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Robert Moses
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Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
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00:00Oh, it's on the line!
00:01It's five up there!
00:04Michigan can't take a timeout.
00:10No good.
00:12Line right.
00:19Hi everybody, I'm Brian Kenney, and welcome to ESPN Classics' Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame.
00:24A series that takes a fresh look at sports personalities who are remembered largely for their mistakes,
00:29controversial moments, or questionable decisions.
00:32It's been called one of the most traumatic events for New Yorkers since World War II.
00:36The announcement in 1957 that the Dodgers would move from Brooklyn to Los Angeles
00:40still spikes the blood pressure of those old enough to remember.
00:44Only two years removed from winning their only World Series championship,
00:47the Dodgers deserted their largely working-class fans for the untapped market of Southern California.
00:53For such treason, Walter O'Malley has been branded one of the biggest villains of sports ownership.
00:57Before we count down, the top five reasons.
01:01What the heck?
01:03Baseball was America.
01:05And in Brooklyn, the way people's value system was in those days is,
01:11number one was the Brooklyn Dodgers, number two might be family,
01:14and number three might be school or anything else.
01:18Whenever they say, where were you born?
01:19And I said, I was born in Los Angeles, but baseball-wise, I was born in Brooklyn.
01:24Baseball of Brooklyn was the heart and soul of Brooklyn.
01:27To me, it was a love affair.
01:30They loved this team.
01:31We came back to the same neighborhoods year after year,
01:34so we got to know the deli guy, the barber.
01:37We sort of became part of the family of Brooklyn.
01:40It was a bond that endured the best and worst of times.
01:45Over two decades that began in 1921,
01:48the Dodgers posted 12 losing seasons and not a single pennant.
01:53Yet the family of fan and team held together.
01:56What's Brooklyn got that no other city's got?
01:59What's Brooklyn got?
02:00The Dodgers.
02:02My family struggled.
02:03For me, it made the Dodgers the easiest team to understand.
02:08A bunch of people who tried, who struggled, and usually lost in the end.
02:16Although Brooklyn competed in its third World Series in 1941,
02:21the franchise had yet to win a championship.
02:24Then in 1947, something vastly more significant than a world title
02:29occurred in the blue-collar borough.
02:30On April 15th, Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier.
02:35We didn't know that he was changing America.
02:38That when that team was formed,
02:41and its engine in many ways emotionally was Robinson.
02:45For a lot of people my age, there was no other team.
02:49It became a rallying point for equality,
02:53for representing what America is supposed to be all about.
02:57And if you were a kid growing up,
03:00the Dodgers had that kind of special aura.
03:05While the Dodgers won pennants in 1947 and 1949,
03:10President and General Manager Branch Rickey
03:12was losing ground to co-owner Walter O'Malley.
03:15And in 1950, the man who signed Jackie Robinson
03:18was pushed out of power.
03:21Rumblings of discontent could be heard from Canarsie to Greenpoint.
03:25O'Malley was the guy who got rid of Branch Rickey.
03:30And Branch Rickey was God in my household.
03:33If you're calling Central Casting and say,
03:35send me a guy that people are going to despise on sight,
03:41they're going to send you something very much like Walter O'Malley.
03:43He's a bankruptcy lawyer during the Depression.
03:46A grave dancer.
03:48He's making money when people are selling apples.
03:52With O'Malley at the wheel,
03:54the team that Rickey built continued an era of prosperity and victory,
03:58winning two more pennants in 1952 and 53.
04:01But with each pennant came a loss to the hated Bronx Bombers,
04:05who had beaten them in five World Series since 1941.
04:08Wait till next year was the Burroughs' credo.
04:12You got to get up in life
04:14because a lot of things are going to knock you down.
04:17The Dodgers kept getting up.
04:19What rooting for the Dodgers gave all of us
04:21who did root for the Dodgers,
04:24a respect for imperfection.
04:27We learned how to lose.
04:30Deliverance arrived in 1955
04:32when left-hander Johnny Padres went the distance in Game 7.
04:37The Dodgers win it 2-0
04:39and win their first World Series.
04:41They were out-hit by a gallant Yankee team
04:44but never out-played.
04:45And this day will live long
04:46in the memory of Brooklyn, USA.
04:50I...
04:51Then stole him.
04:56Stole...
04:56The city's...
04:59Hope
05:00by moving them two years
05:02after they had already won the World Series.
05:04It's not like the team was trash.
05:10Still say it's the happiest day of my life
05:13but what it took to get to that moment was agonizing.
05:18Brooklyn went wild when we won that.
05:20The street was just packed with people.
05:23I remember players going out to wave it to people.
05:26It was something to see.
05:30While Brooklyn fans glowed with pride,
05:33O'Malley was considering the future.
05:35He wanted a new home for his team.
05:37But it wasn't clear exactly where home would be.
05:40While Gotham fiddled,
05:42L.A. let it be known that it lusted
05:44after a Major League franchise.
05:47Suspense built over the next two seasons.
05:50Do you feel now that there's a good chance
05:52that your club is going to stay here in New York?
05:55Gabe, honestly,
05:56I haven't the vaguest idea at this moment.
05:58We know that we have
05:59a fine proposition from Los Angeles,
06:02a sincere one.
06:04Horace Stoneham announced in August
06:06that the Giants were leaving for San Francisco
06:08and the fans knew it.
06:10It was a foregone conclusion
06:11that Brooklyn was going to move out, too.
06:13But O'Malley wanted to get every nickel
06:15he could out of those fans
06:16till the last day.
06:18And as soon as the season was over,
06:19then he announced
06:20that Brooklyn was going to Los Angeles.
06:251957.
06:26My ball club was the thing I loved the most,
06:29even more than my parents.
06:30So to take this away from me,
06:32and I took it very personally,
06:34there was an extraordinary feeling of betrayal.
06:37If O'Malley walked down the street,
06:38somebody probably would have punched him out,
06:40or he maybe even shot him.
06:42Who knows?
06:42I mean, they hated him.
06:44We felt,
06:45why not just build a team?
06:47Why take our team?
06:49You know,
06:50go down and buy your own car.
06:52Don't take my car.
06:54There's an emotional legacy
06:55that O'Malley left,
06:57which is a generalized cynicism about sports.
07:00You know,
07:01to just go where the money was.
07:03The sort of mysterious connection to sports
07:06was, I think,
07:07broken forever by O'Malley.
07:11That's the conventional wisdom
07:13behind the vilification of O'Malley.
07:15In a few minutes,
07:15we'll make our case
07:16by counting down the top five reasons
07:17you can't blame him
07:18for uprooting the Dodgers.
07:20But first,
07:20here are a few that didn't make the cut.
07:21We call them the best of the rest.
07:25Phil Wrigley,
07:27the owner of the Chicago Cubs,
07:29held the key to the Los Angeles market.
07:31And in 1957,
07:33O'Malley picked the lock.
07:35O'Malley had the Fort Worth territory
07:37for a farm team.
07:38The Cubs had Los Angeles.
07:40And at a baseball writer's dinner in New York,
07:43he swapped Fort Worth for Los Angeles.
07:47The Los Angeles territory
07:49is worth, you know,
07:51hundreds of millions of dollars today.
07:53I mean,
07:54what were they thinking?
07:56But then again,
07:57that's the Cubs.
08:00Our other best of the rest,
08:02Horace Stoneham.
08:03Plagued by poor attendance
08:05and a dilapidated canyon of a ballpark,
08:07the New York Giants owner
08:09was ready to move his team to Minneapolis
08:11until he considered the profit potential
08:13of a Giants-Dodgers rivalry
08:15on the West Coast.
08:17There was a question as to whether
08:19the National League would have approved
08:22one team moving to the West Coast.
08:25Remember now,
08:25we're talking about an era
08:26where commercial aviation
08:28is really just taking off.
08:30And by having the Giants go out there,
08:32too,
08:33meant that they can play
08:34in two different venues
08:34for their 2,000-mile flight.
08:40Horace Greeley.
08:41If the editor of the New York Tribune
08:43didn't actually come up with the phrase
08:45often attributed to him,
08:46go West, young man,
08:48he certainly was a passionate proponent
08:50of westward expansion.
08:52Until the Giants and Dodgers
08:53shook loose from their eastern roots,
08:55not one of the 16 Major League franchises
08:58played west of Kansas City.
09:00Los Angeles and San Francisco
09:02with no Major League Baseball
09:03were underserved markets.
09:06Walter O'Malley did baseball a huge favor
09:08by making us a continental national pastime
09:12for a continental nation.
09:13Almost the same instincts
09:14that impelled the gold rushers
09:17to go out to San Francisco area
09:19in the mid-1800s
09:20impelled Walter O'Malley
09:22to seek the Southern California area
09:24so there was an opportunity
09:26to make an awful lot of money out there.
09:28There's a great picture
09:29of O'Malley coming out to Los Angeles
09:30and seeing Chavez Ravine.
09:33And like Brigham Young,
09:35he goes,
09:36that's the place.
09:37He sees a ballpark.
09:39We found a side,
09:41we spent a great deal of money,
09:42and we built a magnificent ballpark.
09:44The people love it.
09:46The move west was validated
09:48before the completion
09:49of Dodger Stadium in 1962.
09:52Four years earlier
09:53in their inaugural season
09:55at the L.A. Coliseum,
09:56the Dodgers drew a million by July,
09:59passing Brooklyn's home attendance
10:01for the previous season.
10:02In 1959,
10:04they passed two million,
10:06and 19 years later,
10:08the Dodgers were the first franchise
10:10to draw three million.
10:12Los Angeles made good
10:15on Horace Greeley's advice
10:17to go west.
10:18Sooner or later,
10:20somebody had to go west.
10:21For Walter O'Malley,
10:23it was an offer
10:23he couldn't refuse.
10:27One down,
10:29four to go.
10:29Here is reason number four.
10:32William Leavitt,
10:33the New York real estate developer,
10:36revolutionized home construction
10:37and spurred a massive flight
10:39from the city
10:40to the suburbs
10:41in the 1950s.
10:43Leavitt was a guy
10:45who began to build
10:46houses on the cheap.
10:48He makes it possible
10:49for an entire generation
10:51of New Yorkers
10:52to move out to the suburbs.
10:54End of the Second World War,
10:56we demobilized
10:5712 million people,
10:58government passes
10:59GI Bill of Rights,
11:00and they said,
11:01we will subsidize
11:02your mortgage.
11:03Well, lo and behold,
11:05the result is Long Island.
11:07It's Leavittown.
11:11The flight to the suburbs
11:12was just one factor
11:13in the evolution
11:14of Brooklyn.
11:15The borough's daily paper,
11:17the Brooklyn Eagle,
11:18folded in 1955,
11:20and the famed Navy Yard
11:21continued to lose contracts
11:23to other ports.
11:24I think O'Malley
11:26was definitely upset
11:27by the changing
11:28complexion of Brooklyn.
11:30Part of that was racial.
11:31What he was seeing
11:32as Brooklyn changed
11:33was middle class whites
11:36being replaced
11:37by poor minorities.
11:40Fewer suburbanites
11:42were willing to travel back
11:43into the deteriorating areas
11:44around Ebbets Field.
11:46Even in that championship
11:47season of 1955,
11:49average attendance
11:51was less than half
11:52of the park's capacity.
11:54There was urban blight.
11:56There was no parking
11:57at Ebbets Field.
11:58It was a very difficult chore
12:01to get there by car
12:03and park your car
12:04and come back
12:05and find that the tires
12:06had not been slashed
12:07or the paint
12:09had not been scratched.
12:10There was an element
12:11of safety
12:12and an element
12:13of fear.
12:15So all of that
12:16contributed to
12:17the Dodgers
12:18wanting to get out
12:19of Ebbets Field.
12:23A brave new world.
12:25The Braves started it.
12:27Their relocation
12:28from Boston
12:28to Milwaukee
12:29in 1953
12:30was the first shift
12:32of franchises
12:33in half a century.
12:35Milwaukee rolls out
12:36the red carpet
12:37for its new baseball team,
12:38the Braves.
12:39Owner Lou Perrini says
12:40Boston was never like this.
12:42I think everyone
12:43in baseball
12:44saw the...
12:46...has been infatuated
12:48with the Red Sox.
12:49Nobody missed the Braves.
12:51That's not an excuse
12:52to move the Dodgers
12:53all of a sudden.
12:56A wide acceptance
12:58by the Braves
12:59in Wisconsin.
13:00That got the attention
13:01of everyone in baseball.
13:03It really let loose
13:04the forces
13:05that really created
13:06modern baseball.
13:07Because the year
13:08after the Braves moved,
13:09you had the St. Louis Browns
13:11move to Baltimore
13:12and become the Orioles.
13:13The following year,
13:15the Philadelphia Athletics
13:16moved to Kansas City.
13:18And then,
13:19in the following
13:20the 1957 season,
13:22the Dodgers and Giants
13:23both moved.
13:24Those teams were
13:25secondary in their city
13:27to the Cardinals
13:29and Phillies.
13:32Nobody missed those teams.
13:35Out of New York.
13:37If O'Malley took notice
13:38when Milwaukee
13:39successfully lured
13:40Lou Perrini
13:41with the promise
13:42of a new ballpark,
13:43he must have been
13:44jolted out of his chair
13:45when the attendance numbers
13:46rolled in.
13:48The Braves'
13:48total 1952
13:50home attendance
13:51in Boston
13:51was surpassed
13:53in Milwaukee's
13:54first 13 games.
13:57Milwaukee was
13:58drawing 2 million people
13:59and we were
13:59lucky to draw a million.
14:01And he used them
14:02as an example.
14:03It was a financial risk.
14:04There's no doubt about it.
14:05I mean,
14:06there's nothing to be ashamed of.
14:07It was finances.
14:08The Braves' move
14:10to Milwaukee's critical
14:11in O'Malley's thinking
14:12because prior to that,
14:15replacing Ebbets Field
14:16was an idea.
14:18After the Braves' move,
14:19it's a necessity.
14:23Have we begun
14:24to change your mind yet?
14:25If not,
14:25take a look at
14:26reason number two.
14:28I love L.A.
14:30Los Angeles officials
14:31made O'Malley
14:32an offer he couldn't refuse.
14:34Compliments of the youngest
14:35member of the city council.
14:37I ran for office
14:39in 1953
14:42and I thought
14:43it would be
14:44a very good issue.
14:45So I checked off
14:46of my little
14:473x5 card
14:48to bring Major League Baseball
14:49to Los Angeles.
14:51Preferring to make
14:52a deal in New York,
14:53O'Malley balked
14:54at Rosalind Wyman's
14:55initial inquiry
14:56in 1955.
14:58But at the 1956
14:59World Series
15:00in Brooklyn,
15:01an L.A.
15:02County supervisor,
15:03Kenneth Hahn,
15:04came calling.
15:05He is so desperate
15:07for a team
15:07that he'll take
15:08the Washington Senators.
15:10O'Malley sees him
15:11talking to the owner
15:12of the Senators,
15:13looking down
15:14from his box
15:15at Evans Field.
15:16He writes out
15:17on a napkin,
15:18don't do anything
15:19until you talk to me.
15:21Hands it to an usher,
15:22hands it to Hahn.
15:23The Dodgers
15:24stopped in Los Angeles
15:25after the World Series
15:27in 1956
15:28on their way
15:29to Japan.
15:30And Kenny Hahn
15:31takes O'Malley
15:32up in a helicopter
15:33and he shows O'Malley
15:35this land
15:36at Chavez Ravine.
15:37And Walter understood
15:38by looking at that
15:40that you could
15:40use that contour
15:42of that land
15:43for a possible stadium.
15:45Then he showed
15:46some interest.
15:49With the city council
15:51set to offer
15:52O'Malley's 300 acres
15:53of prime real estate,
15:55Mayor Norris Paulson
15:56asked Wyman
15:57to get a commitment
15:58from the Dodgers owner.
15:59I said,
16:00Mr. O'Malley
16:01would really like
16:02to know
16:02whether you will come
16:03if this vote is taken.
16:05And he said to me,
16:07I'm a New Yorker
16:08and I would rather
16:09stay in New York
16:10if I can.
16:13Rosalind Wyman
16:13hangs up the phone,
16:15walks back down
16:16the hallway
16:17to the mayor's office.
16:18Norris Paulson says,
16:20what happened?
16:21She says,
16:22I couldn't reach him.
16:24I felt if I had
16:25to give the answer
16:27that he had given to me,
16:28we were dead.
16:30The L.A. City Council
16:32votes to offer him
16:34everything he could
16:35have ever imagined.
16:37New York offers nothing
16:38and he leaves.
16:40Well,
16:41if somebody offered
16:41you 300 acres in L.A.,
16:43what would you do?
16:44If I were one O'Malley,
16:45I'd do it tomorrow.
16:46Absolutely.
16:47L.A. totally outmaneuvered
16:49New York.
16:50They made O'Malley
16:51an offer
16:51that only a fool
16:53would have refused.
16:55And welcome back.
16:56You've now seen
16:57reasons five through two
16:58why O'Malley isn't to blame
16:59for the most controversial
17:00franchise move
17:01in sports history.
17:03Forgive us, Brooklyn,
17:04but here it is.
17:05Reason number one.
17:08Holy Moses.
17:10Don't blame O'Malley.
17:12You better blame Moses.
17:15And that's not the Moses
17:16that parted the sea.
17:19Robert Moses,
17:21New York's most powerful
17:22public figure
17:23for much of the 20th century,
17:25thwarted O'Malley's plan
17:27to build a new stadium
17:28in Brooklyn.
17:29Since the Depression,
17:30no major public
17:31construction project
17:32was undertaken
17:33in the Big Apple
17:34without Moses' approval.
17:37Robert Moses
17:38was never elected
17:39to anything.
17:40He had 12 different jobs
17:42at once.
17:42He was the city park
17:43commissioner,
17:44the state park commissioner,
17:45the slum clearance commissioner,
17:46the city construction coordinator.
17:48He had more power
17:50than any mayor
17:51or any governor
17:52combined.
17:53O'Malley needed
17:54to curry favor
17:55with Moses
17:56if he was to replace
17:57the antiquated
17:58Ebbets Field.
17:59In 1953,
18:00he envisioned
18:01a privately financed
18:03dome stadium
18:03at the corner of Atlantic
18:05and Flatbush Avenues.
18:07All the subways
18:08came there
18:09together with
18:09the Long Island Railroad
18:10so the people
18:11could come in
18:11from Nassau County,
18:13Suffolk County,
18:13as well as
18:14you could get there
18:15on any subway
18:16in the city of New York.
18:17It's perfect.
18:18Two major avenues
18:20run by it.
18:21So he sits down
18:22and very carefully
18:23writes a letter
18:23to Robert Moses.
18:24He goes,
18:24you condemn the land,
18:26I'll buy it
18:27at a reduced rate
18:28and I'll build
18:29a wall park.
18:30But when you talked
18:31about the city's
18:32power to condemn,
18:33you were talking
18:34about Robert Moses'
18:35power and he
18:36wouldn't hear of it.
18:39Four days later,
18:41Moses rejected
18:41O'Malley's
18:42stadium proposal,
18:43claiming he was
18:44bound by law
18:45to only use
18:46his condemnation
18:47powers
18:47for a public
18:48project.
18:49Yet O'Malley
18:50persisted,
18:51knowing full well
18:52that Moses had
18:53cleared many a
18:54neighborhood for
18:55private developers.
18:56A battle of
18:57egos ensued.
18:59Moses doesn't
19:00like Walter O'Malley,
19:01not even a little.
19:03With everything
19:03about Moses,
19:05there's always
19:05the political,
19:06the rational,
19:08and so on.
19:09The idea that
19:10O'Malley had
19:11different ideas.
19:26Moses wasn't going
19:27to listen to them
19:28just because they
19:29were different.
19:30The biggest
19:30disappointment of
19:31his life was when
19:32his dream to build
19:34the dome stadium
19:35downtown did not
19:37happen.
19:37Only when that was
19:38proven to be
19:39politically impossible,
19:41did he then look
19:42elsewhere?
19:44To underscore his
19:45threat to move the
19:46Dodgers, O'Malley
19:47scheduled seven home
19:49games in Jersey City
19:50for the 1956 and
19:5257 seasons.
19:53Moses responded by
19:55offering to build
19:56O'Malley a municipal
19:57stadium, not in
19:59Brooklyn, but in
20:00Queens.
20:01Moses wanted to build
20:03the park where the
20:04stadium is built
20:06today, and Mr.
20:08O'Malley says,
20:08hey, we're not the
20:10New York Dodgers, we
20:12are the Brooklyn
20:13Dodgers.
20:14Could you imagine
20:15George Steinbrenner
20:17taking the Yankees
20:18out of New York?
20:20Certainly not.
20:21I think the mayor
20:23and Robert Moses
20:24could not perceive
20:25O'Malley moving
20:27and lowballed the
20:29offer.
20:29I think if Moses
20:30had come in
20:31literally in the
20:32last hour and
20:34said, all right,
20:35we'll assemble it
20:36at Atlantic and
20:37Flatbush, you can
20:38buy it.
20:38I think O'Malley
20:39would have jumped
20:40at that.
20:40Moses thought he
20:41was bluffing.
20:42He not only left,
20:44but he took the
20:44Giants with him.
20:46I think O'Malley's
20:47frustration in
20:48dealing with Moses
20:50just grew and
20:51grew to the point
20:52where he was
20:53susceptible to
20:55the Giants that
20:56the L.A.
20:57people were
20:57putting on him.
20:59O'Malley wanted
21:01to keep the
21:01Dodgers in Brooklyn,
21:02but he ran into
21:04the one man who
21:06could stop all of
21:07this.
21:08His name was
21:09Robert Moses.
21:12Well, there you
21:13have it, the top
21:13five reasons you
21:14can't blame O'Malley
21:15for moving the
21:15Dodgers to L.A.
21:17Perhaps after all
21:18these years, we've
21:19helped soothe
21:19Brooklyn's sense of
21:20abandonment.
21:21I'm Brian Kenney.
21:22Thanks for
21:22watching.
21:25Oh, no you
21:26didn't.
21:26It means nothing.
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