For more information on Branch Wesley Rickey, visit Britannica.com.
Branch Rickey
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Branch Wesley Rickey |
| 5min Related Video: Branch Rickey |
| Biography: Wesley Branch Rickey |
Wesley Branch Rickey (1881-1965) was an innovative baseball executive who created baseball's farm system and integrated organized baseball when he signed Jackie Robinson in 1946.
Branch Rickey was born on December 20, 1881, in Stockdale, Ohio, and was raised in nearby Lucasville. Reared on his father's farm with a strict religious upbringing, young Branch excelled in academics and athletics. At the age of 19 Rickey enrolled at Ohio Wesleyan University, paying his way by playing semi-professional baseball and football and later coaching both sports. Upon graduation in 1904 he joined the Dallas baseball team in the Texas League. By the season's end the Cincinnati Reds of the National League purchased his contract, only to drop him from the squad when Rickey refused to play on Sundays. Over the next three years Rickey appeared as a catcher for the St. Louis Browns and for the New York Yankees, compiling a modest .239 life-time batting average.
Coaching and Managing
His playing career at an end, Rickey entered law school at the University of Michigan, once again financing his education by coaching. His legal career, however, proved short and unsuccessful. In 1912 St. Louis Browns owner Robert Hedges rescued Rickey from his failing Idaho law practice by offering him a position as his personal assistant. Two years later Rickey became the field manager of the team, and his emphasis on fundamentals and experimental training methods won him a reputation as a "Professor of Baseball." In 1917 Rickey transferred his allegiance to the crosstown St. Louis Cardinals, where he served as field manager until 1925 and as general manager from 1925 until 1942.
With the Cardinals Rickey perfected the "farm system," his first major contribution to the baseball industry. This ingenious scheme allowed a major league club to control a chain of minor league franchises through which it could develop young players before promoting the best to the parent team. The farm system allowed Rickey to assemble championship squads for the Cardinals as well as surplus players who were sold profitably to other teams. Under his leadership the Cardinals emerged as the most successful franchise in the National League.
In 1942, following a rift with Cardinal owner Samuel Breadon, Rickey became the general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Rickey's early attempts to rebuild the Brooklyn club by trading and selling older stars and creating a minor league chain like that of St. Louis met with derision from cynical Dodger fans and reporters. Rickey's intense moralism and sermonlike speeches led sportswriters to dub him the "Deacon" or the "Mahatma" (after Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi), and his office became known as the "Cave of the Winds." But by 1946 Rickey, now a part owner of the Dodgers, had once again constructed a pennant-contending team and his popularity soared.
Meanwhile, Rickey had embarked on a daring scheme to assure Dodger dominance in the post-World War II years. Since the late 1880s organized baseball had barred African Americans from participation. Rickey, who believed that segregation was immoral, correctly recognized that political pressures would soon bring about the integration of baseball and perceived that the first owner to tap this new source of players would benefit both in the standings and at the box office. In 1945, under the guise of creating a new Negro League, the Dodger organization secretly began scouting African American players. After carefully assessing the skills and background of dozens of players, Rickey chose Jackie Robinson, a former collegiate football star, to become the first African American major leaguer in the 20th century.
Rickey moved slowly and cautiously in bringing Robinson to the Dodgers. He studied the work of sociologists like Frank Tannenbaum and Dan Dodson and met with leaders of the African American community urging restraint in the enthusiasm of African American fans. He sent Robinson first to play for the Dodgers' top farm team, the Montreal Royals, in 1946 and started other talented African American players at lower levels of the Dodger minor leagues. Rickey's elaborate planning may have been unnecessary, but it reflected both his own complex personality and the racial perceptions of the era.
The choice of Robinson as his standard bearer proved an inspired one. Despite tremendous pressures and numerous instances of discrimination, Robinson led the International League in batting in 1946. The following year Rickey put down a rebellion among several Dodger players seeking to prevent Robinson's promotion and installed the African American athlete as the team's first baseman. Robinson led the Dodgers to the National League pennant and was named Rookie of the Year. His presence attracted record numbers of fans in every National League city. Over the next nine years Robinson established himself as one of the outstanding stars in baseball history, and the Dodgers, in large part due to Robinson and other African American players, became the dominant team in the National League.
In the aftermath of the Robinson experience Rickey became a prominent spokesman on behalf of civil rights. In the late 1940s he challenged Jim Crow laws by scheduling Dodger exhibitions throughout the South, forcing local officials to integrate their facilities or lose a sell-out crowd. In 1950 Rickey lost control of the Dodgers to Walter O'Malley and left the club. In subsequent years he worked for the Pittsburgh Pirates and the St. Louis Cardinals, but he was never able to recreate his earlier successes. In November 1965 he collapsed in Columbia, Missouri, while speaking on personal courage. He never regained consciousness and died on December 9, 1965.
Further Reading
The best biography of Branch Rickey is Arthur Mann, Branch Rickey: American in Action (1957). Other biographies include David Lipman, Mr. Baseball: The Story of Branch Rickey (1966) and Murray Polner, Branch Rickey (1982). See also Branch Rickey, The American Diamond (1965). For accounts of the integration of baseball see Jules Tygiel, Base-ball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy (1983) and Carl T. Rowan and Jackie Robinson, Wait Till Next Year: The Life of Jackie Robinson (1960).
Additional Sources
Frommer, Harvey, Rickey and Robinson: the men who broke baseball's color barrier, New York: MacMillan; London: Collier MacMillan Publishers, 1982.
| US History Companion: Rickey, Branch |
(1881-1965), major league baseball executive. After a brief stint as a teacher in his native Ohio, Rickey graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1906. His love of philosophy, which he taught briefly and which owed something to the pious Methodism in which he was reared, was intertwined with his love of sports, particularly baseball. He became a catcher with the Cincinnati Reds in 1904, but hobbled by injuries and by his religious objections to playing on Sundays, he was dropped. After unsuccessful turns with the St. Louis Browns and the New York Highlanders, he ended his playing days.
Following a long bout with tuberculosis, he earned an LL.B. in 1911 at the University of Michigan, where he also coached baseball. After practicing law for a short while, Rickey became an assistant to the owner of the Browns and manager of the team. To help it compete with wealthier clubs, he created a farm system--formal and informal arrangements with minor league teams to take on their players as they developed them. Shortly, he became manager and president of the other team in town, the Cardinals. There he so perfected the farm system that the Cardinals for a quarter of a century never had to buy a player. The far-flung minor league operation he conducted, which included tryout and instructional camps, made him wealthy; he had an agreement with the Cardinals that netted him a percentage of the price of any player he sold--and the surplus was large.
After he was forced out of the Cardinal organization by a jealous associate, he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1945 as president and general manager; soon he was a co-owner. Now he widened his search for talent beyond the farm system to include black and Latin American players. Greatly influenced by the writings on race of Professor Frank Tannenbaum of Columbia University's Department of History, among others, Rickey had decided to breach the all-white barrier in organized baseball. He selected and groomed Jackie Robinson, an outstanding college athlete from the University of California at Los Angeles, assigning him in late 1945 to a Dodger farm team, the Montreal Royals of the International League. Robinson led the league in batting in 1946 and Rickey promoted him to Brooklyn the next year. Robinson's luminous achievements as a Dodger and his notable restraint in facing the bigotry rampant in the game, on and off the field, opened the door to a steady stream of black players.
In 1950 Rickey once again broke with associates and left for the Pittsburgh Pirates, hoping to build there yet another championship team. Dismissed in 1955 for failing, he took the presidency of the new Continental League, which aimed to bring baseball of major league quality to cities lacking a big league franchise. The league failed, but in its wake owners of the majors were persuaded that the time had come to expand their sixteen teams to include long-neglected urban communities.
Rickey, this remarkable baseball innovator, was short and stocky, and looked and sounded like a professor. A shrewd businessman, his integrity (critics sometimes read it as self-righteousness) seemed a telltale of his stern upbringing. His warm encouragement of young players must be measured against his artful manipulation of some of the players in the farm system, which stunted many careers. Still, he was the "Man Who Emancipated Baseball," helping stimulate the modern civil rights movement in the process.
Bibliography:
Harvey Frommer, Rickey and Robinson: The Men Who Broke Baseball's Color Barrier (1982); Murray Polner, Branch Rickey: A Biography (1982).
Author:
Henry F. Graff
See also Baseball; Robinson, Jackie; Spectator Sports.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Branch Rickey |
Rickey, Branch, 1881-1965, American baseball executive, b. Stockdale, Ohio. As manager or executive, he was with the St. Louis Browns (1913-15), the St. Louis Cardinals (1917-42), the Brooklyn Dodgers (1943-50), and the Pittsburgh Pirates (1950-59). He was the first to institute the minor league farm system (1919) and integrated the major leagues by signing (1945) Jackie Robinson to a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Bibliography
See biography by M. Polner (1982); H. Frommer, Rickey and Robinson (1982).
| Quotes By: Branch Rickey |
Quotes:
"A full mind is an empty bat."
| Wikipedia: Branch Rickey |
| Branch Rickey | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Catcher/Manager/Executive | |
| Born: December 20, 1881 Portsmouth, Ohio |
|
| Died: December 9, 1965 (aged 83) Columbia, Missouri |
|
| Batted: Left | Threw: Right |
| MLB debut | |
| June 16, 1905 for the St. Louis Browns | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| August 25, 1914 for the St. Louis Browns | |
| Career statistics | |
| Batting average | .239 |
| Hits | 82 |
| Runs batted in | 39 |
| Teams | |
|
As Player
As Manager
As General Manager
|
|
| Career highlights and awards | |
|
|
| Member of the National | |
 Baseball Hall of Fame |
|
| Induction | 1967 |
| Election Method | Veterans Committee |
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2008) |
Wesley Branch Rickey (December 20, 1881 – December 9, 1965) was an innovative Major League Baseball executive elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967. He was known for breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier by signing African American player Jackie Robinson, for drafting the first Hispanic superstar, Roberto Clemente, for creating the framework for the modern minor league farm system, and for introducing the batting helmet.
Rickey's many achievements and religious faith[1] earned him the nickname "the Mahātmā."
Contents |
Biography
Early life
Rickey was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, USA, the son of Jacob Frank Rickey and Emily Brown Rickey. He was a catcher on the baseball team at Ohio Wesleyan and, in 1903, signed a professional contract with Terre Haute, Indiana of the Class B Central League, making his professional debut on June 20. However, Rickey was not ready for the rigors of the tough Central League and was assigned to Le Mars, Iowa of the Class D Iowa-South Dakota League. Later, he spent two seasons in the major leagues, debuting as a St. Louis Brown in 1905. He hit fairly well, hitting two home runs in the same game on August 6, but fielded poorly, a fatal flaw for a catcher. Sold to the New York Highlanders in 1907, Rickey could neither hit nor field while with the club, and his batting average dropped below .200. One opposing team stole 13 bases while Rickey was behind the plate, setting a record which still stands a century later. Rickey also injured his throwing arm and retired as a player after just one year. (During this period, Rickey also spent two seasons--1904 and 1905--coaching baseball and football and teaching at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania.)
For his undergraduate degree, he attended Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio. He received his law degree from the University of Michigan, where he worked as the baseball coach while going to school.
He returned to the big leagues in 1913, as a front office executive with the Browns. He was responsible for signing young George Sisler. Rickey became the team's manager for the final 12 games of the season, and managed the team for 2 more full seasons. But the Browns finished under .500 both years.
Rickey served as an officer in the U.S. Army in France during World War I. He commanded a chemical training unit that included Ty Cobb and Christy Mathewson.[citation needed] Rickey served in the 1st Gas Regiment during the war. He spent over four months as a member of the Chemical Warfare Service.[2]
He then returned to St. Louis in 1919, but clashed with new Browns owner Phil Ball and jumped to the crosstown Cardinals, to become team president and manager. In 1920, Rickey gave up the team presidency to the Cards' new majority owner, Sam Breadon. He then led the Cardinals on the field for another five seasons, before his firing early in the 1925 season.
His 6+ years as a manager were relatively mediocre, although the team posted winning records from 1921-23 and Rickey wisely invested in several minor league baseball clubs, using them to develop future talent for the Cardinals major league roster. He was 43 years old, had been a player, manager and executive in the Major Leagues and had shown no indication whatsoever that he would ever deserve to belong in the Baseball Hall of Fame. But even though he was not the first general manager in Major League Baseball history — his title was business manager — Rickey (as inventor of the farm system) would come to embody the position of the baseball operations executive who mastered scouting, player acquisition and development and business affairs — the definition of the modern GM.
Rogers Hornsby replaced Rickey to become a player-manager, and in 1926, his first full year as manager, he led the Cardinals to their first World Series championship.
Farm system and other innovations
By 1930, Rickey's Cardinals, known as the "Gashouse Gang", were the class of the National League. They won 101 games in 1931 and won the World Series in seven games. The star of the Series that year was rookie Pepper Martin, one of the first Cardinal stars that came from Branch's minor league system. Soon, other minor league graduates joined the team, among them future hall of famers Dizzy Dean and Joe Medwick, and Dean's brother Paul. The Deans and Medwick were integral parts of the 1934 Cardinals, who won the franchise's third World Series title.
Commissioner of Baseball Kenesaw Mountain Landis was concerned that Rickey's minor league system was going to ruin the game of baseball by destroying most existing minor league teams, and he twice released over 70 Cardinal minor leaguers in attempts to stop what he perceived to be a cover-up. Despite Judge Landis' best efforts, however, Rickey's minor league system stayed in existence, and similar systems were adopted by every major league team within a few years. Arguably, the farm system saved the minor leagues, by keeping them necessary after the television age began and minor league attendance figures declined.
Rickey continued to develop the Cardinals up until the early 1940s. In his final year at St. Louis, 1942, the Cardinals had their best season in franchise history, winning 106 games and the World Series title. The team was led by a new crop of players developed by the Cardinals, two of whom, Enos Slaughter and Stan Musial, became Hall of Famers; and several others, among them future MVP Marty Marion, who were among the best at their position during their eras. Even their manager Billy Southworth was a product of their farm system.
Rickey was a good friend of Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Larry MacPhail, himself a sound baseball man. MacPhail was drafted into the army to serve in World War II after the 1942 season, and the Dodgers hired Branch Rickey to replace him as President and GM, ending a tenure of over two decades with the Cardinals.
Branch continued being an innovator in his time with Brooklyn. He was responsible for the first full time spring training facility, in Vero Beach, Florida, and encouraged the use of now-commonplace tools such as the batting cage, pitching machines, and batting helmets. He also pioneered the use of statistical analysis in baseball (what is now known as sabermetrics), when he hired statistician Allan Roth as a full-time analyst for the Dodgers in 1947. After viewing Roth's evidence, Rickey promoted the idea that on-base percentage was a more important hitting statistic than batting average. [1] While working under Rickey, Roth was also the first person to provide statistical evidence that platoon effects were real and quantifiable.
Breaking the color barrier
Rickey's most memorable act with the Dodgers, however, involved breaking baseball's color barrier, which had been in place since the mid-1880s, not as a written rule, but merely a policy. This policy had continued under a succession of baseball leaders, including Landis, who was openly opposed to integrating Major League Baseball for what he regarded as legitimate reasons. Landis died in 1944, but Rickey had already set the process in motion, having sought (and gained) approval from the Dodgers Board of Directors in 1943 to begin the search for "the right man". On August 28, 1945, Rickey signed Jackie Robinson to a minor league contract. On October 23, 1945, it was announced that Robinson would join the Montreal Royals, the Dodgers' International League affiliate, for the 1946 season. He would end up as the league's batting champion, and led the Royals to a dominant league championship.
People[who?] noted that Rickey's determination to desegregate Major League Baseball was born out of a combination of idealism and astute business sense. The idealism was at least partially rooted in an incident involving a team for which Rickey worked early on. An African-American player, Charles Thomas, was extremely upset at being refused accommodation at the hotel where the team stayed because of his race. Rickey never forgot the incident and later said "I may not be able to do something about racism in every field, but I can sure do something about it in baseball." The business element was based on the fact that the Negro Leagues had numerous star athletes, and logically, the first Major League team to hire them would get first pick of the players at a reasonable price. At the time, Mexican brewery czar Jorge Pasquel was raiding the US for black talent (eg: Satchel Paige) as well as disgruntled white players, for the Mexican League with the idea of creating an integrated league that could compete on a talent level with the US major leagues.
Five days before the start of the 1947 season, Rickey purchased Jackie Robinson's contract from the minor leagues. Amid much fanfare, Jackie debuted, turned out to be a fantastic success. Robinson was baseball's first rookie of the year, and while he was often jeered by opposing baseball players, managers, and fans, he became extremely popular with the American public. His success became the crowning achievement of Rickey's illustrious career. His Dodgers would make the World Series that year, losing in 7 games to the New York Yankees. But Rickey's vision and action had set the stage for the previously mediocre Dodgers to be contenders for decades to come. And it opened the door for other innovative leaders like Bill Veeck of the Cleveland Indians, who integrated the American League soon thereafter.
Later career
In 1950, there were four owners of the Dodgers, each with one quarter of the franchise. When one of the four died, Walter O'Malley took control of that quarter. Also in 1950, Branch Rickey's contract as Dodger president expired, and Walter O'Malley decided that were Rickey to retain the job, almost all of his power would be gone, for example, he would no longer take a percentage of every franchise sale, Rickey declined. Then, in order to be a majority owner, O'Malley offered to buy Rickey's portion. Seeing no reason to hold on to the club, Rickey decided to comply, however in a final act of retaliation to O'Malley, Rickey instead offered the club percentage to a friend for a million dollars. His chances at complete franchise control at risk, O'Malley was forced to offer more money, and Rickey finally sold his portion for $1,050,000. After leaving the Dodgers, Rickey was offered the position of general manager for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Health problems forced Branch Rickey to retire in 1955, however his contributions would help lead to a World Championship for Pittsburgh in 1960.
Death
Rickey became a public speaker in his later years. He collapsed in the middle of a speech in Columbia, Missouri as he was being elected to the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. He died a month later on December 9, 1965.
Honors
In addition to Rickey's election to the Baseball Hall of Fame as a contributor in 1967, in 1997 he was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame, and in 2009 he was elected the College Baseball Hall of Fame.
In 1992, the Rotary Club of Denver created the Branch Rickey Award, which is given annually to a Major League Baseball player in recognition of exceptional community service.
In Ohio, a portion of U.S. Route 23 (commencing at the boundary of Franklin and Delaware counties at Lazelle Road and extending northward to the City of Delaware at State Route 315) was designated the "Branch Rickey Memorial Highway."
In Delaware, Ohio, South Henry Street between Olentangy Avenue and East William Street is also known as "Branch Rickey Way." All the athletic fields for Ohio Wesleyan University are located on South Henry Street.
Legacy
Branch Rickey is attributed with the famous quotation: "Luck is the residue of opportunity and design." (Quoted by Larry King 7/12/2006.) His descendants also became involved in baseball: his son, Branch Jr., who died four years before his father, and Branch Rickey III, currently president of the Pacific Coast League.
References
- ^ Branch Rickey: A Register of His Papers in the Library of Congress (full view)
- ^ Polner, Murray, and Rickey, Branch. Branch Rickey: A Biography, (Google Books), McFarland, 2007, p. 76, (ISBN 0786426438).
External links
 |
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Branch Rickey |
- Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube
- Major league career managerial statistics from Baseball-Reference
- Obituary, New York Times, December 10, 1965 Branch Rickey, 83, Dies in Missouri
- Baseball Hall of Fame – Member biography
- Biography by Lee Lowenfish
- Biography by Murray Polner
- St. Louis Walk of Fame
- "It’s not the honor you take with you, but the heritage you leave behind." – Branch Rickey
Click here for information on the Branch Rickey Award - Branch Rickey at Find a Grave
- Branch Rickey Memorial Highway
- Branch Rickey Way
| Managerial jobs | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
|||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|||||
|
|||||||||||
|
|||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
| Best of the Web: Branch Rickey |
Some good "Branch Rickey" pages on the web:
 HOFer www.baseballhalloffame.org |
 Baseball Library www.baseballlibrary.com |
Learn More
 | The Brooklyn Dodgers, The Original America's Team: Twilight at Noon - The Jackie Robinson Story (1996 Sports & Recreation Film) |
| Minor Watson (Actor, Drama/Comedy) |
| The Brooklyn Dodgers: An American Tradition (Sports & Recreation Film) |
 | What is the value of a Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey signed baseball? Read answer... |
| What did branch rickey want in baseball? Read answer... |
| Who won the Branch Rickey Award in 1994? Read answer... |
Help us answer these
 | Did Branch Rickey own Montreal royals and The brooklyn Dodgers? |
| Why did branch rickey integrate baseball? |
| Who won the Branch Rickey Award in 2004? |
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
 |
 | Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Biography. © 2006 through a partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| US History Companion. The Reader's Companion to American History, Eric Foner and John A. Garraty, Editors, published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more |
 |
| Quotes By. Copyright © 2008 QuotationsBook.com. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Branch Rickey". Read more |
Related answers
- Why is Rickey Branch so unheard of?
- What college team did Branch Rickey coach for?
- Who won the Branch Rickey Award in 1993?
ADVERTISEMENT
Answer these
- How are Fredlyn Percival Rickey and Branch Rickey related?
- How did Branch Rickey die?
- How did Branch Rickey know Frank Wiget?
Mentioned in
- The Brooklyn Dodgers, The Original America's Team: Twilight at Noon - The Jackie Robinson Story (1996 Sports & Recreation Film)
- Minor Watson (Actor, Drama/Comedy)
- The Brooklyn Dodgers: An American Tradition (Sports & Recreation Film)
- The Jackie Robinson Story (1950 Drama Film)
- Jack Roosevelt Robinson
- Soul of the Game (1996 Historical Film)
- Don Newcombe
- Rickey
- Rachel Robinson
- Tony Gwynn
- The Base Stealer (Historical Context) (poem)
- Baseball (American history)
- Sam Lacy
- Roy Campanella
