I want to share a very special conversation we had tonight with Peter O'Malley. The O'Malley family is synonymous with the Dodger family and certainly great to have Peter here and his sister Terry Sidler. And this was a very candid and intimate conversation I was able to have with the great Peter O'Malley after the special pregame ceremony which
honored his father, Walter O'Malley. And in case you don't know the backstory, Walter O'Malley passed away in nineteen seventy nine, but Peter O'Malley became the president of the Dodgers in nineteen seventy one, so the transition was in place. And as a young man, Peter O'Malley started from the very bottom and worked his way throughout the organization to really
know the ins and outs. And here's what mister O'Malley had to say about that and many other things surrounding the O'Malley family, Walter O'Malley, and the Dodgers.
And that's the key word that if you're responsible for your family or for driving a car with the kids in the car, responsibility and that always kind of stuck in my mind that if you realize, Hey, Peter, you're responsible for this franchise, You're going to get up early, you're going to work late, You're going to come in here Saturdays and Sundays in the wintertime. So I nobody ever asked me for advice, but that's kind of on my mind.
Do you realize how much the O'Malley family meant not only to your players, to the staff and the organization, but to the city.
I think I do. I think I'm talking to tell you the luncheon. Were you with the luncheon today? No? Okay, Well, I had a chance to visit with all them who I knew on my watch. I didn't know the fellows that came after, but they truly appreciated it was a special time. It's going to get greater. The stadium is greater, the teams are going to be greater, the players are going to be greater. But when we had it, it was a special, unique time that everyone looks back at
with fun. Even living in the barracks at Dodgertown Old Navy Barracks, everybody complained no heat, no air conditioning, no telephones, the fuse would go. Nobody had electricity. But the next morning everybody laughed and said, I survived the night or mosquitoes, but you know when it gets hot. No, the reviews of that fifty years are pretty good.
What was Walter O'Malley the father like?
He was great? You know, he fished together, we hunted together. He was honest. He we disagreed, maybe a couple of times on something minor. He would hear me out, Okay, well why do you want to do that? I would tell him and he might say, yeah, I think you're right, or well think about this. No it it was a frank relationship.
It seems like you not only took the torch, but you ran with it.
Well. Yes, I thought about going to law school when I was an undergraduate at Penn and then I thought, hey, I'd like to run a farm team. And the fell in Spokane. Spencer Harris, the GM he passed away in the winter suddenly and there's an opening General Managers of Spokane, Washington, and my dad and Buzzy said would you want to do that? And I said sure, So I go to Spokane. That was great experience running the tripa a farm team
in the Coast League. So and then came here vice president stadium operations, dealing with the maintenance, the unions, that ticket takers and everybody else. So the pattern, if you look back at the path, it wasn't by design. It just happened to follow the different areas of responsibility, and so it worked out.
Mister O'Malley, the history lesson. We've gotten his, of course from the great Vin Scully about not only the Dodgers, but your father. And I remember interviewing Vin for the first time and he said his two wishes before he left. In his words, this mortal coil was that Gil Hodges and your father, Walter O'Malley, would get into the Hall of Fame.
That's very true. Well let's take Vinnie first. He really wanted Gil in the Hall of Fame, and Gil Vinnie wanted Gil to get in the Hall of Fame. And I think Vinnie helped. And if you look back at Gil's record when he played, his numbers were up there. But then after he retired, new numbers, new circumstances. But Gil's numbers, in my opinion, should have put him in the Hall of Fame quicker before other numbers got not inflated.
They were earned for different reasons. As far as my goes, I think Vinnie lived to see my dad go in the Hall of Fame. Yeah he did. Yeah, he was alive then. Yeah. Yeah.
He told me that he appreciated when the team was moving to Los Angeles that your father did not have a secretary call him. He called Vin Scully directly.
Sure, fifty six trip to Japan. Everybody's got a roommate, every ballplayer, doctors, trainers, everybody on the trip. That's the way it was in those days, to to a room. So my dad says that Peter's going to go with us to the fifty six trip to Tokyo. Could he room with you? Now? Ever, gracious Vinnie would never say no, even if he felt like he's are you kidding, mister Omanley. Of course. Now that's where Vinnie and I bonded on that fifty six. He wasn't in the room a lot.
He used in two beds in the room. He was out doing his thing. He was a single guy. He wanted museums and places of art and drama and all that. But yeah, fifty six, that's a long time. That's someone he and I are really connected.
That's amazing Vinny telling.
That to my dad. Imagine my dad's saying it to Vinnie and Vinny saying, of course, mister o'meal you no problem, just like what else is new?
So you mentioned that your dad was somewhat of a father figure to Vinnie. So were you Did you have a brother type of relationship with him, especially after that trip, I.
Would say, yeah, brother, Vinnie was ten years older, but yeah, brother works, brother works, A good friend works, honest relationship. Vinnie. I talked about things that he may not have talked to too many people about, honest because he knew me, and I think we trusted each other. He told me something I'm never going to repeat it.
I could sit here all day with you. You just mean so much to the city and to Dodger fans. The O'Malley family is synonymous with Dodger baseball, and family is synonymous with the O'Malley So, thank you so much for your time, and rightfully so, your father and the O'Malley family will always be remembered here.
Thank you. Just one quick note, my sister and I were blessed with great parents. I don't say that too often because not everyone is fortunate to have that experience. You know, a lot of families are split, divided and everything else. But my sister Terry and I grew up in a perfect mother, father for people, home support, fun. It was remarkable. So I would give my sister Terry and I talk about it a lot. I'd give that a lot of credit. And I'm lucky. That's a blessing.
Not everybody else can say that. Sadly, thank you for your time, all right, good to be with you.