Looking through the windshield is Dodger pitcher Don Newcombe and right fielder Carl Furillo riding in a parade caravan in Japan, Fall, 1956. The parade was during the Dodgers' 1956 Goodwill Tour to Japan.

Dodger Milestones in the Development of International Baseball During the O’Malley Era: The 1950s

Researched and edited by Brent Shyer and Robert Schweppe

  • The Dodgers establish a “working agreement” with the Caracas club of the Venezuela League as reported in the New York Daily News on February 28, 1951, which is “the first of its kind ever entered into by a big league club.” The agreement is to be used as “a training ground for Dodger farm prospects” whom “management desires to bring along at an accelerated rate”

  • Walter O’Malley provides 75 Israeli soldiers visiting Ebbets Field with baseball equipment

  • Walter O’Malley invites 17-year-old King Faisal II of Iraq to sit with him at Ebbets Field to watch the monarch’s first baseball game. The New York Daily News reported on August 14, 1952, that the “Royal visitor said he played both cricket and soccer football at Harrow School in England…Most of Iraq and (U.S.) State Department delegation were behind Brooks’ dugout, on top of which rested green, white, black and red Iraq flag”

  • Rev. John Chiramal, an Indian priest plans to open Boys’ Town of India on 300 acres granted from the Indian Government and Walter O’Malley furnishes him with an ample supply of baseballs and bats to fulfil Rev. Chiramal’s hope to teach the boys America’s national pastime. 

  • The Dodgers establish a working agreement with the Monterrey Sultanes of the Mexican League, sending players to the league

  • Dodgers are warmly welcomed on a month-long Goodwill Tour to Japan. First visit of the O’Malley family to Japan

  • Tokyo Yomiuri Giants are invited by Walter O’Malley to send their manager and two players to Dodgertown, Vero Beach, FL for training, along with Sotaro Suzuki, highly-respected columnist

  • Walter O’Malley invites the Little League champions from Monterrey, Mexico to be honored at Ebbets Field and watch the Dodgers-St. Louis Cardinals game

  • The Dutch National baseball team in September 1957 were guests of Walter O’Malley and the Dodgers at Ebbets Field, Brooklyn. The team was excited to see a major league game. According to Royal Dutch Baseball Association Director Jan Hartog in a 1968 letter to O’Malley recalled, “The Dodgers were prepared to receive us and imagine how surprised we were, when — after the first innings — they welcomed us over the radio.” 

  • With persistent rains at Dodgertown, Vero Beach, Florida during Spring Training, the Dodgers relocate to Havana, Cuba for three exhibition games, including two against the Cincinnati Reds

  • The Dodgers participate in an exhibition in Nagoya, Japan, sending materials about Dodger Stadium, under construction in Los Angeles, as well as player photos from the team’s 1956 Goodwill Tour