Walter O’Malley: Genius or Madman
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010
There are many who have very strong opinions, historically speaking, of Walter O’Malley. The Dodgers owner, from the 1950 —1979, dug his heals in over a forced move to Queens. He was convinced there was a desperate need to build a new stadium. With teams building new stadiums every 20-30 years in modern times, he was probably right in a request to build a new stadium to replace the 40+ year old park that opened in 1913.
When he started trying to buy land in Brooklyn, he was met with the uncompromising hand of Robert Moses who was determined the site of the new Dodgers Stadiums would be in Flushing Meadows. There are those that will debate on both sides of this issue. Was Moses right in the Queens site being the place the Dodgers should have moved? Was O’Malley acting responsibly and ethically in all of his dealings? I’m sure the answer to both of these questions is ‘No’.
One thing that I thought was interesting in reviewing this story (which is MUCH more detailed than I’m going to go into here) is that O’Malley was intending on paying for the new Brooklyn Stadium with private financing (nearly unheard of in today’s baseball market). Allegedly, anyway.
And the other thing I found fascinating was that it was going to be the first retractable domed stadium in the majors. There would be openings on the sides to allow outdoor air and the roof was intended on being a clear geodesic design that would open in the center if weather permitted.
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An old joke often told in the Brooklyn area:
If you are in a room with Hitler, Stalin, and O’Malley and you have a gun with only two bullets, who do you shoot?
O’Malley twice.
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Robert Moses wouldn’t budge, O’Malley couldn’t get clearance and finally gave up. In 1958 the Dodgers, who had played a handful of games in New Jersey during the 1957 season as part of a bargaining ploy, packed their bags and headed west. Fifty two years later it’s hard to think of the Dodgers as anything other than Los Angeles, but there was a time when Brooklyn had a team affectionately known as the ‘Bums’.
-chief
