October 3, 1956 President Eisenhower is about to throw out the first pitch at Ebbets Field for game 1 of the 1956 World Series. Walter O’Malley checks his watch for the starting time. Just beside O’Malley is commissioner Ford Frick. In the left hand side of this photo is Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles….
Walter O’Malley Essentials Positions: Bats: Throws: Weight: Born: Year: 1903 in New York, NY USA Died: 8 9 1979 in Rochester, MN USA Debut: Last Game: Hall of Fame: Inducted as a Pioneer/Executive in 2008 by Veterans Full Name: Walter Francis O’Malley
Dick Williams, who managed in Boston, Oakland, California, Montreal, San Diego, and Seattle, is elected into the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee. Along with Bill McKechnie, another Hall of Famer, the fiery skipper is the only other manager to appear in the World Series with three different teams (1967 Red Sox, 1972-73 A’s, and 1984 Padres).
Club President Walter O’Malley makes it official, announcing the Dodgers will play in Los Angeles next season. The club’s departure from Brooklyn corresponds with the massive social shift taking place in the borough that finds many of its former residents leaving for the suburbs of Long Island.
1957 – Club President Walter O’Malley offically announces that the Brooklyn Dodgers will play in Los Angeles in 1958.
1957 – Walter O’Malley says the Dodgers may play 10 exhibitions in California in 1958.
1957 – Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley trades minor league franchises with Phil Wrigley of the Chicago Cubs. Brooklyn gives up its Ft. Worth club (Texas League) in return for the Los Angeles Angels (Pacific Coast League). In a year’s time, Brooklyn will be without a team and Los Angeles will be a major league city.
During the New York Baseball Writers Association meeting in New York, Walter O’Malley passes a note to Cubs owner Phil Wrigley, who controls the territorial rights to LA, offering Brooklyn’s Texas League team in Fort Worth in return for the Cubs’ Los Angeles PCL minor league franchise. The swap of farm teams will be announced on February 21, clearing the path for the Dodgers to move to the City of Angels.
The Kratter Corporation grants Walter O’Malley an additional two years on the three-year lease on Ebbets Field agreed to last year. The new timeline means the ball club has a home in Brooklyn until 1961, but the extension may have been prompted by the Dodgers owner’s uncertainty about L.A’s ability to secure the land needed to build a stadium if the team moved to the West Coast.
The sale of the historical, but out-of-date, Ebbets Field to real estate developer Marvin Kratter becomes one of the first indications the ballpark is nearing its end, and, perhaps, a harbinger of the Dodgers’ departure from Brooklyn. As part of the deal, club owner Walter O’Malley is given a three-year lease, with an additional two years to be added in January, to stay and play at the Flatbush facility, which means the ‘Bums’ have a potential home in the borough until 1961.