This Day in Walter O’Malley History:

  • Attorney Walter O’Malley and his friend and mentor George V. McLaughlin, former Police Commissioner and President of the Brooklyn Trust Company, attend a dinner in honor of John J. Harrington, General Manager of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, in which O’Malley serves as host. The dinner is held at the Marine Roof of the Hotel Bossert in Brooklyn. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 28, 1938

  • A New York Daily News editorial supports Walter O’Malley’s idea of a “Music Appreciation Night” at Ebbets Field on August 13 to show Local 802, American Federation of Musicians, that it is off base in prohibiting non-union “musicians” of the Dodger Sym-Phony to perform during games. “Music Appreciation Night is as interesting a stunt, we think, as Brooklyn Dodger President Walter F. O’Malley has yet dreamed up...The idea is to show Jimmy Petrillo’s Local 802, American Federation of Musicians, where it gets off with its demand that the famous amateur, unpaid and well-nigh unmusical Dodger Sym-Phony be bounced out of Ebbets and replaced by union musicians at $100 a game. Petrillo’s boys are attempting a shakedown, and there is no other word for it. Mr. O’Malley has figured out a way to show ’em, and we hope he goes through with it. Musical Appreciation Night may well have other happy effects. It seems likely to introduce a lot of people to the fun of making music, or what you think is music, on your own. Thus, culture would have a new birth in Brooklyn...This ought to be good.” New York Daily News, editorial, July 27, 1951

  • Walter O’Malley has a meeting with George Spargo and Robert Moses in Moses’ office at Randall’s Island. Spargo was the General Manager and Secretary of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority. Moses was Chairman of the Authority, as well as Chairman, Construction Coordinator, City of New York, Office of Committee on Slum Clearance.

  • Demy Apodaca, Mayor of Norwalk, California, sends a letter to Walter O’Malley asking the Dodger President to consider locating a ballpark on land in Norwalk and Dairy Valley. Apodaca tells the Norwalk Call he is completely serious about the matter and that he intends to invite O’Malley, or one of his representatives, to discuss the land. At the time, Norwalk was California’s 15th largest city. Norwalk Call, July 27, 1958

  • David Sarnoff, one of the nation’s premier media executives, meets with Walter O’Malley in Los Angeles. General Dwight Eisenhower made Sarnoff a Brigadier General and his communications consultant. General Sarnoff, who was heavily involved in the technical development of television, was named Chairman of the Board of RCA in 1947 and remained in that position until his death in 1971.

  • The National Baseball Hall of Fame holds its Induction Ceremonies in Cooperstown, New York, as Dodger owner Walter O’Malley is one of the inductees in the “Class of 2008.” Elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee on December 3, 2007, O’Malley was the full-time owner of the Dodgers, the most accomplished franchise in the modern era, from 1950-79. In 1999, ABC Sports Century Panel named visionary O’Malley in its Top 10 Most Influential People “off the field” in sports history, while The Sporting News named O’Malley the 11th Most Powerful Person in Sports in the last century. O’Malley is widely-recognized for the westward expansion of baseball in 1958 and for helping to design, build and privately finance Dodger Stadium, which opened on April 10, 1962. Under his leadership, the Dodgers became the “gold standard” of baseball franchises, winning four World Championships (1955, 1959, 1963 and 1965) and 11 National League Pennants.

    The “2008 Hall of Fame Class” also includes premium relief pitcher Rich “Goose” Gossage; Bowie Kuhn, fifth Commissioner of Baseball from 1969-84; Barney Dreyfuss, first owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates and one of the “fathers” of the modern World Series; Cardinals’ and Braves’ Manager Billy Southworth, who has the fifth-best all-time winning percentage at .597 and two World titles; and Manager Dick Williams, who managed 21 seasons with six different teams, winning two World Championships for Oakland.

    An exhibit featuring several unique O’Malley items is on display in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.