I told Carroll

 

 


 I told Carroll



     When it came to Mister Walter O'Malley, Greg and I had love for the old capitalist that was part gratitude for the Dodgers and part admiration for his ability to create a gold mine in LA with sheer guts. Normally, neither one of us would like a millionaire who worked one of the biggest boonswoggles in local history but we chose to overlook all of his faults and just loved "the O'Malley" He faced up to the ultra-powerful Robert Moses in New York and thumbed his nose at a man once seen as holding power equal to the president of the United States. O'Malley was not a real baseball man but a lawyer who took over in 1950 with the drive to make mountains of cash by using his cunning and expert management. We laughed at photos of the man smoking huge cigars, sitting in a golf cart at LA Country Club or enjoying a day at Santa Anita in a clubhouse box. We listened closely to a fairly rare interview with the old sage where he deemed Vin Scully, the most important Los Angeles Dodger of all time by tapping his index finger on a radio and saying "this man right here." While O'Malley was mostly interested in profit he also helped to bring black players into the mainstream after Jackie Robinson had broken the initial barrier. He even had a nine hole golf course built at Vero Beach for his black players who were denied tee times at bigoted local Florida courses. You look at early Dodger rosters and see lots of players of color like Jim Gilliam, Charley Neal, Joe Black, Campy, Newk and Jackie of course. With all of it's history Ebbets field was a loser and Walter knew it had to go. When Walter O'Malley went to look over the landscape of Southern California in a helicopter he knew Chavez Ravine was the spot and made a deal for the then controversial property that was a real "steal." Greg liked to do an impression of O'Malley with the hoarse, cigar rasped voice describing his response to the owner of the Rams, Carroll Rosenblum who wanted to leave the Coliseum and play games at Dodger Stadium. Greg quoted him word for word "I told Carroll...that even five dates of footbal would kill me on my taxes." This tickled Greg that the old money man who was taking brinks trucks full of money out of his ballpark would still be crossing the t's and dotting the I's on his financial dealings. 



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