by Mark Langill
Terry O’Malley Seidler, part of the family that owned the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers for 48 years from 1950 to 1998, passed away on Dec. 18. She was 92.
Seidler’s baseball adventures began as a teenager in New York when her father, Walter O’Malley, joined the Dodgers as a lawyer and later became team president in 1950.
Seidler attended games at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field with her two grandfathers, Edwin J. O’Malley, former New York City Commissioner of Public Markets, and Peter B. Hanson, Judge in Brooklyn Domestic Relations Court. Her earliest baseball recollection was watching the Dodgers and New York Yankees in the 1941 World Series.
She was a secretary for her father during the early years in Vero Beach, Florida, the Dodgers’ Spring Training home for 60 years beginning in 1948.
In 1955, Seidler watched the Dodgers win their first and only championship in the history of the Brooklyn franchise. At the team’s victory dinner at the Bossert Hotel, she sat next to broadcaster Vin Scully, a lifelong friend.
By the early 1960s, when the Dodgers had moved to the West Coast, Seidler was managing her own home team. She and her husband, Roland Seidler, had 10 children during their marriage from 1958 until his passing in 2008. Their son, Peter Seidler, was the principal owner and chairman of the San Diego Padres until his death in 2023. John Seidler succeeded him as chairman in February 2025.
Walter O’Malley passed away in 1979 and Seidler became co-owner of the Dodgers with her brother, Peter O’Malley, who was the Dodger president from 1970 to 1998.
Seidler served as Corporate Secretary with the Dodger Board of Directors. She also served on many community boards and was active in numerous Catholic and educational organizations.
Seidler was a fixture at Dodger games in Los Angeles through the decades. She usually sat in the Club Level seats surrounded by future generations of baseball fans: children and grandchildren.
She also kept in contact with past and present members of the organization, including extended family members, surviving spouses and media members. One of her traditional holiday gifts was a case of grapefruits from Indian River County, home of the “Dodgertown” spring headquarters.
When the Dodgers celebrated the 50th anniversary of Dodger Stadium in 2012, Seidler threw out the ceremonial first pitch, replicating the moment on April 10, 1962 when her mother, Kay O’Malley, had first-pitch honors before the Dodgers’ first home game against the Cincinnati Reds.
Remembering Terry O’Malley Seidler was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.