Andy McCue author of Mover and Shaker
Posted by Maria Mac Lean
on Apr 05, 2015
"MOVER & SHAKER" Walter O'Malley, the Dodgers, & Baseball's Westward Expansion
Andy Mc Cue author of “Mover and Shaker, Walter O'Malley, the Dodgers and Baseballs Westward Expansion” came to share his experience that led to the writing of this book. This is the first full-length biography of the man who moved the Dodgers to Los Angeles and who really started professional sports; you can almost say, in Southern California. When he moved the Dodgers; which was announced in late 1957, the only professional sports team in LA was The Rams. Back in that time the Rams only played six games out of the year, so that was the extent of professional sports in Los Angeles. When the Dodgers came they started breaking attendance records. Within a year and a half of getting the Dodgers Los Angeles also had the Lakers and then an expansion football team which has since moved to San Diego and become the Chargers. We would eventually get a second major league baseball team once the American League realized that LA really was a market. Once the AL put the Angels in, Los Angeles would get a second basketball team and even got a couple of hockey teams. People have been talking about the potential of the West Coast since the 30s but nobody would be actually willing to bite the bullet and move out here and do it.
Andy Mc Cue author of “Mover and Shaker, Walter O'Malley, the Dodgers and Baseballs Westward Expansion” came to share his experience that led to the writing of this book. This is the first full-length biography of the man who moved the Dodgers to Los Angeles and who really started professional sports; you can almost say, in Southern California. When he moved the Dodgers; which was announced in late 1957, the only professional sports team in LA was The Rams. Back in that time the Rams only played six games out of the year, so that was the extent of professional sports in Los Angeles. When the Dodgers came they started breaking attendance records. Within a year and a half of getting the Dodgers Los Angeles also had the Lakers and then an expansion football team which has since moved to San Diego and become the Chargers. We would eventually get a second major league baseball team once the American League realized that LA really was a market. Once the AL put the Angels in, Los Angeles would get a second basketball team and even got a couple of hockey teams. People have been talking about the potential of the West Coast since the 30s but nobody would be actually willing to bite the bullet and move out here and do it.
O'Malley's St. Patrick's Day parties were ones to be attended. It's when the Dodgers were still training in Vero Beach in Florida and O'Malley was kind of a professional Irishman you might say, (he was actually half German on his mother’s side.) He would put on these huge parties which would start at 7pm and go till the last person fell down. Everything was painted green and there was a lot of humor and plenty of alcohol. It was a big tradition with the Dodgers players and all the people who surrounded him in the baseball circle that they would just “happen” to be in Vero Beach that day so they could get invited to the party that night.
Part of the book discusses O'Malley's troubles that he had had in New York when he unsuccessfully attempted to get them to help him build a ballpark in Brooklyn. When that did not come to pass the people in New York were very angry that O'Malley left and they had plenty of nasty things to say about him. In the book, Andy then writes about how much trouble O'Malley had when he got to Southern California. There were an awful lot of promises made to him presumably in “good faith” that these people really didn't have ability to follow through on. A Los Angeles committee had sent a delegation to Vero Beach in early 1957to look at the Dodgers, and they basically said would do anything for to get the team. Once this committee came back to talk to the Los Angeles County Attorney they informed them that they could no longer follow through on what they had promised. So there was this long period as to what the city could offer was constantly being scaled back. Once the deal was actually struck with the City Council signing a contract with the Dodgers there was still one City Council person who objected to everything being done.
Andy McClure, the author showed a wonderful piece of film clip from 1957 where O'Malley is making his first visit to the city after stating that the team would move to Los Angeles. As he was getting off the actual plane coming down the stairs, there were several thousand people there to welcome him with bands playing. This was such a huge deal for LA at the time that it was televised. On film, as you see O'Malley walking up to the microphone, once they finished the introductions another man pops out of nowhere and says Mr. O'Malley welcome to LA, here's a subpoena from the people of Chavez Ravine. Eventually there's a referendum in June 1958 which The Dodgers barely win validating the teams deal with the City Council. This deal is then taken to court and gets appealed all the way to the Supreme Court and they eventually refuse to hear it which settles the matter of the land at Chavez Ravine. At that point O'Malley had come to LA thinking that he was going to need two years to build the stadium which turned into four years and by then the price of the land had doubled.
Once construction actually started other problems kept popping up with the city, for example: As they were building the stadium they were supposed to leave an access road across the construction site, once the construction people got the road ready The City came in and said, "Oh no you cannot do that, you have to pave it. You have to put in sidewalks and gutters and you have to put in streetlights". The construction crew did for $6,000 that street was only used for 109 days; then it all had to be torn out.
At another point the city was to buy out a small strip of land were a few houses sat on (which is now considered to be buried under third-base) the City made them an offer but the owners of the homes knew they had leverage being on that property. The residents held out as long as they could, it was figured to cost a little over $82,000 to buy out these homes. Eventually it got to the point where the last of the houses was bought out at cost of nearly $500,000 and O'Malley had to reach into his own pocket to secure the deal.
There were a lot of obstructions in the way at that time but now as you look up on top of that hill and see that beautiful stadium and all of the success that the Dodgers have brought to Los Angeles throughout the years with the attendance and the fans, that we forget that there was this enormous amount of trouble just getting things done.
Andy worked on this book for over 20 years, but the O'Malley's didn't want Andy to write the book and they did not help at all, and sometimes obstructed what he was working on. Although writing this book proved to be a challenge it also was a lot of fun and he does not regret it at all. Andy received The Seymour Medal, named after Dr. Harold Seymour who wrote the most comprehensive history of baseball. That medal is given to the best book of baseball history or biography every year. Andy was thrilled to win it.
Andy attended UCLA, he had been a reporter, editor columnist for the Wall Street Journal. After the Wall Street Journal he went to work for Riverside Press Enterprise. He is also a former President of the Society for the American Baseball Research. We congratulate Andy for his award and thank him for the history of how the Dodgers became the team of Los Angeles.
Andy Mc Clure author of the book and a photo of the book up close.All the News that is fit to Print!
John Boogaard is wearing a medal around his neck for winning the, hairy man's chest contest on his recent cruise ship adventure with his family.
April Berg is doing a great job catering our lunches, the photo shows her finger lick good fried chicken. Jay Wilbur told us about a friend of his whose daughter has a serious disease that caused her to go to a hospital in Houston, TX. Across the street from the hospital is the "Rotary Hotel" to house family members of patients.
John Boogaard took his sons-in-law and grandkids to Calico Mines where they did some shooting practice and rode their quads.
We had Dr. Linda Timmons visiting for the third time (she is soon to become a member) and Glenn Clausen, Vice President of Paramount Petroleum visiting for the first time.
2015 Poker Tournament
On May 1, 2015, the Paramount Rotary Club will hold the Dollars for Scholars Poker Tournament at Gus’ Deli in Paramount. All proceeds go directly toward scholarship opportunities for students in the Paramount Unified School District.
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