O’Malley, Walter

Walter O’Malley, in full Walter Francis O’Malley, (born October 9, 1903, Bronx, New York, U.S.—died August 9, 1979, Rochester, Minnesota), American lawyer who was the principal owner of the National League Brooklyn Dodgers professional baseball team (from 1958 the Los Angeles Dodgers). As owner of the Dodgers, he played a role in two of the key events in the history of both the club and the major leagues: Jackie Robinson’s breaking of the colour barrier in 1947 and the expansion of the major leagues to the West Coast.

O’Malley received his law degree from Fordham University in New York City in 1930 and became a director of the Dodgers in 1932 and legal adviser in 1943. He became an owner with two other partners in 1945 and assisted general manager Branch Rickey in the signing of Robinson, which ended baseball’s ban of black players. In 1950 O’Malley obtained control of 67 percent of the team’s stock and was made president. He achieved sole control after the team’s move to Los Angeles, becoming chairman of the board in 1970 when he passed the presidency on to his son Peter. The team won the National League pennant six times in Brooklyn and nine times in Los Angeles during the ownership of the O’Malley family (1945–98).

O’Malley was a powerful influence in baseball ownership and management; he became the National League representative to baseball’s executive committee in 1951 and was reputed to have had a major role in selecting William D. Eckert and Bowie Kuhn as commissioners (in 1965 and 1969, respectively).

The Dodgers management bought the Los Angeles franchise in 1956 and moved the team there in 1958. Protests in New York were bitter, but O’Malley’s business acumen was proved in 1978, when the Dodgers became the first major league team to draw more than three million fans. In 2008 he was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

O’Malley’s other financial interests were in railroads, building materials, and real estate. He was also a civic leader.