William A. Shea and His Impact on New York Research Paper

William A. Shea and His Impact on New York - Research Paper Example He was honored by naming the stadium after him, and the team New York Mets played in the stadium for approximately 45 years (Wade 150). Shea had immense political connections as well as money in New York City, he weathered the pressure from the major league owners to come up with the third league after the Giants and Dodgers moved on. William Shea made significant contributions on the New York through making the Continental league a reality in the City. Moreover, Shea was revered for introducing a junior league that promoted the growth of talent in Baseball. Besides his career as a lawyer and huge interests in Baseball. Shea was involved in philanthropic activities. This paper discusses William A. Shea and his contributions toward New York. Discussion William A. Shea was born in Washington Heights in Manhattan on June 21, 1907. Shea attended various public schools after which he studied at New York University on a sports scholarship for basketball. Later, he transferred on another sp orts scholarship to Georgetown University. In 1931, Shea was admitted to the bar at District of Columbia after which he joined the New York bar (Margolick). While in New York University, Georgetown University and Harvard Law School, Shea had a huge interest in Basketball and was a team member in these institutions. Shea graduated from the Harvard law school and worked for insurance bureaucracies after which he entered into private practice. As a lawyer, Shea garnered political influence by working voluntarily on influential boards in Brooklyn. In his legal career, Shea was a lawyer who was trusted by powerful men due to his efficiency (Margolick). Career as a Lawyer Shea held close ties with political bigwigs although he never held an elective office (Margolick). Moreover, Shea was on numerous occasions cited bragging that he had never practiced his profession in a conventional sense. Nevertheless, his career, which spanned for a period of five decades, was a period when Shea became a confidant of mayors, governors and corporate chieftains. These ties enabled him to build Shea & Gould, which is New York’s most influential and largest law firm. Shea and Gould clients included the Apple, The Mets and The Yankees among others. For a large part of his career, Shea maneuvered around banquet halls and boardrooms and was only brought to a public role when the New York Mayor enlisted his help to return the league to its glory (Margolick). Shea obtained New York’s baseball franchise via a combination of street smarts, threats, bluffs and charm that he was particularly suited in given his career as a lawyer, and not as a zealous sports fan. Moreover, his credentials may have been ridden with official appointments, encomiums, affiliations and awards but they omitted his important attribute of bringing people’s interests together (Margolick). Caliendo(2010, 18) highlights that Shea was a power broker with huge experience and spent 40 years turning sit uations facing bankers, realtors, underwriters corporate heads, cement barons, sports impresarios and politicians into profitable cases. Moreover, Shea was labeled as the unofficial chairperson of the unofficial government, who had spent a significant part of his career laboring quietly in political twilight between the public good and private interest. Shea had survived many regimes at the Shea Stadium from the reign of Casey Stengel to the reign of Bud Harrelson and during the opening days of the leagues, he presented a flowery horseshoe to the manager as Mets. Similarly, he survived many political vicissitudes during his career at the City Hall. He became a close confidant of Mayors John Lindsay, Abraham Beame