“The Rise of Rickey,” Baseball Magazine, June 1943, 382. He failed to get a bank loan or entice local investors. Three days later, on January 4, the man who had run the team since it was founded 15 years before died. It was within easy reach of the older neighborhoods but poised to be in the middle of the borough’s future expansion.40, In January 1912 Ebbets announced that he had put together the parcel and intended the Dodgers to have a modern ballpark on the site. He was making money but remained restless. Attendance fell. 67 Roger Kahn, Good Enough to Dream (New York: Doubleday, 1985), 56. He was probably closer with the public estimate. The price was nearly 2½ times the previous record sale of a baseball franchise, $845 million for the Chicago Cubs in 2009. The only contenders remaining were Frank and Jamie McCourt, Boston real-estate developers who’d lost earlier bids for Frank’s hometown Red Sox and the Los Angeles Angels. But it is clear that O’Malley and Smith, the experienced businessmen on the board, used an additional lens. In the 18 years from 1980 through 1997, the second-generation O’Malley management drew average attendance of over 3 million a year. Holtzman reported that O’Malley was willing to sell only if he got his price, which was said to be $45 million in December 1977 and $50 million to $60 million nine months later.143 This was clearly a substantial gain over the $300,000 at most that he had laid out from his own wallet in the 1940s. Any partner wishing to sell must offer the others the chance to buy his shares. He educated himself enough to become the teacher at the local grade school, saving money for college. He was active in the Masons, bicycling and Democratic Party politics. Rickey had a fraternity brother named John Galbreath, a highly successful real-estate developer based in Columbus, Ohio. Chauncey’s group got the other two seats on the board and the remainder of the stock. The firm then became Willkie, Owen, Otis & Bailly, with Carroll still doing the team’s legal work. In three years with the Reds, MacPhail turned the team into a profitable franchise. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library), By the summer of 1950, with Smith beginning to criticize, Rickey clearly had moved beyond any thought of staying with the Dodgers.119 The terms of the partnership agreement began to exercise their control. Rickey spent two meetings with Zeckendorf and his associates. The Dodgers were the most visible symbol of Brooklyn, and any misstep could be a public-relations boondoggle for the borough’s biggest bank. Since California was a community-property state, Jamie was half-owner of the team.175. He had also forgone several million in Dodger profits that were spent buying out the original bank loan, and later paying off Rickey, Mrs. Smith, and the Mulveys. Managers managed. Los Angeles City Councilwoman Rosalind Wyman, a strong Dodger supporter throughout the maneuvering to bring the team to Los Angeles and build Dodger Stadium, presents a commendation from the Beverly Hills B’nai Brith to owner Walter O’Malley. Early in 1905, Ebbets was able to persuade an ailing Von der Horst to sell him virtually all of his shares. In a day when many working people still labored six days a week, the ability to stage a game on their day off was a tremendous shot in the arm for attendance. By the mid-1890s, Abell told a reporter, he owned 51 percent of the team, Byrne 12 percent, and the Chauncey group 37 percent.15. Jamie, who holds a law degree from the University of Maryland and an MBA from MIT, said she had signed both versions without reading them.174, Faced with contradictory, fully authenticated legal documents, the judge decided neither version could be accepted. When the McKeevers’ identity was revealed, sportswriters outdid one another suggesting which of the Dodgers should be given one-way rides on the brothers’ fleet of scows.47 The sale of the garbage contract, for over $1 million, provided the brothers with the cash to buy into the Dodgers. 133New York Journal-American, September 26, 1950. It was announced in mid-August. For, in over 130 seasons, only once has one man owned the Dodgers completely, and then for only about 4½ years. Ebbets would remain as team president. Silent in the background was a fourth partner, John L. Smith, president of Brooklyn-based Pfizer Chemical. 147 Orange County Register (Anaheim, California), January 7, 1997. Ebbets began construction in March 1912. Written By Anthony Witrado. A boyhood interest in the Giants had evolved into a more practical relationship with the game. (The Yankees had recently sold for $2.8 million). He thought Cardinals vice president Branch Rickey might be interested. 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