a slump in 1954 following MVP seasons in 1951 and 1953. The surgery was intended to restore complete use of his hand. Despite having won the National League pennants in 1947, 1949, 1952 and 1953, they lost to the New York Yankees in the World Series each time, which frustrated O'Malley and all Dodgers fans. In 1955, the team won the World Series for the first time in their history. However, attendance declined from a peak of 1.7 million in 1946 and 1947 to just over one million per year in the mid-1950s. With the advent of the affordable automobile and post-war prosperity, Brooklyn's formerly heterogeneous, middle-class fan base for the Dodgers began to splinter. A large white flight took place, and Ebbets Field's shabby condition and lack of parking spaces led to the loss of fans who relocated to Long Island. O'Malley tried to raise money and get the political backing to build a new ballpark elsewhere in Brooklyn. The one person whose backing he needed was Robert Moses, a powerful figure who influenced development in New York through the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority. O'Malley envisioned a domed stadium near the Long Island Rail Road station on Brooklyn's west end, and even invited R. Buckminster Fuller to design the structure; Fuller, in conjunction with graduate students from Princeton University, constructed a model of the "Dodgers' Dome". Moses did not like O'Malley and derided O'Malley's pro-Brooklyn and pro-Irish sentiments in the press. O'Malley wanted to build a new Brooklyn Dodgers stadium at Flatbush and Atlantic Avenue, but Moses wanted the Dodgers to move to Queens and play in Flushing Meadows Park (the location where the New York Mets play today). Although O'Malley lined up bipartisan political support including New York Governor W. Averell Harriman, Moses blocked the sale of the land necessary for the planned new Brooklyn stadium. O'Malley bought the Chicago Cubs minor league baseball team, the Los Angeles Angels, as well as their stadium, Wrigley Field, from Philip Wrigley in 1956 at the winter baseball meetings, and during spring training, Los Angeles Mayor Norris Poulson traveled to the Dodgers' training camp at Vero Beach, Florida in an attempt to lure the franchise. O'Malley met with Moses at Moses' home after purchasing the Angels to discuss final offers from New York to no avail. O'Malley noticed the great success of the Milwaukee Braves after their move from Boston