Why is this on the ETSU forum? I'll tell you.

There are two impressions of Walter O'Malley, the former owner of the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers.

To New York, he is a villian, the man who took their soul for a quick buck.

To Los Angeles, he is the hero who brought Major League Baseball to the West Coast.

Now, the fact is Major League Baseball was going to come to the West Coast anyway. The Pacific Coast League had even tried to make it as a Major League in the fifties, so the idea that O'Malley "brought the major leagues to the West Coast" is somewhat flawed.

Furthermore, the Rams had been in LA since 1946 and the Angels would come to creation in 1961, only three years after the Dodgers move.

So the Dodgers didn't HAVE to move and LA wouldn't be any worse for wear if they had stayed.

The fact is if the Dodgers hadn't moved, the Giants would have moved to Minneapolis, so baseball probably stays in the Nation's Capital throughout (thus eliminating the arguement "How can it be the national pastime if it's not in the nation's capital"), and O'Malley would have stood to make MORE money as the sole National League franchise in the nation's largest market than the nation's second.

Where I'm going with this is that O'Malley would probably- and rightfully- been branded for the rest of time as the greedy owner who took all the romanticism out of pro sports IF IT WASN'T FOR THE FACT YOU HAD THE LA PRESS TELLING US WHAT A GREAT GUY HE WAS ALL THE TIME!

Oh, God, to LA it was "Every day the Dodgers were in first place the employees of the team got a 2 o'clock ice cream break.

Look at how great Dodger Stadium is!"

It was Jim Murray telling us how much nicer LA was than Brooklyn, anyway.

I actually heard today an ESPN report say that O'Malley was the owner who was around when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier.

Oh, yeah, that was O'Malley's move and not Branch Rickeys. Real good.

O'Malley traded Robinson to the Giants, for crying out loud. O'Malley wanted to move from Ebbets Field because Flatbush had gotten too "black" for him.

O'Malley's ownership was coincidental to Robinson's signing. O'Malley couldn't stand Rickey and he fired him in 1950.

But isn't O'Malley's story a complete parallel to what has gone on at ETSU?

To the everyman, Stanton and Mullins are the men who took the team away from them.

But to the social elite, he's the guy who brought us the PHARMACY SCHOOL!

Just as O'Malley is the villian to the everyman, and a hero to the social elite of Beverly Hills and Tarzana.

Point is, eventually the propaganda won out and O'Malley made the Hall of Fame, despite his backstabbing.

It appears ETSU propaganda is doing the same for Stanton and Mullins.