His legacy is that of changing the mindset of a league that for a long time had had the St. Louis Cardinals as its southernmost and westernmost team (American League Kansas City Athletics had moved west 3 years earlier from Philadelphia). Tommy Lasorda said upon hearing of his election to the Hall, "He's a pioneer. He made a tremendous change in the game, opening up the West Coast to Major League Baseball." When asked how he wanted to be remembered, O'Malley said, "for planting a tree." The tree provided the branches to open up the West Coast to baseball, but O'Malley's son remembers his father's 28 years on Major League Baseball's executive council as service that "was instrumental in the early stages of the game's international growth." His contributions to baseball were widely recognized even before his Hall of Fame election: he was ranked 8th and 11th respectively by ABC Sports and "The Sporting News" in their lists of the most influential sports figures of the 20th century.