This Day in Walter O’Malley History: May 20

Walter and Kay O’Malley attend the Irving Berlin musical “Annie Get Your Gun” starring Ethel Merman at New York’s Imperial Theatre.

At a press conference in Milwaukee, Walter O’Malley discusses the development of televising road games for Brooklyn, not at the expense of eliminating any home games from Ebbets Field, however. As many as 18 road games were contemplated for the balance of the 1953 season.

Ed Pollock, Sports Editor of The Bulletin in Philadelphia, sent a telegram to Walter O’Malley asking him to confirm if the Dodgers employ a detective agency to check on some of their players, because in a formal statement Phillies President Bob Carpenter said “most major league clubs follow the same policy.” O’Malley replies to Pollock, “Re your telegram, the Brooklyn Club is considering employing detectives to solve the mystery of the team’s missing base hits. Walter F. O’Malley.”

The Dodgers swept a doubleheader and after the final out of the second game, the public address announcer was heard to say that the Dodgers were now in first place. Writers wrote of the mistake by the announcer, but it was Walter O’Malley who stepped up to take the blame. He had asked the announcer to make the statement after the game, but O’Malley had miscalculated his percentages and the Dodgers were not yet in first place. The next day, O’Malley apologized. “Guilty by TKO,” O’Malley wrote Roscoe McGowen of The New York Times. “The ‘goesintos’ got me, showing the futility of a college major in mathematics. Sorry to add to the burden that (P.A. Announcer) Tex (Rickards) carries with such inimitable aplomb.” (Signed) Walter O’Malley. Roscoe McGowen, The Sporting News, May 30, 1956

In his letter to Braven Dyer of the Los Angeles Times, Walter O’Malley states, “You might be interested in this additional point, I have not at any time asked anyone to build me a new stadium either in New York or in Los Angeles. This is important in the solution of the entire problem. The money we have made in baseball by the sale of our real estate in Brooklyn, Montreal and Ft. Worth is to be invested right back into baseball in the form of a new modern stadium. If I am successful in this effort I will have made the greatest financial contribution to baseball that has been made by any ball club in the entire history of the game and that might help a little bit to take the sting out of ever suspected ‘money greedy baseball magnets.’”

Walter O’Malley comments on the record crowd for the May 7, 1959 tribute game to Roy Campanella featuring the Dodgers and the New York Yankees at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum. O’Malley said of the fans who attended, “This 93,103 crowd is fantastic. It may never be surpassed, but then again, who can say? Los Angeles has a reputation for doing amazing things.” Rube Samuelsen, The Sporting News, May 20, 1959

Walter O’Malley makes a commitment to expanding the role of women in journalism as he pledges a cash award to be known as the Jeane Hoffman Unique Coverage Award for members of Theta Sigma Phi, a professional women’s journalist organization. Hoffman was a former writer for the Los Angeles Times and worked as executive assistant to O’Malley. In addition, O’Malley was honored with a special award by Theta Sigma Phi at the organization’s 33rd Matrix Awards Dinner at Sheraton-West in Los Angeles.

Bob Hunter of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner writes in The Sporting News of the Dodgers signing Sandy Amoros to a major league contract on the direction of Walter O’Malley. O’Malley had been informed by the Commissioner’s Office that Amoros, who had last played for the Dodgers in 1960, needed just seven days to become a five-year player under the players’ pension plan. O’Malley put Cuban-born Amoros on the major league roster for a sufficient number of days that allowed Amoros to reach the five-year service mark and thus qualify for increased pension benefits. Amoros will always be remembered for his miraculous game-saving running catch to protect a 2-0 Dodger lead in Game 7 of the 1955 World Series at Yankee Stadium. Bob Hunter, The Sporting News, May 20, 1967

Longtime Los Angeles radio personalities Al Lohman and Roger Barkley, who were on-air partners for 25 years at KFI AM 640, are lunch guests of Walter O’Malley at Dodger Stadium.

The fastest game ever played at Dodger Stadium is recorded as pitcher Al Downing two-hits the Houston Astros, 2-0, in one hour and 30 minutes.

Walter O’Malley writes James D. Hodgson, United States Ambassador to Japan, “We were saddened this morning to learn of (Prime Minister of Japan) Mr. (Eisaku) Sato’s serious stroke last evening. In 1966 he presented me to the Emperor, who then honored me with the Third Order of the Sacred Treasure. I had the privilege of taking the Emperor and Empress to a ball game wearing my new lapel pin. I regularly hear from Toru Shoriki, owner of the Yomiuri Giants and publisher of the Yomiuri Shimbun. He and his father (Matsutaro) before him have been my friends. Beware, one of these days I might find an excuse to go to Tokyo. In the meantime, all good wishes.” Ambassador Hodgson had previously written O’Malley thanking him for a round of golf at the Los Angeles Country Club.