![]() In his testimony before Brooklyn congressman Emanuel Celler’s antitrust subcommittee in the summer of 1957, O’Malley charged that his plans for a new Dodger stadium in Brooklyn had fallen victim to “sabotage” by New York politicians. There was to be sure one prominent dissenter from this indictment-Walter O’Malley himself. O’Malley killed a generation’s innocence.” And when the news came in December 2007 that Walter O’Malley had been elected to the Hall of Fame, Pete Hamill remembered his father, who “cursed O’Malley whenever the name came up,” and responded on behalf of “the millions of us who still subscribe to an almost biblical injunction: ‘Never forgive, never forget.’ “ More dispassionate accounts of the Dodger move generally concurred that responsibility for the move rested with O’Malley, and that his “true motive” was indeed greed. Such sentiments eventually received classic expression when Pete Hamill and Jack Newfield “dared each other to compose a list of ‘the 10 worst human beings of the 20th century.’ We each wrote the same three names, in the same sequence: Hitler, Stalin, Walter O’Malley.” As Newfield wrote, “you’re not really from Brooklyn unless you hate the man who broke our teenage hearts…. Baseball is a game that can be played by children, but the way O’Malley played it he should have asked for his acreage on Wall Street.” “The only word that fits the Dodgers is greed,” Arthur Daley concurred, writing with “galling resentment” a few days later. Damn the fans, California, here we come…. ![]() ![]() The day after the move was formally announced, Dick Young of the Daily News headlined his column “Lust for more $ killed Brooks” and concluded that O’Malley was leaving Brooklyn, “a rich man and a despised man.” The Post’s Milton Gross, O’Malley’s erstwhile trusting confidante and designated biographer, accused the Dodger owner of “hiding behind statements that seemed to have substance but really were only shadows…. That Walter O’Malley might one day be seen as the victim, and not the villain, in the chain of events that led the Dodgers out of Brooklyn and to Los Angeles would not have seemed even remotely plausible in the immediate aftermath of the Dodgers’ departure. After all, if Moses was responsible for the “fall of New York,” as Robert Caro subtitled his classic biography of New York’s “power broker,” how much easier to pin responsibility on him for the far simpler task of driving the Dodgers out of town by blocking Walter O’Malley’s plan to replace Ebbets Field with a new stadium at the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues in downtown Brooklyn. Jackson for the opportunity to present an earlier version of this article at the “Robert Moses: New Perspectives on the Master Builder” symposium at Columbia University in March 2007.īack in the days when the Brooklyn Dodgers toyed with the emotions of their endlessly faithful fans by having three runners end up on one base, fielding fly balls with their heads, or losing a crucial World Series game on a dropped third strike, it was said that “anything can happen in Brooklyn.” The substitution of long-reviled Dodger owner Walter O’Malley by New York City’s planning czar Robert Moses as the villain in the tale of the team’s move to Los Angeles proves that anything can still happen when the Dodgers are concerned. ![]() 610 winning percentage.īaseball Almanac is pleased to present a unique set of rosters not easilyįound on the Internet.The author wishes to thank Professors Hilary Ballon and Kenneth T. They played their home games at Ebbets Field (Park Factors: 104/102) where 1,807,526 fans witnessed their 1947 Dodgers finish the season with a. The 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers played 154 games during the regular season, won 94 games, lost 60 games, and finished in first position. 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers Roster | Research by Baseball Almanac ![]()
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