Aug. 7, 1960: The Dodgers and Yankees were on opposite sites over the topic of expansion.

We all know New York ended up with the Mets and Los Angeles gained the Angels, but things were nasty for a while.

Dan Topping, co-owner of the Yankees, said his team and several others would block expansion in 1961 if Los Angeles was not included. And Dodger owner Walter O'Malley was none too happy about the prospect of another baseball team entering his neighborhood.

"On the surface it would appear that O'Malley is eager to keep Los Angeles exclusively a National League city," Topping said. "If this is tried, I will holler plenty and I won't stop."

O'Malley told The Times' Frank Finch, "I don't think it would be fair for somebody to open another store in the same block as ours right away."

The Yankees were raising a stink in part because New York was expected to get a National League expansion team. John Drebinger of the New York Times, in a column that ran in the L.A. Times on Aug. 11, explained the Yankees' viewpoint this way:

"Neither the Yankee co-owner nor any of his colleagues mean to sit idly by letting the National League move into New York while the American League remains shut out of the lush field offered by California's Gold Coast."

–Keith Thursby

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