Branch Rickey
Branch Rickey | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Runs batted in | 39 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Managerial record | 597–664 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Winning % | .473 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Teams | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
As player
As manager As general manager | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Career highlights and awards | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Member of the National | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Induction | 1967 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Election method | Veterans Committee | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Wesley Branch Rickey (December 20, 1881 – December 9, 1965) was an American baseball player and sports executive. Rickey was instrumental in breaking
Rickey played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the
Rickey also had a career in
Early life
Wesley Branch Rickey was born on December 20, 1881, in
College career
Rickey was a catcher on the baseball team at Ohio Wesleyan University, where he obtained his B.A. Rickey was a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity.[3]
Rickey attended the
While at Michigan, Rickey applied for the job as Michigan's baseball coach. Rickey asked every alumnus he had ever met to write letters to Philip Bartelme, the school's athletic director, on his behalf. Bartelme recalled, "Day after day those letters came in."[5] Bartelme was reportedly impressed with Rickey's passion for baseball and his idealism about the proper role of athletics on a college campus.[6] Bartelme convinced the dean of the law school that Rickey could handle his law studies while serving as the school's baseball coach.[7] Bartelme reportedly called Rickey into his office to tell him he had the job if only "to put a stop to those damn letters that come in every day."[5] The hiring also marked the beginning of a lifelong friendship and business relationship between Rickey and Bartelme. Bartelme and Rickey worked together for most of the next 35 years, and in 1944 a California newspaper noted: "He and Rickey have had a close association in baseball ever since Bartelme was head of the athletic department of the University of Michigan where Rickey took to baseball just as a means to build up his failing health."
During his four years as head baseball coach from 1910 to 1913, Rickey's record was 68–32–4.[8] In his final season, the Michigan squad — led by brilliant sophomore first baseman and left-handed pitcher George Sisler, who batted .445 — compiled a 21–4–1 won-lost record, a winning percentage of .827.[9]
Rickey was a Master Mason in Tuscan Lodge #240 in St. Louis. After arriving in Brooklyn, Rickey joined Montauk Masonic Lodge #286 in Brooklyn.[10]
Stricken with tuberculosis, he sought treatment in Saranac Lake, New York in 1908 and 1909 at the Trudeau Sanatorium. Later, he moved into the Jacob Schiff cottage.
Professional football career
Before his front office days, Rickey played both football and baseball professionally.
In 1902, Rickey played professional football for the Shelby Blues of the "Ohio League", the direct predecessor to the modern National Football League (NFL.) Rickey often played for pay with Shelby while he was attending Ohio Wesleyan. During his time with Shelby, Rickey became friends with his teammate Charles Follis, who was the first black professional football player. He also played against him on October 17, 1903, when Follis ran for a 70-yard touchdown against the Ohio Wesleyan football team. After that game Rickey praised Follis, calling him "a wonder."[11] It is also possible that Follis' poise and class under the pressures of such racial tension, as well as his exceptional play in spite of it, inspired Rickey to sign Jackie Robinson decades later.[12] Rickey, however, stated his inspiration for bringing Jackie Robinson into baseball was the ill-treatment he saw received by his black catcher Charles Thomas on the Ohio Wesleyan baseball team coached by Rickey in 1903 and 1904 and the gentlemanly way Thomas handled it. When Rickey signed Robinson, Charles Thomas' story was made known in the papers[13]
Professional baseball career
Minor leagues
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Branch_Rickey_1912.jpg/220px-Branch_Rickey_1912.jpg)
In 1903, Rickey signed a contract with the
St. Louis Browns (1905–1906)
A left-handed-batting catcher, he played in both baseball's minor and major leagues.[1] Rickey debuted in the major leagues with the St. Louis Browns in 1905.
New York Highlanders (1907)
Sold to the
Managerial and executive career
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/61/Branch_Rickey_1906.png/220px-Branch_Rickey_1906.png)
St. Louis Browns (1913–1916)
Rickey was in his third year as the Wolverines’ baseball coach when St. Louis Browns owner Robert Hedges rewarmed their relationship. Hedges inquired if Rickey were interested in running the minor-league Kansas City Blues, which he was thinking of purchasing. Citing his commitment to Michigan, Rickey turned Hedges down, but he agreed to do some part-time scouting for the Browns in the West during the summer of 1912. That September, a persistent Hedges presented Rickey with a new opportunity: to become his top assistant and business manager of the MLB Browns themselves, at a substantial salary increase, effective after Michigan's 1913 baseball season. This time Rickey agreed to terms, and his career as a professional baseball executive was launched at age 31 on June 1, 1913. After three months in the Browns’ front office, on September 17, 1913, Rickey was also appointed field manager, replacing incumbent George Stovall and adding those responsibilities to his existing duties. Veteran players Jimmy Austin and, later, Burt Shotton became Rickey's "Sunday managers", running the Browns on the Sabbath in the young pilot's absence.[14]
The Browns, in the midst of one of several low points during their 52-year history, were 52–90 and in last place at the time. Rickey steered them to a 5–6–1 record over the last 12 games of their 1913 season. Then, in 1914, with Rickey in charge from the first day of spring training, they improved by 14 games, jumping from eighth to fifth place in the American League. However, the 1915 Browns took a giant step backwards; despite the June signing of the player who would become one of the greatest in franchise history—future Hall of Famer Sisler—they went only 63–91, 8½ games poorer than the 1914 edition.[15]
The team's on-field struggles notwithstanding, Rickey maintained Hedges’ confidence. But during the 1915–1916 offseason, as part of the settlement of the Federal League "war", Hedges sold the Browns to the former operator of the Feds’ St. Louis entry, Philip DeCatesby Ball. The new owner brought along his own manager, Fielder Jones, and restricted an unhappy Rickey to front-office duties. Compounding matters, the men's personalities clashed, and as the 1916 season concluded, Rickey began searching for other employment.[16]
St. Louis Cardinals (1917–1942)
Early years and World War I service (1917–1918)
Coincidentally, the National League's St. Louis Cardinals were also enduring a period of ownership turmoil. In 1916, they had finished eighth and last in the Senior Circuit and attracted a league-worst 224,308 fans to Robison Field,[17] and their owner, Helene Hathaway Britton, put them up for sale. A local consortium of businessmen, including automobile dealer Sam Breadon,[18] quickly formed to buy the financially strapped team and keep it from moving elsewhere. Searching for a chief executive, they reached out to seven St. Louis sportswriters and asked for recommendations; all seven separately suggested Rickey.[19]
But, before he could join the Cardinals, Rickey had to sort out his existing obligations to Ball and the Browns. American League president and founder Ban Johnson, determined to keep Rickey in his league, pressured Ball to seek a temporary injunction to enforce the terms of Rickey's contract.[20] The dispute was resolved in April 1917, when Rickey was permitted to assume his duties as the Cardinals' club president and business manager; he also purchased a small share of the team. Apart from his year as president of the Continental League in 1959–1960, Rickey would spend the remainder of his baseball career in the National League.
Each of Rickey's first two seasons with the Cardinals would be overshadowed by the United States' entry into World War I, on April 2, 1917.
Despite their last-place standing in 1916, Rickey inherited two Hall-of-Fame assets: 21-year-old infielder Rogers Hornsby and the Cardinals' manager, Miller Huggins. Each contributed to a strong bounce-back season in 1917: Hornsby batted .327 in 145 games and led the team in hits, and Huggins guided the Cardinals to 82 wins and a third-place finish. During the 1920s, Hornsby would become the cornerstone of the franchise as it became a National League pennant contender. But Huggins, who had been a member of a rival ownership group that lost its bid for the Cardinals to Breadon's syndicate, departed for the New York Yankees at season's end; there he would lead an eventual American League and MLB powerhouse as a consolation prize for Ban Johnson's circuit.[21]
The war-disrupted 1918 campaign saw the Cardinals, managed by veteran minor-league pilot Jack Hendricks, perform poorly. They plummeted to last place in the National League, winning only 51 of 131 games during the shortened regular season, which ended September 2. Rickey, however, had by that point already enlisted as an officer in the United States Army, wearing a military uniform to work at the Cardinals' front office before reporting for duty in Washington. His leave of absence, or temporary resignation, from the team began August 31, 1918.[22]
He embarked by steamship for
Field manager (1919–1925)
Rickey's record as manager of the Cardinals for six full years, and part of a seventh, was relatively mediocre (458–485–4, .486). They did improve from only 53 victories in 1919 to 75 in 1920. Then they posted winning marks from 1921 to 1923. In 1920, the ownership of the team stabilized when Sam Breadon purchased controlling interest[18] and took over, from Rickey, as club president.
On the field, the club was led by second baseman Hornsby, who batted over .400 three times (and .397 once). Others—such as Jack Fournier, Jesse Haines, Austin McHenry and Jack Smith—also contributed to the team's surge. But McHenry's tragic death from a brain tumor in 1922 was a difficult blow for the Cardinals to absorb. They fell from 87 to 85 to 79 wins over the 1921–1923 period; then, in 1924, they dropped below .500 and finished 76–78.
Off the field, Rickey and Breadon pursued the
But while perfecting the process of player development was his most important achievement of the time, Rickey also contributed to the sartorial appearance of the Cardinals. For the first time, they wore uniforms that featured the two distinctive
In 1923, Rickey also experimented with placing uniform numbers on the sleeves of his players to help fans identify them. The practice was abandoned after only one season, but putting numbers on the backs of uniform shirts became widespread during the 1930s.[29]
Business/general manager (1925–1942)
When the Cardinals'
However, Breadon could not deny Rickey's acumen for player development, and asked him to stay to run the front office. An embittered Rickey stated, "You can't do this to me, Sam. You are ruining me." "No." Breadon responded, "I am doing you the greatest favor one man has ever done to another."[28]
Although he was not the first executive titled as a
Meanwhile, in 1926, his first full year as manager, Hornsby led the Cardinals to their first World Series championship.[31]
Development of the farm system
Two more pennants followed in 1928 and 1930, although each team fell to its American League foe in the World Series. By 1931, Rickey's Cardinals were the class of the National League. They won 101 games in 1931 and won the World Series in seven games over the defending champion Philadelphia Athletics. The star of the 1931 World Series was rookie Pepper Martin, a 1928 graduate of Rickey's player development system. With eight owned or affiliated farm teams by 1931,[32] the system was fed by the Cardinals' scouting corps, headed by Charley Barrett (1871–1939), who introduced tryout camps to identify young amateur talent across the U.S. to fill the pipeline. Soon, other organization graduates joined the team, among them future Hall of Famers Dizzy Dean and Joe Medwick, nicknamed "Ducky", and Dean's brother Paul "Daffy" Dean. The Deans and Medwick were integral parts of the 1934 Redbirds, known as the "Gashouse Gang", who won the franchise's third World Series title.[1]
Despite the ravages of
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
Brooklyn Dodgers (1943–1950)
When Rickey's good friend
Further innovations
Rickey continued to innovate in his time with Brooklyn. He was responsible for the first full-time
Breaking the Color Barrier
Rickey's most memorable act with the Dodgers involved signing Jackie Robinson, thus breaking baseball's color barrier, which had been an unwritten rule since the 1880s. 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."[1]
In early 1945, Rickey was anticipating the integration of black players into Major League Baseball. Rickey, along with Gus Greenlee who was the owner of the original Pittsburgh Crawfords, created the United States League (USL) as a method to scout black players specifically to break the color line. It is unclear if the league actually played the 1945 season or if it was only used as a pretense for integration.[36] Around this time, Rickey held tryouts of black players, under the cover story of forming a new team in the USL called the "Brooklyn Brown Dodgers." The Dodgers were, in fact, looking for the right man to break the color line.
On August 28, 1945, Rickey signed Robinson, who never played in the USL, to a minor league contract. Robinson had been playing in the
There was no statute officially banning blacks from baseball, only a universally recognized unwritten rule which no club owner was prepared to break that was perpetuated by culturally entrenched racism and a desire by club owners to be perceived as representing the values and beliefs of everyday American white men. The service of black Americans in the Second World War, and the celebrated pre-war achievements of black athletes in American sports, such as Joe Louis in boxing and Jesse Owens in track, helped pave the way for the cultural shift necessary to break the barrier.[1]
Rickey knew that Robinson would face racism and discrimination.[37] Rickey made it clear in their momentous first meeting that he anticipated wide-scale resistance both inside and outside baseball to opening its doors to black players. As predicted by Rickey, right from the start Robinson faced obstacles among his teammates and other teams' players. No matter how harsh the white people were towards Robinson, he could not retaliate. Robinson had agreed with Rickey not to lose his temper and jeopardize the chances of all the blacks who would follow him if he could help break down the barriers.[38]
Red Barber recounted in
Amid much fanfare, Jackie debuted, and turned out to be a success. Robinson was baseball's first
Later career with Dodgers
From 1945 through 1950, Rickey was one of four owners of the Dodgers, each with one quarter of the franchise. When one of the four (John L. Smith) 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 Rickey's power would be gone; for example, he would no longer take a percentage of every franchise sale. Rickey declined a new contract as president. Then, 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. In a final act of retaliation against O'Malley, Rickey instead offered the club percentage to a friend for $1 million. His chances at complete franchise control at risk, O'Malley was forced to offer more money, and Rickey finally sold his portion for $1.05 million (equivalent to approximately $13,300,000 in 2023[41]).[1]
Pittsburgh Pirates (1951–1955)
Immediately upon leaving the Dodgers, Rickey was offered the position of
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/Pirate_player_with_general_manager_Branch_Rickey_%28cropped%29.jpg/220px-Pirate_player_with_general_manager_Branch_Rickey_%28cropped%29.jpg)
Perhaps his most notable innovation during his Pittsburgh tenure came during the
Health problems forced Rickey to retire in 1955. The Pirates were still mired in the NL basement; they would not have another winning record until 1958. However, with an average age of 25.5, they were the youngest outfit in the Senior Circuit in 1955. Five years later, Rickey's contributions would help lead to a
Rickey fast-tracked youngsters like Law and
Rickey remained on the Pirate masthead as chairman of the board for almost four full seasons after Joe L. Brown succeeded him as general manager in October of 1955. He also held a small amount of stock in the club. But that association ended in the middle of August 1959, when, nearing his 78th birthday, Rickey took on another challenge as the chief executive of a proposed third major league, the Continental League.[1]
President of Continental League
A significant shift in population from the Eastern and Midwestern United States to the West and South after
Three weeks after the formation of the new circuit was announced, on August 18, 1959, Rickey sold his stake in the Pirates, resigned as board chairman, and signed a 16-month contract to become the first president of the new league at a reported $50,000 annual salary (equivalent to approximately $522,603 in 2023
As those rules were taking shape, Rickey presided over the admission of the Continental League's three remaining founding franchises:
In 1961, Minneapolis–Saint Paul got a 60-year-old American League franchise, the transferred
Return to Cardinals
After negotiations broke down in May 1961 that would have seen Rickey take over the Mets as their first president and general manager,
But Rickey's second stint with the Cardinals was marred by controversy. He recommended that Cardinal icon Stan Musial be compelled to retire, even after the eventual Hall of Famer's stellar 1962 season, in which Musial, 41, had finished third in the National League batting race (hitting .330 in 135 games played), and broken Honus Wagner's NL record for career hits. Rickey wrote to Busch: "He can't run, he can't field, and he can't throw. Twenty-five Musials would finish in last place."[51] Musial would play one more campaign before retiring from the field in September 1963.
Rickey also undermined St. Louis general manager
Death
A public speaker in his later years, on November 13, 1965, Rickey collapsed in the middle of a speech in Columbia, Missouri, as he was being elected to the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. He had told a story of physical courage and was about to relate an illustration from the Bible. "Now I'm going to tell you a story from the Bible about spiritual courage," he said. Rickey murmured he could not continue, collapsed and never spoke again. He faltered, fell back into his seat and slipped onto the floor. He never regained consciousness. His brain was damaged when his breathing stopped momentarily, though his heart picked up its rhythm again. Through the next 26 days, hospitalized in a coma, there was little change.[1]
On December 9, at about 10 p.m. he died of heart failure at Boone County Memorial Hospital in Columbia, Missouri, 11 days before his 84th birthday. Branch Rickey was interred at Rush Township Burial Park in Rushtown, Ohio, near where his parents, his widow Jane (who died in 1971), and three of his children (including Branch Jr.) also rest. Rickey's grave overlooks the Scioto Valley, about three miles from his boyhood home in Stockdale, Ohio.[1]
Honors and legacy
According to historian Harold Seymour:[54]
- Branch Rickey stands forth as professional baseball's counterpart of that oldest stereotype of American folklore, the shrewd hard-working, God-fearing Yankee trader. He was also one of baseball's genuine innovators, an administrator who made a lasting imprint upon the industry....[His] seeming contradictions between profession and practice, together with this skill and oratorical obfuscation and circumlocution, caused many to regard Rickey as a hypocritical mountebank. Yet even his detractors acknowledged Rickey's industriousness, organizing genius, an unsurpassed ability to judge the potential of raw recruits.... Rickey built the Cardinals into a baseball empire that, at its peak, comprised 32 clubs, 600 or 700 players, and an investment of more than $2 million.
In addition to Rickey's election to the
In January 2014, the Cardinals announced Rickey among 22 former players and personnel to be inducted into the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum for the inaugural class of 2014.[57]
A ballpark in
A section of US Highway 23 in Ohio, running north from the Franklin County border to the city of Delaware, has been named the Branch Rickey Memorial Highway.[59]
In 1992,
It is not the honor that you take with you but the heritage you leave behind.
Another quotation attributed to Rickey is:
Luck is the residue of design.[60]
Members of his family also became involved in baseball. Son Branch Jr. was an executive with the Dodgers and Pirates for over two decades prior to his 1961 death, and grandson
Moreover, Rickey's influence continued to loom large after his passing, especially in the National League. One year after his 1965 death, five of the league's ten general managers—Howsam (Cardinals), Devine (Mets), Brown (Pirates), Buzzie Bavasi (Dodgers) and Bill DeWitt (Reds), as well as NL president Giles—had at one time worked under Rickey during his long executive career.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/67/Jackie_robinson_story.jpg/220px-Jackie_robinson_story.jpg)
Portrayals on stage, film and television
Due to his connection with Jackie Robinson, Rickey has been portrayed numerous times on screen and stage:
- In the 1950 movie The Jackie Robinson Story, he is portrayed by Minor Watson.[62]
- In the 1996 HBO movie Soul of the Game, Rickey is played by Edward Herrmann.[63]
- In the 2013 film 42, Rickey is played by Harrison Ford.[64] Rickey's great-granddaughter, actress Kelley Jakle, also appears in the film.[65]
- Rickey is the title character in the 1989 Edward Schmidt play Mr. Rickey Calls a Meeting, a fictionalized version of the meeting in which Rickey offered Jackie Robinson a major-league contract.[66]
Additionally, he was also featured heavily in the 2016
Managerial record
Team | Year | Regular season | Postseason | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Games | Won | Lost | Win % | Finish | Won | Lost | Win % | Result | ||
SLB | 1913 | 11 | 5 | 6 | .455 | 8th in AL | – | – | – | – |
SLB | 1914 | 153 | 71 | 82 | .464 | 5th in AL | – | – | – | – |
SLB | 1915 | 154 | 63 | 91 | .409 | 6th in AL | – | – | – | – |
SLB total | 318 | 139 | 179 | .437 | 0 | 0 | – | |||
STL | 1919 | 137 | 54 | 83 | .394 | 7th in NL | – | – | – | – |
STL | 1920 | 154 | 75 | 79 | .487 | 5th in NL | – | – | – | – |
STL | 1921 | 153 | 87 | 66 | .569 | 3rd in NL | – | – | – | – |
STL | 1922 | 154 | 85 | 69 | .552 | 3rd in NL | – | – | – | – |
STL | 1923 | 153 | 79 | 74 | .516 | 5th in NL | – | – | – | – |
STL | 1924 | GM | 65 | 89 | .422 | 6th in NL | – | – | – | – |
STL | 1925 | 38 | 13 | 25 | .342 | fired | – | – | – | – |
STL total | 943 | 458 | 485 | .486 | 0 | 0 | – | |||
Total | 1261 | 597 | 664 | .473 | 0 | 0 | – |
Head coaching record
College football
Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Allegheny Gators (Independent) (1904–1905)
| |||||||||
1904 | Allegheny | 5–5 | |||||||
1905 | Allegheny | 3–8 | |||||||
Allegheny: | 8–13 | ||||||||
Ohio Wesleyan (Ohio Athletic Conference ) (1906–1908)
| |||||||||
1906 | Ohio Wesleyan | 3–3–3 | 1–1–2 | T–2nd | |||||
1907 | Ohio Wesleyan | 7–3 | 2–3 | 6th | |||||
1908 | Ohio Wesleyan | 4–4 | 2–3 | T–6th | |||||
Ohio Wesleyan: | 14–10–3 | 5–7–2 | |||||||
Total: | 22–23–3 |
See also
- List of Major League Baseball player–managers
- List of St. Louis Cardinals owners and executives
- List of Los Angeles Dodgers owners and executives
- List of Pittsburgh Pirates owners and executives
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "Branch Rickey (SABR BioProject)". Society for American Baseball Research.
- ^ Rickey, Branch (1890–1969). "Branch Rickey papers". Library of Congress.
- ^ Redrup, Jessie Dunathan. "Branch Rickey with Delta Tau Delta fraternity brothers". Branch Rickey Collection. Ohio Wesleyan University. Archived from the original on June 15, 2013. Retrieved April 13, 2013.
- ^ "Law Quadrangle Notes" (PDF). Retrieved November 25, 2017.
- ^ a b Polner, p. 57.
- ^ Lowenfish, p. 49.
- ^ Lowenfish, p. 50.
- ^ "Bartelme Is Scout". Fresno Bee Republican. June 20, 1944.
- ^ "George Sisler (SABR BioProject)". Society for American Baseball Research.
- ^ "Well Known Freemasons". Grand Lodge of British Columbia. Archived from the original on September 8, 2013.
- ^ Roberts, Milt (1980). "Charles Follis" (PDF). Coffin Corner. 2 (1). Professional Football Researchers Association: 1–5. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 27, 2010.
- ^ Nash, Kimberly. "Breaking Pro Football's Color Line: The Story of Charles W. Follis". Bleacher Report.
- ^ blackcollegenines (May 27, 1905). "Charles Thomas – Ohio Wesleyan University «". Blackcollegenines.wordpress.com. Retrieved November 11, 2019.
- ^ Lowenfish, pp. 56-57, 59–60, 64-65.
- ^ "St. Louis Browns (Baltimore Orioles since 1954) franchise history". Retrosheet.
- ^ Lowenfish, pp. 81-85.
- ^ "1910-19 Ballpark Attendance Figures, Ballparks of Baseball".
- ^ National Baseball Hall of Fame. Retrieved June 12, 2023.
- ^ Lowenfish, p. 85.
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- ^ Lowenfish, p. 92.
- ^ Lowenfish, p. 103.
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- ^ Polner, p. 76.
- ^ Lowenfish, p. 106.
- ISBN 978-1-932391-17-6.
- ^ "1923 Minor League Affiliates". Baseball-Reference.com.
- ^ a b "Theme of the week". MLB.com. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
- ^ "Dressed to the Nines". National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
- ^ Armour, Mark (February 6, 2018). "Branch Rickey's Farm (1925)". In Pursuit of Pennants. Retrieved June 20, 2023.
- ^ "1926 St. Louis Cardinals Statistics". Baseball-Reference.com.
- ^ Johnson & Wolff, p. 328
- ^ Johnson & Wolff, pp. 343, 348, 355
- ^ Smith Jr., Leverett T. "A Man of Many Faucets, All Running at Once". Society for American Baseball Research.
- ^ "Goodby to Some Old Baseball Ideas". www.baseballthinkfactory.org.
- ^ "Branch Rickey". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved November 17, 2019.
- ^ Beyond the box score: Jackie Robinson, civil rights crusader, Negro History Bulletin, 1995 p. 15.
- ^ "Jackie Robinson Breaks Baseball's Color Barrier, 1945". www.eyewitnesstohistory.com.
- ISBN 978-0-313-37513-2.: p.37
- ISBN 978-0-7864-1120-7.
- ^ a b 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.
- Baseball Reference: 1950 National League miscellaneous records
- ^ "Oakland A's Fan Coalition – Athletics baseball enthusiasts dedicated to watching a winner". Oaklandfans.com. July 12, 1980. Retrieved December 5, 2010.
- ^ O'Toole, p. 4.
- ^ Spink, J. G. Taylor (1960). Official Baseball Guide and Record Book. St. Louis, Missouri: Charles C. Spink and Son.
- ^ a b Shapiro, Michael (July 22, 2009). "Fifty Years Later, the Continentals Sit in the What-If Drawer". The New York Times. Retrieved June 7, 2018.
- ^ Edmonds, Ed (1994). "Over 40 Years in the On-Deck Circle: Congress and the Baseball Anti-Trust Exemption". NDL Scholarship. South Bend, Indiana: Notre Dame University Law School.
- ^ "McDonald, Joe (3 January 2015), "What If Branch Rickey Ran the Mets in 1962?" Newyorksportsday.com". Archived from the original on January 29, 2019. Retrieved January 28, 2019.
- ^ "Branch Rickey Returns to Cardinals After 20 Years". Nevada, Missouri: Nevada Daily Mail. October 30, 1962. p. 6. Retrieved August 21, 2014.
- ^ United Press International (June 28, 1961). "Rickey Suffers a Heart Attack". The New York Times. Retrieved September 14, 2023.
- ^ O'Neill, Dan (January 20, 2013). "Musial: Stan's Final Farewell". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Retrieved June 22, 2018.
- ^ Lowenfish, p. 585.
- ^ "Why Gussie Busch Fired Bing Devine in the Cardinals' Championship Year". Retrosimba. August 15, 2014. Retrieved June 7, 2018.
- ^ Harold Seymour, "Rickey, Branch Wesley" in John A. Garraty, Encyclopedia of American Biography (1974) pp 906-908.
- ^ "St. Louis Walk of Fame Inductees". St. Louis Walk of Fame. Archived from the original on October 31, 2012. Retrieved April 25, 2013.
- ^ "College Baseball Hall of Fame: Hall of Famers: 2009 Inductees". www.collegebaseballhall.org.
- ^ Cardinals Press Release (January 18, 2014). "Cardinals establish Hall of Fame & detail induction process". www.stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com. Archived from the original on January 26, 2014. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
- ^ "Branch Rickey Park". Shawnee State Bears. Retrieved April 18, 2015.
- ^ "Branch Rickey Memorial Highway". Retrieved February 4, 2017.
- ^ The Yale Book of Quotations, citing The Sporting News, February 21, 1946.
- ^ Paisley, Joe (August 5, 2015). "Commissioner Branch Rickey III likes what PCL is doing while watching Colorado Springs Sky Sox lose". TCA Regional News.
- ^ "The Jackie Robinson Story (1950)". Turner Classic Movies.
- ^ "Soul of the Game (1996)". Turner Classic Movies.
- ^ "42 (2013)". Turner Classic Movies.
- ^ "Actress Kelley Jakle of "42"". The McCarthy Project. March 29, 2013. Retrieved January 8, 2014.
- ^ Braunagel, Don (May 12, 1992). "Review: 'Mr. Rickey Calls a Meeting'". Variety. Retrieved December 11, 2016.
- ^ Lloyd, Robert (April 11, 2016). "Review: Ken Burns' 'Jackie Robinson' documentary is a lump-in-the-throat trip that goes beyond baseball". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
Further reading
- Heidenry, John (2008). The Gashouse Gang: How Dizzy Dean, Leo Durocher, Branch Rickey, Pepper Martin, and Their Colorful, Come-from-Behind Ball Club Won the World Series—and America's Heart—During the Great Depression. PublicAffairs. ISBN 978-1586485689.
- Kahn, Roger (2014). Rickey & Robinson: The True, Untold Story of the Integration of Baseball. Rodale Press. ISBN 978-1623362973.
- Lowenfish, Lee (2009). Branch Rickey: Baseball's Ferocious Gentleman. Bison Books. ISBN 978-0803224537.
- O'Toole, Andrew (2000). Branch Rickey in Pittsburgh: Baseball's Trailblazing General Manager for the Pirates, 1950–1955. McFarland & Company. ISBN 9780786408399.
- Polner, Murray (1982). Branch Rickey: A Biography. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0786426430.
- Shapiro, Michael (2010). Bottom of the Ninth: Branch Rickey, Casey Stengel, and the Daring Scheme to Save Baseball from Itself. St. Martin's. ISBN 978-0805092363.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Wikiquote-logo.svg/34px-Wikiquote-logo.svg.png)
- Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet
- Branch Rickey managerial career statistics at Baseball-Reference.com
- Branch Rickey at the Baseball Hall of Fame
- Branch Rickey at the SABR Baseball Biography Project
- Branch Rickey at Find a Grave