Walter Francis O'Malley was an American sports executive who owned the Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers team in Major League Baseball from 1950 to 1979. In 1958, as owner of the Dodgers, he brought major league baseball to the West Coast, moving the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles despite the Dodgers being the second most profitable team in baseball from 1946 to 1956, and coordinating the move of the New York Giants to San Francisco at a time when there were no teams west of Kansas City, Missouri. In 2008, O'Malley was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame for his contributions to and influence on the game of baseball.
O'Malley on the cover of Time magazine, April 28, 1958.
The extent of O'Malley's role in helping Branch Rickey sign Jackie Robinson (pictured) is a matter of some dispute.
Branch Rickey, the father of the modern farm system and the key figure in signing Jackie Robinson, co-owned the Dodgers in the 1940s, before O'Malley squeezed him out of the organization.
Ebbets Field, built in 1912–13, was the Dodgers' home in Brooklyn before O'Malley moved the club to Los Angeles in 1957.
The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1883 as the Brooklyn Grays, next year in 1884 becoming a member of the American Association as the Brooklyn Atlantics before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the club moved to Los Angeles, California, where it continues its history as the Los Angeles Dodgers. The team moved west at the same time as its longtime rival, the New York Giants, moved to San Francisco in northern California as the San Francisco Giants.
Photograph of the 1913 Brooklyn Dodgers team
Jackie Robinson with the Dodgers in 1954