During a meeting on May 28, 1957 in Chicago, Illinois, the owners of the National League unanimously agreed to allow the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers to move to the West coast if they desired. As a result of this decision, and the subsequent moves of the teams to San Francisco and Los Angeles respectively, New York did not host a National League club by the start of the 1958 season.
I didn’t know the Giants move overlapped the Dodgers so I looked it up and apparently, the Giants’ Stoneham was set on moving his team to Minneapolis when the Dodgers’ O’Malley told him “hey, I’m moving my Dodgers to LA. You should call San Francisco.”
Apparently, O’Malley had control of the St. Paul area and was afraid of the Giants moving to nearby Minneapolis. It always fascinates me how fear guides the ship so much.
Fear is such a compelling force — which is pretty frightening in itself. So many events in history happened as a direct result of fear. You’re right: it’s fascinating.
It’s always considered a black day for NY baseball, but people forget it was a great day for California ball.
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So true! It seems like such a drastic move, going from one coast to the other, but that’s usually the price of expansion. Sometimes, you gotta go big — someone’s going to lose out and someone’s going to benefit.