|
An Irish Field of Dreams
 During
his father’s time, the Dodgers broke the color barrier with Jackie Robinson.
Now, Peter O’Malley is helping to internationalize the most American of
sports by building baseball fields in Ireland, China, and Nicaragua and
supporting baseball programs in Japan and other countries.
Peter O’Malley is an internationalist. You can tell by the gigantic pictures
of baseball diamonds he has constructed that hang on the walls of his office
in downtown Los Angeles. There are blow-ups of fields in Nicaragua, Tianjin
China, the Dominican Republic and Dublin, Ireland. In O’Malley’s perfect
world, top-notch baseball would be played in every country and the “World
Series,” would have a more literal meaning.
Since succeeding his father, the legendary Walter O’Malley, as president
of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1970, Peter has traveled the world in search
of professional quality players and to jump start baseball in places where
athletic resources are scarce. Although O’Malley sold the Dodgers to the
Fox Corporation in 1997, he has remained an active supporter of amateur
and professional baseball. Cultural and athletic exchanges, O’Malley believes,
can play a small role in diplomatic progress and can open up opportunities
for young talent. If the world is now a global community, than baseball
should be part of it.
The O’Malleys and the Dodgers are virtually synonymous with professional
baseball and the cultural and social currents of American life. The Dodgers
were responsible for breaking the so-called “color line” in baseball when
they brought Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. When the Dodgers
moved to Los Angeles in 1958 it symbolized a demographic and economic shift
west, helping make baseball a genuinely national pastime. And by signing
top pitchers from Mexico, Korea, and Japan, the Dodgers built a multicultural
team in one of the nation’s most diverse cities.
It would be easy to spend days reminiscing with O’Malley about the highlights
of the past – the 15 National League Pennants and six world series titles,
Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, Maury
Wills and Roy Campanella. But Peter O’Malley’s mind seems firmly fixed on
the present and future. He prefers to talk about the growth of Olympic baseball
or the potential for a world-wide league. He recently returned from Tokyo
where he was supporting another baseball program there. He’s staying busy
in Los Angeles advising business and civic leaders, supporting the arts
and pushing for a NFL football franchise. But in his spare moments of reflection,
he imagines a house in West Cork, a good book and a warm fire. And perhaps
on a late summer afternoon he could even take in a baseball game.
Kelly Candaele: It’s as if you could trace the history of the United
States – racial issues, changing demographics with the growth of populations
south and west, economics, the growth of the corporation – through the evolution
of baseball.
Peter O’Malley: I completely agree. The Hall of Fame had an exhibit recently
with the theme being “Baseball In America,” and it pointed out how in all
those issues – Jackie Robinson, the movement to the suburbs, western expansion,
economics – baseball has reflected the changes in America.
Are there any particular experiences as owner of the Dodgers that
you cherish above others?
The overall stability of the organization during the almost fifty years
that my dad and I were in charge. That was a tremendous good feeling of
accomplishment for our family. Over that time we had just a few managers,
a few general managers, and very little turnover. We kept the ticket prices
down. We had credibility and support of the fans and made decisions with
a long term view rather than a short-term view. We enjoyed every minute
of it, but it was not a hobby. We felt responsible as a family.
Was there a point during your ownership where you saw the changes
happening in terms of the economics of baseball – the takeover by media
conglomerates and owner-player relations – and thought this is not in the
best interest of baseball or the fans?
I honestly thought corporate ownership would be good for the game. Years
ago we had some individuals who may have bought teams for ego satisfaction
or to become better-known – not good reasons to own a sports team. I thought
corporations would be stable owners as corporations live forever although
management changes. Looking back it didn’t work out that way for Disney
or Time-Warner or Fox. In the mid nineties I saw the accumulative debt of
all thirty clubs approaching two billion then three billion dollars and
I thought how in the world is that debt every going to be paid? It just
didn’t make any economic sense to me or my family to stay in the game and
that’s why we made the decision in the late nineties to leave. It was an
emotional decision that I don’t regret but we certainly miss it. The economics
are just out of balance.
It seems that baseball has gone from being a blue-collar game to the
regular Joe being priced out of attendance. Now a fan might spend $150 or
$200 on a single game if they take the family.
I agree. We used to encourage families for to come for X number of dollars.
That’s changed dramatically in the last five years. It’s eight dollars for
a beer. The price of parking, hot-dogs, soft drinks as well as ticket prices
have all gone up a lot and that’s not good for the future of baseball. The
game on the field is extraordinary but it’s the off the field problems that
need to be addressed in a creative way. A new commissioner would help and
a new relationship with the Players Association would help. There have been
eight work stoppages in thirty-two years so that’s not the way to run a
business.
Do you stay in touch with the game?
I do. I keep in touch with the Dodgers and the management there. I keep
in touch with some of the owners, former owners, and league commissioners.
But I really spend a lot of time on international baseball. I’ve enjoyed
watching baseball grow around the world and in the Olympics. I’ve also been
chairman of the Little League Baseball Foundation for many years. So it’s
not a business but a hobby. My work internationally is partly responsible
for how we got Fernando Valenzuela from Mexico, Hideo Nomo from Japan and
Chan Ho Park from Korea.
Did you do that kind of recruiting to help make the Dodgers reflect
the diversity of Los Angeles as a world city?
Exactly. Consciously or sub-consciously it was there. I always wanted
the Dodgers to reflect the make-up of the city. We gave it a pretty good
shot.
Have you flirted with getting back into the game?
There are teams for sale in Taiwan, Korea and Japan. I’ve been invited
to buy any number of them. They are all losing money. I’ve just sold a team
that was losing money and I don’t really want to buy another team that is
also losing money.
Any big projects on your agenda that you can talk about?
Football. I keep in touch with the NFL.
It’s easy for a lot of the elected officials to say the NFL needs LA
more than LA needs the NFL. I don’t agree. I think having an NFL team here
would be an extraordinary opportunity. It’s good for both. I looked at it
in the mid ’90s when I was thinking about building a football stadium south
of Dodgers stadium. It didn’t work out but that problem has to be solved.
What would drive the economics of the project would be Super Bowls. Today
New Orleans is the NFL’s favorite Super Bowl city. Having that whole two-week
event here, with a state-of-the-art stadium, would be beneficial to all
the citizens and taxpayers. There would be no better city.
What are your memories of Brooklyn?
Great memories. I went to grammar school in Brooklyn and visited Ebbets
Field frequently. In those days the Dodgers played afternoon games so my
friends and I would catch the last five or six innings after school. My
family didn’t want to leave Brooklyn. We had friends there and still do.
Do you remember when Jackie Robinson came up to the Dodgers?
I was nine years old in 1947. I do remember visiting with Jackie and
Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe in the dugout during spring training at
Ebbets Field, but I can’t really remember his first game or the impact of
that.
Do you remember the Dodgers triumph in the 1955 World Series?
I do. I also remember [N.Y. Giants] Bobby Thompson’s three run home run
in the 9th inning which won the National League Pennant in 1951. I had a
portable radio as I was working out with the high school football team and
we listened in disbelief. The Dodgers had had a lead of about thirteen games
with a month and a half to go. So that was not a happy time. But winning
the National League Pennant as frequently as the team did in the 1950s was
thrilling even though the Yankees knocked us off in the World Series until
1955. I was a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania for that one. It
was a big event.
What was the background of the Dodgers leaving Brooklyn?
My dad wanted to build a stadium in Brooklyn at the corner of Atlantic
and Flatbush Avenues. It would have been the first domed stadium. He was
working with Buckminster Fuller who designed the geodesic dome and that
would have been both a great location, where the Long Island Railroad ended
in Brooklyn, and a great stadium. He tried hard and only when he determined
that it was just not going to happen did he look elsewhere. The Giants were
looking at Minneapolis and it made a lot more sense for them both to go
to California.
Didn’t your father help the Giants with the move to San Francisco?
I think he did. The Giants had a similar situation. Ebbets Field was
built in 1913 and it truly was an old stadium with very limited parking.
The Polo Grounds had a similar dilemma. I don’t remember any discussion
about the Giants and a new stadium in the vicinity of the Polo Grounds.
So both teams had to do something and San Francisco and Los Angeles worked.
Did the emotional intensity of that decision in terms of Brooklyn
fans, surprise you?
I think there was a lot of bitterness and animosity but you have to take
an objective look at everything that was going on and my father’s sincere
attempt to build a stadium in Brooklyn. Robert Moses was a key players in
those days and my Dad and Robert Moses did not get along. I’m not saying
my dad was right or Moses was wrong, but they were two very strong individuals.
Moses had his ideas and my dad had his and it didn’t work out. My dad wanted
to stay. Why would you leave the New York market? My dad had an interest
in pay television so he didn’t want to leave the New York market. He tried
hard in Brooklyn but it was impossible so he looked elsewhere.
Did Moses kill the deal in Brooklyn?
Moses wanted a stadium in Flushing Meadows where eventually the Mets’
Shea Stadium was built. But my dad said no, if we’re going to be the Brooklyn
Dodgers we’re going to be in Brooklyn, not in Jersey City or Flushing Meadows
or on Long Island. The Atlantic and Flatbush site really turned him on.
Every subway in New York passed underneath and the Long Island Railroad
dead ended right there.
The Braves had moved from Boston to Milwaukee and were drawing over two
million fans a year. I’m guessing that the Ebbets Field attendance was as
best 900,000 a year. The field had outlived its life. They re-modeled it
in the 1930s and in 1957, which was our last year there, it was 44 years
old. Restrooms, food facilities and the clubhouse were not adequate. The
same was true for the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium. I’ll bet the City
of New York has put into Yankee Stadium close to a billion dollars every
fifteen years or so since the late 1950s when the Dodgers and Giants left
because all three of those stadiums were old.
What’s the story behind returning the 1955 Dodgers World Series flag
to Brooklyn?
When we played the White Sox in Los Angeles in the World Series in 1959
we hung the 1955 World Series Brooklyn Dodgers championship flag on the
wall in the press headquarters. Three young writers from New York including
Jack Mann who I believe is still alive, said, “We’ve got to get that flag.
It doesn’t belong in LA; it belongs in Brooklyn.” They gave the guard twenty
dollars to look the other way and they got the flag and took it back to
New York. I believe it stayed in Jack Mann’s garage in Long Island for ten
or fifteen years and nobody knew where it was. Finally they decide that
they are going to give the flag to the Baseball Hall of Fame and that’s
what they do. So I write to the head of the Hall of Fame saying that the
flag is stolen property and it has to be returned to its rightful owner.
They agreed and they sent it to me in Los Angeles maybe fifteen years ago.
Then I decided that it really belonged in Brooklyn. I called the Brooklyn
Historical Society and said I’d like to give them the flag and so today
the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers World Championship flag is back in Brooklyn.
Where in Ireland are the O’Malleys from?
County Mayo. I took the family there but didn’t meet anyone we were related
to.
Did you have a sense of Irish identity or connection to Ireland growing
up?
My dad talked a lot about Grace O’Malley, the pirate queen of Ireland
four hundred years ago, who was from Mayo. He probably read all the books
about her. My dad only visited Ireland a few times. I went a couple of times
with him and when I got married in 1971 in Copenhagen we went to Ireland
on our honeymoon. My wife and I have taken our three children there several
times. We just drive around and try to absorb the people, the beauty, the
nature and the friendliness of Ireland. Our children, Catherine, Kevin and
Brian, look back on those trips with great memories. They were introduced
to Ireland at a younger age than I was. My first trip was in the mid-sixties.
How did you get interested in helping to promote baseball in Ireland?
When I was there I inquired about whether baseball was being played.
“It’s being played on the corner of the soccer field and when the soccer
players come, the baseball youngsters have to move elsewhere,” I was told.
So I asked how much it would cost to build a field. It was not much, so
we looked at five or so different sites and finally settled on Corkagh Park.
It’s a great setting. I told the association that I would pay for the building
of the ball field and the clearing of the land but they would own and maintain
it. So volunteers active in the Irish baseball and softball association
do all the work.
You were there when the field opened.
Yes I was at the opening of the adult field in July 1998. Jean Kennedy
Smith, then the United States Ambassador to Ireland, threw out the first
ball. At the time my daughter Catherine was working as an intern in her
office. Ambassador Kennedy Smith was extraordinary. She had us all back
to the residence for a big 4th of July celebration. We had a great time.
The fact the Irish are now using the field a lot, in between showers, makes
me feel really good.
It is your sense that at some point there could emerge an international
world baseball league?
It is. I think that if Rome had gotten the votes to host the Olympics
it would have helped. Italy is the strongest baseball country in Europe
and baseball’s an official sport in the Olympic program. There are baseball
stadiums and stadiums with lights in Italy so it would have been an extraordinary
boost for baseball. From that standpoint I was hoping that Rome would win.
That’s were it would start. The Netherlands is the second strongest country
for baseball. Austria has good amateur programs. It will take time, maybe
an exhibition game or two in Rome. It just needs more visibility and promotion.
In Ireland it’s tiny right now but growing.
Even though Ireland is a global country now in terms of culture, music
and theater, in terms of sports I wonder how they will accept baseball.
I don’t think it’s a problem at all. When Jean Kennedy Smith was ambassador
and I told her about my idea to build a field, she said, “Will you also
build one in the North?” and I said I’ve never been to the North but I’d
surely consider it. At the time there was hardly any baseball being played
there. Now there are exchanges back and forth. I have not done anything
in Northern Ireland but maybe some day it will happen. I need to go there
and check it out.
The players from Belfast say that they are all teammates and that
goes beyond being Catholic, Protestant, Nationalist or Unionist.
Baseball has an extraordinary opportunity to generate good will and understanding.
A good friend of mine in Japan Dr. Matsumae, founder of Tokai University,
had a dream to build a baseball stadium in Moscow because he believed that
if baseball could get started in Russia that would help the United States,
Russia and Japan. He built a stadium in Moscow and I went to the grand opening.
So it was that idea that caused me to build a field in China before the
fields in Ireland. Now baseball is doing very well in China. I built one
in Nicaragua for different reasons. It all helps because we all have to
get along.
Do you think Sandy Koufax was the greatest pitcher ever?
You and I haven’t seen them all but we’ve seen a fair number. I’d have
to say he was based on what I’ve seen and heard about those who came before
him. Sandy dominated when he was pitching. So for me he was the best and
an outstanding individual, a very quiet guy who doesn’t care for the limelight.
He also has been to Ireland and enjoyed it very much.
Do you have any plans to go back to Ireland soon?
I do. I want to go back soon and visit the fields. I thought about buying
a place in Castletownsend in the western part of County Cork that was absolutely
beautiful. It’s a peaceful place on a little bay away from where the tourist
buses pass. There’s a tree in the middle so a bus can’t even get down the
street and there’s a great pub. That was before September 11th and we have
put it aside for now. But maybe it will happen.
My friends ask, ‘What are you going to do there Peter?’ And I say ‘I’d
like to read about Irish history and learn a lot more than I now know.’
|
