holding out until less than two weeks before Opening Day, they received one-year $130,000 and $115,000 contracts respectively. O'Malley liked clubhouse turmoil only slightly less than free agent disloyalty. When he traded Maury Wills to the Pittsburgh Pirates following consecutive National League pennants, it was attributed to Wills having quit during the middle of the Dodgers' post-season tour of Japan. Retirement from presidency On March 17, 1970, Walter turned over the presidency of the team to his son Peter, remaining as Chairman until his death in 1979. Peter O'Malley held the position until 1998 when the team was sold to Rupert Murdoch. The team remained successful on the field under Peter and won the World Series in both 1981 and 1988. They remained successful at the box office as well: by the end of the 1980s, they had not only became the first franchise to draw three million fans, but also they had done it more times than all other franchises combined. During the 1970s, O'Malley was credited for stagemanaging Lasorda's career. Lasorda become known for his die-hard Dodgers clichés, such as describing the color of his blood by saying "Cut me, I bleed Dodger blue." It was even said that the reciprocal loyalty and respect between Lasorda and O'Malley was so high that O'Malley gave Lasorda a tombstone as a gift that had an inscription that read "TOMMY LASORDA, A DODGER". The McKeevers held their 25% interest in the Dodgers until 1975 when Dearie McKeever died. They sold out to O'Malley making him the sole owner of the Dodgers. Also during 1975, the Dodgers franchise was embroiled in the Andy Messersmith controversy that led to the Seitz decision, which struck down baseball's reserve clause and opened up the sport to modern free agency. Messersmith and the Dodgers were unable to come to contract terms in part because of a then unheard of no-trade clause demand, and Messersmith pitched the entire season without a contract under the reserve clause, which stated that team has the right to extend the prior years contract one year if a player does not agree to terms. Teams had previously had the right to continue such re-signings year after year. This gave owners the right to issue "take it or leave it" offers to the players. Although the Dodgers and Messersmith nearly hammered out a deal monetarily, they could not come to terms on the