THE BROOKLYN LOS ANGELES DODGERS….This isn’t the most important story in the world, but I just read in the LA Times that Walter O’Malley, the guy who joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1943 and served as president of the Dodgers from 1950-1970, will probably never be elected to the Hall of Fame.
Here’s a guy who was part of breaking the color barrier by hiring Jackie Robinson, who won eight National League pennants and four World Series, was part of the original migration of the league west of the Mississippi, and built one of the beautiful ballparks in the country. He was a class act and one of the most influential baseball owners ever. But there’s this:
“Walter did a lot of great things for baseball,” said Hal Lebovitz, Hall of Fame writer from Ohio. “But I can’t vote for him the way I could never vote for Art Modell for the football Hall of Fame. In a way, they were traitors to their cities.”
Damn, are there really people still holding a grudge over this? And we wonder why we can’t make peace in the Middle East?
Anyway, today is O’Malley’s 100th birthday, so his son Peter, who followed his father and served as Dodger president for over two decades, has launched a website dedicated to Walter and the Dodgers. Check it out if you’re a baseball fan (even if you are from New York….).
