have rooted for the Dodgers. (FDR pauses and the crowd cheers). And I’ll come back here someday and see them play.” British Pathe film, October 21, 1944 The crowd in Ebbets Field was estimated to be 16,000 by New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia.” Howard Fleiger, Norfolk Ledger-Star, October 21, 1944

Former U.S. President Herbert Hoover sent his appreciation to Walter O’Malley for the 1953 World Series tickets he received to attend games at Ebbets Field in an October 6 letter.

Dwight Eisenhower is the first sitting U.S. President to attend a World Series in 20 seasons when he went to Ebbets Field, October 3, 1956 for Game 1. President Eisenhower entered the stadium in an open car that stopped near the Dodger dugout. He greeted players from both World Series teams with Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick, National League President Warren Giles, American League President Will Harridge, Yankee owner Dan Topping and Dodger President Walter O’Malley. Eisenhower is the first U.S. President to see a World Series game in the Brooklyn home park. Former U.S. President Herbert Hoover also attended the game, possibly making it the first time two U.S. Presidents, one current, one former, to attend a World Series game. Dana Mozley, New York Daily News, October 4, 1956 Following the World Series won by the New York Yankees, Eisenhower wrote O’Malley to inform the Dodger president he had reached out to write a note of encouragement to 1956 National League MVP and Cy Young Award winner Don Newcombe and praise him for a fine season.

After the Dodgers won Game 1 of the 1956 World Series, 6-3, President Eisenhower prepared to depart. From his car, Eisenhower requested O’Malley for a private word with him.

Columnist Bob Curzon of the Indian River Press Journal asked O’Malley what President Eisenhower said to him. O’Malley said, “He (the U.S. President) would like to get a copy of all the pictures that were taken that day. Well, I got a copy of all of them and sent them to him. Just a couple of weeks ago I received a package from the White House. The President returned all the pictures that I had sent him and every one of them was autographed.” Bob Curzon, Indian River Press Journal, January 3, 1957

In October, 1958, Eisenhower sent a message of congratulations to Walter and Kay O’Malley’s daughter Terry on her wedding to Roland Seidler, Jr. Chuck Johnson, The Tidings, October 10, 1958  

A young U.S. Senator from Massachusetts attended the Cathedral Club of Brooklyn dinner on January 21, 1954. Walter O’Malley, who had been the guest of honor in 1951, was in attendance that night as John F. Kennedy was one of the keynote speakers for the dinner. New York state court judge Henry Ughetta, a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers Board of Directors, was honored for the 54th annual dinner at the St. George Hotel in Brooklyn. In 1998, Jean Kennedy Smith, sister of JFK and then U.S. Ambassador to Ireland, threw the first pitch to inaugurate two baseball diamonds (one for youth and one for adults) developed and financed by Peter O’Malley in the Emerald Isle.

After Kennedy was inaugurated as U.S. President in 1961, he would visit West Palm Beach, Florida. By telegram, O’Malley invited JFK and members of the White House staff to enjoy a spring training game at Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Florida with use of the Dodgers’ DC-6B plane for transportation of staff and press. O’Malley’s last line of the telegram to press secretary Pierre Salinger refers to an offer Branch Rickey made to the President’s father, Joseph Kennedy, to sell Brooklyn Dodger stock to the former Ambassador when he writes, “After all, as his father knows, he almost became president of the Dodgers”. The father Kennedy turned down the offer to buy the Dodgers and the President was not available to attend the Dodgertown game.

The Los Angeles Dodgers visited Japan for the 1966 Goodwill Tour to play 18 exhibition games. U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson provided a bronze plaque and an inscribed letter to Baseball Commissioner William Eckert, who in turn, presented the plaque to Tokyo Yomiuri Giants owner Toru Shoriki. U.S. Vice President Hubert Humphrey corresponded with Walter O’Malley in September, 1966 to express his appreciation to the Dodgers for their post-season tour.

U.S. President Richard Nixon enjoyed a long, cordial relationship with Walter O’Malley. On October 5, 1952, Nixon, then a U.S. Senator and a Vice-Presidential candidate, attended Game 5 of the World Series. Nixon sat behind the Dodger dugout and applauded fellow Californian Duke Snider after his home run and return to the dugout in a 6-5 Dodger win. On July 8, 1958 then U.S. Vice President Nixon and Dodger President Walter O’Malley attended baseball’s All-Star Game in Baltimore, Maryland, where Nixon threw the ceremonial first pitch. In October, 1958, Nixon sent a congratulatory message to Terry O’Malley for her wedding to Roland Seidler, Jr. in Pasadena. Ibid. Before his election as U.S. President, private citizen Nixon sat in the same section as Kay and Walter O’Malley in Game 1 of the 1963 World Series. Nixon attended Game 1 with his wife Pat and showed no concern as Dodger catcher John Roseboro caught a foul pop fly close to where he was sitting.

Two days after the Dodgers were swept by Baltimore in the 1966 World Series, Nixon wrote a letter of consolation to O’Malley and included a note for Dodger centerfielder Willie Davis.

Walter and Peter O’Malley accepted invitations to The White House for the All-Star Game Reception July 22, 1969, where they stood for photos in the President Nixon’s reception line. 

President Nixon made a visit to Dodger Stadium one year later, but no ballgame was played. The Dodgers had an off-day August 27, 1970, and an open parking lot at Dodger Stadium. The off-day made the parking lot a tightly secure place for President Nixon and his traveling party to land the Marine One helicopter. The President and his daughter Tricia then were driven to the nearby Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at The Music Center for a dinner and a show, the Civic Light Opera “Musical Theatre Cavalcade”. Afterwards, they returned to Dodger Stadium and Marine One returned the President to his San Clemente residence.

U.S. President Gerald Ford was no longer in office but did meet with Walter O’Malley at a banquet where Ford received an award at the Beverly Hilton on November 20, 1977. Ford did attend the 1980 All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium where he sat in the front row of the dugout seats with Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn near the National League dugout.

The Dodgers’ involvement with U.S. President Jimmy Carter was through his mother Lillian. She was an acknowledged Dodger fan, and she was pleased to be invited to throw the first pitch before Game 4 of the 1977 World Series on October 15th. President Carter wrote Dodger President Peter O’Malley expressing his appreciation of the honor accorded his mother. After the 1979 season, Dodger outfielder Manny Mota, who had recently set a major league record for most pinch-hits, was invited with his family to visit President Carter at The White House to congratulate Mota on his achievement.

As Governor of California, Ronald Reagan attended games at Dodger Stadium. In 1969, then Governor Reagan addressed the Dodger Stadium crowd behind home plate on Don Drysdale Day, September 27th after the tall right-hander had announced his retirement from playing in August. Walter O’Malley was chairman of a May 23, 1974 dinner honoring Governor Reagan and his wife Nancy. 

On June 9, 1981, Dodger rookie pitcher Fernando Valenzuela then in the midst of his wondrous 1981 Cy Young Award season was invited to The White House by President Reagan for a state luncheon. The President of Mexico, Jose Lopez Portillo, was Reagan’s head of state guest and Valenzuela was greeted by both Reagan and Lopez Portillo. Jack Gavin, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, served as Valenzuela’s interpreter at the luncheon. The Dodgers won the 1981 World Championship after exciting come from behind postseason series and Reagan sent a congratulatory letter to Dodger President Peter O’Malley. 

Mrs. Reagan threw the ceremonial first pitch on October 15, 1988, prior to Game 1 of the 1988 World Series and the Dodgers and Kirk Gibson showed their appreciation for the First Lady’s appearance. Gibson homered in the ninth inning with a man aboard on a 3-2 count, two out pitch to win Game 1, 5-4 and sent the Dodgers on their way to winning the 1988 World Series over the Oakland A’s. Eleven days later, President Reagan and the First Lady celebrated the Dodgers’ 1988 World Championship inviting the team to a White House Rose Garden reception and took photographs with the players, Dodger President Peter O’Malley, and his sister Terry O’Malley Seidler and her husband Rollie in the Oval Office. On the Dodgers’ Opening Day, April 12, 1991, former President Reagan watched the game in the Dodger Stadium President’s Box sitting with O’Malley. Reagan and his wife Nancy returned to Dodger Stadium on July 12, 1991 for Opening Ceremonies of the U.S. Olympic Festival. Reagan declared the games officially open to the athletes.

U.S. President George H.W. Bush made his visits to Dodger Stadium in special ways. On June 14, 1991, Bush became the only sitting U.S. President to watch a game at Dodger Stadium. He enjoyed the game from the President’s Box with Dodger President Peter O’Malley. As U.S. Vice President Bush, he had seen a game at Dodger Stadium on May 7, 1988. He then returned to see the Dodgers defeat the New York Mets on October 12, 1988, Game 7 of the 1988 National League Championship Series. The next evening, October 13, Bush and Michael Dukakis squared off for a second and final presidential debate at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion. Bush was elected the U.S. President on November 8, 1988. On December 15, 2006, President Bush accepted an invitation from Peter O’Malley to be the guest speaker at the Sports Management Class at prestigious Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan. 

U.S. President Bill Clinton sent a 1993 letter to Peter O’Malley in support of the Dodgers’ fall Friendship Series to Taiwan and Japan. President Clinton also sent a letter of appreciation on June 7, 1996 to the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center commending Walter and Peter O’Malley who were being honored for their efforts in the support of the relationship between Japan and the United States. President Clinton would be on the field at Shea Stadium to address the crowd for the 50th anniversary of the debut of Jackie Robinson when the Dodgers played the New York Mets on April 15, 1997.

The 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush, had a baseball connection to Peter O’Malley. Before he was a U.S. President, Bush was a Managing General Partner of the Texas Rangers and enjoyed a close friendship with Peter. When Walter O’Malley was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, President Bush sends a handwritten letter congratulating Peter and his family while expressing his appreciation for the baseball contributions of Walter O’Malley. President Bush was also invited by Peter O’Malley to be the guest speaker on November 4, 2009 at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan for the Sports Management Class lecture. On March 20, 2015, O’Malley and his wife Annette attended the Grand Opening for a baseball exhibit at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas. O’Malley loaned a dozen items for the exhibit.

On July 2, 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden greeted the 2020 World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers, a delegation led by owner Mark Walter and President Stan Kasten, at The White House. In his remarks, he congratulated the current World Champions of baseball. President Biden said of the team, “The Dodgers are a lot more than a baseball club. They are a pillar of American culture and American progress.” U.S. President Joe Biden remarks, July 2, 2021