Forever Blue

Summary

Introduction:

• Frames Walter O'Malley as one of the most influential and controversial figures in 20th-century sports.
• Acknowledges the deep animosity towards him in Brooklyn but suggests the "true story" is more complex.
• Sets out the book's aim: to provide a comprehensive biography based on extensive research, including access to O'Malley's personal papers, presenting his motivations and challenges.

Chapters 1-3: Early Life and Entry:

• Details O'Malley's background: his New York City upbringing, education in engineering and law, and early entrepreneurial spirit.
• Describes his personality: ambitious, meticulous, and skilled in negotiation and finance.
• Explains his initial involvement with the Brooklyn Dodgers not through love of baseball, but as a lawyer representing the Brooklyn Trust Company, which held the mortgage on Ebbets Field during the Depression.
• Covers his gradual accumulation of knowledge about the team's finances and operations.

Chapters 4-6: Acquiring Power:

• Focuses on O'Malley's maneuvering within the Dodgers' ownership structure during the 1940s.
• Details his strategic stock purchases and alliance-building.
• Highlights the complex and often contentious power struggle with co-owners Branch Rickey and John L. Smith, culminating in O'Malley forcing Rickey out and gaining controlling interest in the team by the early 1950s.

Chapters 7-9: Owner in Brooklyn:

• Describes O'Malley's leadership during the peak "Boys of Summer" years (early to mid-1950s).
• Covers his relationship with the players, the team's on-field success (including the 1955 World Series victory), and his management style.
• Introduces the central problem: the inadequacy of the aging, small, and difficult-to-access Ebbets Field in the postwar era of suburban growth and television.

Chapters 10-13: The Stadium Quest in Brooklyn:

• Provides a detailed account, largely from O'Malley's perspective, of his efforts to build a new, modern, privately financed stadium in Brooklyn.
• Focuses heavily on his proposed site at the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues (present-day Barclays Center location) and his vision for a domed stadium.
• Chronicles the protracted and ultimately failed negotiations with New York City officials, particularly the powerful Parks Commissioner Robert Moses. D'Antonio portrays Moses as inflexible and obstructive, unwilling to use mechanisms (like Title I condemnation) for O'Malley's desired site, offering only the less desirable Flushing Meadows location (where Shea Stadium was later built).
• Presents O'Malley's growing frustration with the political roadblocks in New York.

Chapters 14-16: Looking West:

• Details the simultaneous courtship of O'Malley by officials from Los Angeles, a city eager for major league baseball.
• Explains the economic incentives and potential offered by the rapidly growing Southern California market.
• Describes O'Malley's strategic thinking, including the crucial step of convincing Giants owner Horace Stoneham to move his team to San Francisco, ensuring viable West Coast league play and travel schedules.
• Covers the final, controversial decision to leave Brooklyn after the 1957 season.

Chapters 17-19: Building an Empire in LA:

• Narrates the Dodgers' early years in Los Angeles, playing temporarily in the huge Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
• Details the contentious political battle and public referendum over securing the land in Chavez Ravine for a new ballpark.
• Chronicles the design and construction of Dodger Stadium, financed privately by O'Malley, opening in 1962.
• Describes how O'Malley built the Dodgers into one of the most successful, stable, and profitable franchises in professional sports, known for strong attendance, savvy marketing, and continued on-field success.

Chapters 20-Epilogue: Legacy:

• Discusses O'Malley's later years, his influence on baseball (e.g., international expansion, stadium development trends), and the eventual transfer of team ownership to his son, Peter.
• Summarizes D'Antonio's assessment of Walter O'Malley: a brilliant, forward-thinking, and determined businessman whose actions, while deeply wounding Brooklyn, were driven by economic realities and a vision for the future of baseball as a major coast-to-coast enterprise.
• Argues that while the pain of Brooklyn fans is valid, O'Malley's portrayal as a simple villain ignores the complexities of the stadium situation in New York and his significant contributions to the game.