Peter O’Malley was born on the 12th of December 1937 in Brooklyn, New York. We all know who his parents were. He spent his childhood as a child of privilege. His dad’s success allowing the family comforts many of the citizens did not enjoy due to the depression.
He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. And then from the Wharton School of Business in 1960. Peter’s first job with the Dodgers was Director of Dodgertown in Vero Beach. He was named to that position in 1962. Walter basically wanted Peter to work his way up. He was not just going to bring him to the top of the tree.
In 1965 he became President and General Manager of the Spokane Indians of the PCL. The Dodgers top farm team. He moved to the big club as Manager of Stadium Operations in 1967. In 1969 he became the Executive Vice President.
On March 17, 1970, Walter turned the reins over to Peter and he became the President of the Dodgers. His father, though retired retained the title of Chairman of the Board. Ol Walt was not going away that easy.
The Dodgers had not won a pennant in 3 years when he took over. His general manager was Al Campanis. Al was a pretty shrewd GM. His trades always showed that he usually over valued his players. Many GM’s from other teams felt like they had been fleeced by Al.
The team had their first winning season since 66 in 1969. Finishing 4th in the NL West. Going into the year they had to feel a little better about themselves. Peter’s first year at the helm the team went 87-74 and finished 2nd behind the Reds.
There were some remnants of the glory years with Don Sutton and Claude Osteen winning 14 and 16 games respectively. Wes Parker, Willie Davis, Jim Lefebvre, Jeff Torborg, Osteen, Sutton, and Jim Brewer were the remaining players on the team from the 66 squad. And Maury Wills, returning to LA in a trade with the Expos, appeared in 132 games at SS with Billy Grabarkewitz moving over to 3rd.
But some kids were making their MLB debuts. Bill Russell was 21 and got into 81 games. Steve Garvey, also 21 saw action in 34 games…he had some trouble with throws. Bill Buckner at 20 was in 28 games, Joe Ferguson appeared in 5 at age 23. Tom Paciorek also made his debut. Also a young knuckleballer named Charlie Hough pitched in 8 games.
In 71, 72, and 73, they finished 2nd to the Giants and then the Reds twice. In 1974 they finally reached the World Series again. There had been some significant additions to the team. Jimmy Wynn came over from the Astros and had an MVP caliber season.
The infield was firmly in the hands of Garvey, Lopes, Cey and Russell. Buckner and Willie Crawford flanked Wynn in the OF and had a combined 50 homers and over 200 RBI’s between them. Fergie and Yeager shared the catching duties. While Andy Messersmith, Sutton, Doug Rau and Tommy John were the stalwarts of the rotation with a little help from Al Downing. Hough and Mike Marshall, who had come over from the Expos for Willie Davis carried the load in the pen.
It was clearly now Peter’s team. And the times they were a changing. Alston retired at the end of the 76 season and a fiery guy named Lasorda took the reins. He claimed he bled Dodger Blue.
Under Peter, the Dodgers felt like a family. The won 2 more pennants in the 70’s. But those damn Yankees again, just could not be beat. Thanks to things like Reggie’s hip. But there were a lot of exciting moments. Especially the big confrontation between Jackson and Bobby Welch.
Wynn was replaced by Rick Monday who came over from the Cubs in 1977. Buckner went to the Cubs in that deal, and Johnny B. (Dusty) Baker came over in 76 from the Braves in a 6 man deal.
The 80’s dawned and there was a tight race with the Astros. It boiled down to a playoff game with the Stros. They lost the game 7-1 with free agent signee Dave Goltz getting the loss. Fans were devastated. But there was a small light of hope.
A young Mexican lad of 19 made his MLB debut and pitched in 10 games without giving up a run. He won 2 of those out of the pen. An omen of things to come. The next year a phenomenon would start when the opening day starter could not meet the bell, and the legend of Fernandomania began.
The kid was phenomenal. Not only did he throw 8 shut outs with 11 complete games in 25 starts, but he could hit too. In 1981 he won the Cy Young, the ROY, the Sporting News NL Pitcher of the Year and the Major League Player of the Year. Pretty heady stuff for a rookie. And believe it or not, those are the only major awards he won his entire career. A career that spanned 17 seasons. The only bad spot was the strike.
They were the comeback kids. Seemingly always behind, they would mount rally’s and win. 1981 was a very special year since they beat the Yankees, and the infield finally got their rings. In 82, Lopes would be gone.
Peter’s team had 4 straight rookies of the year in , Rick Sutcliffe, Steve Howe. Valenzuela, and Steve Sax. Quite an accomplishment. They won the division in 83 and 85. But did not do so well in 82, 84, 86 or 87. In 1988, some guy named Kirk Gibson came along.
The 88 team was also special. They had some great pitching from Orel, leadership from Gibson and a talented bench corps nicknamed, The Stunt Men. Led by class clown, Mickey Hatcher. All would play prominent roles in the winning season.
In the NLCS the beat a Mets team that had defeated them 11 of 12 games during the regular season. The Mets were loaded with talent and had won 100 games that season. The pitching staff was led by Doc Gooden and David Cone.
The turning point was game 4 in New York. The Mets were up 4-2 in the 9th inning. And were leading 2 games to 1. In the 9th inning, with no outs and a runner on, Mike Scioscia hit a 2 run homer off of Gooden to tie the game. The Dodgers won the game in the 12th on the strength of a Gibson HR off of Roger McDowell, who would become a Dodger in 1991.
Gibson was injured diving for a ball in game 7. But they won the series, 4-3 and it was on to face the mighty A’s. No need to rehash that series, it is fresh in most of the fan’s memory.
One painful thing Peter had to do at the end of the 87 season was let Campanis go. We all know about the racial statements he made in an interview. So 1988 was Fred Claire’s first at the helm.
Over the next several seasons, the team did not have much success. In 1992 they had their WORST season since leaving Brooklyn, losing 99 games. The bright spots were the 5 consecutive ROY’s during that time. Eric Karros, Mike Piazza, Raul Mondesi, Hideo Nomo and Todd Hollandsworth.
Nomo was a sensation, and Piazza was the best hitting catcher in Dodger history. They did manage to win the division in 94, but there were no playoffs due to the strike. In 95 they won the west again but were quickly eliminated by the Reds. 96 and 97 they finished second to the Padres and the Giants respectively.
Over the winter of 97, there were the rumblings that Peter was considering selling the team. Most did not know why. The Dodgers were always close to the top in attendance. Their marketing department was top notch. And player development and the front office were in good hands.
But It seemed I guess to him the right time to sell. Being a family owned team the financial drain was getting bigger. And it also seemed that Peter’s children did not want to take over the family business. They had no interest in baseball. So on the 19th of March 1998, 18 years and 2 days after he had assumed the reins of the team, O’Malley sold the Dodgers to Rupert Murdoch for what was reported to be 311 to 350 million dollars.
At the time it was the most money ever paid for a sports franchise. Peter stated that he felt the days of family ownership were basically over. Murdoch, in what to many Dodger fans would be a really dumb move placed members of Fox’s television exec’s to oversee the Dodgers. Right, a bunch of TV geeks who know bupkis about baseball running one of the most successful franchises in the league. Makes sense to me.
Peter became the Chairman of the Board, but gave up that post after the 1998 season. O’Malley did not just simply fade away. He was leading the charge to get a new NFL stadium and team for LA. Meanwhile Fox was busy pissing the fan base off by trading their best player.
Peter was fighting a losing battle trying to get a stadium built. The forward thinking LA City council thought that any NFL team coming to Los Angeles should play in the 70 year old Coliseum. Smart guys. No Luxury boxes, antiquated clubhouses.
Peter was doing many things. Promoting baseball as an Olympic sport, promoting Little League baseball. He was chairman of the Little League Foundation. His promotion of baseball globally particularly in Latin America, Japan, and China where a donation he made in 96 funded the construction of their first baseball stadium.
He also funded stadiums in Nicaragua, and Ireland. He was credited as running the Dodgers with consistent methods and values known as the Dodger Way. He would treat his staff to ice cream every day at 2 pm when the Dodgers were in first place. Freshly baked cookies on sell out days, and overseas trips when the team had a really successful year.
When the worst owner in Dodger history announced he was selling the team in 2011, O’Malley made a bid to buy the team back. He withdrew the offer on the 21st of February 2012.
Dodgertown was included in the US Civil Rights Trail. It was there that many challenged segregation and of course Jackie Robinson coming to the majors. Not much info on what Peter is doing these days. He is of course involved deeply with his family. He is one of the more respected owners of his time. And probably a lot better liked than his dad.
He was named an honorary citizen of the city of Tianjin China, where he built the stadium, which is appropriately named, Dodger Stadium. And he received the Order of the Rising Sun third class in 2015.
My take on Peter is that he was very much about family. That is the way he ran the team. They sustained the success his father started and built a solid franchise. Unfortunately, McCourt almost ruined it. But under the Guggenheim leadership, it has regained its luster…..and then some.
Discussion (111)
Disagree, not disagreeable
Enjoyed your article very much, Bear. It describes a time of great interest to me. I have always been a long time Dodger fan and have rooted for no other team than them even while growing up in the Canadian Pacific Northwest. But this was my favorite time of the Dodgers following Cey, Garvey, Russell, and Lopes along with Yeager, Sax, Hatcher, Lasorda, the Bulldog, and many many others.
I was disappointed Peter O’Malley sold the team and worried about it at the time. I have read that the O’Malley family is now involved in the ownership of the Padres. Is that Peter or the kids that did not want to be part of the Dodgers? Just wondering.Great pictures by the way.
Bear, can’t wait for your next write up on the McCourt era! That should be fun!
No problem Quas. I am sure many of us have skeleton’s in our closet we would rather forget. I am sorry about your brother and sincerely hope he gets better. People can hide behind deceit. Some lie so often they begin to believe the lie. Rickey and O’Malley were polar opposites. Walter was an astute business man and his business was the Dodgers. Rickey was a non drinker, very religious and he did not smoke. But he also was a forward thinker, very innovative and believed, I mean honestly believed in an era when most did not, that men of color needed to be given the opportunity to play baseball in the major leagues. He stuck his neck out and became an instant target in doing so. He did not take no for an answer. One reason I love the movie “42” so much is because it shows that moment when he asks Robinson if he has the guts not to fight back. And he only asked him to do that for a year. Once he made it and succeeded, the players that followed had a little easier path. Not real easy because those who broke in playing in the south still were taunted and called names. 3 of the first 4 African American’s to play in the majors played for the Dodgers, and all were signed while Rickey was running the team. The Christian thing to do is forgive people for what they have done in the past. And as long as you have made peace with yourself, I am pretty sure no one here feels anything negative towards you. Keep on posting and contributing. We are all in the first place, Dodger fans.
Going back to part #1had me rambling many thoughts in so many directions it’s probably not wise to even relay where my head is at this moment as the way is with one poster child with A.D.D. The rivalry between Walter and Branch is something that has impacted greatly on every life here. If not for either of those two this site wouldn’t be here and I likely wouldn’t have much interest in baseball. My parents were LA Dodger fans and thusly me too, and thanks to O’Malley on that one. But, probably the biggest contributor to the game itself Rickey was a giant and very undeserving of any disrespect. The Robinson family still shows very much respect always referring to him as Mr. Rickey. I actually credit him mostly in breaking the color barrier and Robinson being his best choice to be successful at it. That’s not to discredit Robinson err Mr. Robinson that is. Rickey and O’Malley were the real Lords of Flatbush and that got me thinking about Stallone and Gere (the other ‘Lords Of Flatbush’. I was a bigger fan of Stallone but when I learned of his cheap shot at Gere about gerbils made me have a disliking towards Stallone. But it’s most likely Stallone believed it as too unbelievable to take root. But it did and Gere still suffers grief to this day from that lie. A pretty good indicator of Americans possessing a large amount of stupidity. And that got me thinking about this last election. It should be really easy for me to not bring up politics as I didn’t even vote. But I’m not one to cheer for the best of two evils and neither one of those two have anything I could like about them. But that got me thinking about my brother who’s very republican and blames every wrong happening on democrats and I would be ashamed to claim being either. He’s all the family I have left. He’s in the hospital with double pneumonia due to covid-19 where he had stated a disbelief of it existing. But I love him and love hasn’t always won the way it does nowadays. That reminds me that I have to call the hospital again that promises to call back everyday of these last five days and hasn’t on his condition which I think is pretty damn rude of them as I’m not allowed to visit him and he’s only two blocks from my Apt. I used to be a giant in my walk of life of as a criminal. I’m not bragging about that but but I watched that amazing last pitch sealing the World Series victory of 88 in prison for Dodgers. I not committing crimes these days and have a pretty innert existence. And probably have discredited myself where none here will think I have anything to offer. But it’s the good guys that you need to fear. The one’s who parade to be the good guys never are who they say they are. Just sharing what I am forced to put up with….me. I started with this not a good idea, but there’s always more than one side. Sorry friends. Oh, and that damn DB Cooper sure screwed things up for me and my enterprise back then……A.D.D.
AC’s sleeper, Trevor May, is signing with the Mets
Well done.
Alexander signed for $1 mil.
The Dodgers and left-hander Scott Alexander have agreed to a one-year, $1MM deal, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports (Twitter link). Alexander posted a 2.92 ERA over 12 1/3 innings out of the Los Angeles bullpen this season, recording an equal number of walks and strikeouts (nine). The southpaw was thought to be a potential non-tender candidate given his relative lack of usage and his non-inclusion on the Dodgers’ playoff roster, but the team will retain Alexander for his second arb-eligible year.
Great read this morning once again. Thank you Bear. I appreciate all of you writers that contribute to this site and all the work each and everyone of you put in.