Vital Statistics:
Born: Oct. 9, 1903 in New York
Died: Aug. 9, 1979
Teams: Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers owner (1950-79)
Inducted into Hall of Fame: 2008
Career Highlights:
- A lawyer by training, he graduated from Fordham in 1930, became a senior partner in a Manhattan law firm and a minority shareholder in the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1944. He bought out Branch Rickey for control of the team in 1950.
- Known as a hero to Los Angeles baseball fans and a villain in New York, he brokered the Giants' move from New York to San Francisco and then his Dodgers' simultaneous move to Los Angeles in 1958.
- He helped Branch Rickey sign Jackie Robinson in 1946.
- The Dodgers won World Series in 1955, 1959, 1963 and 1965, and pennants in 1953, 1956, 1966, 1974, 1977 and 1978.
- Known as a shrewd expert in marketing his team, O'Malley was the most influential owner in baseball in the 1960s and 1970s, and entered the Hall of Fame in the same class as his choice as commissioner, Bowie Kuhn.
