Baseball manager and executive, born in Lucasville, Ohio, USA. After playing four years in the majors and a 10-year career as a manager of the St Louis Browns and Cardinals (191325), he became vice-president of the Cardinals (192542) and created a farm system of 32 minor-league teams that supplied countless star players for the parent major-league club. A religious man, he never played, attended or managed games on Sundays. As vice-president of the Brooklyn Dodgers (194250), he established the spring training complex in Vero Beach, FL, and fulfilled his intention to break baseball's colour line, and in 1947 he signed Jackie Robinson to a major-league contract despite the vigorous opposition of other club owners. He was general manager (19515) and then chairman of the board of directors of the Pittsburgh Pirates (19569). In 1962 he organized the aborted Continental League that led to the founding of the New York Mets. Nicknamed the Mahatma because of his reputation as a baseball sage, he was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1967.
Wesley Branch Rickey (December 20, 1881 - December 9, 1965) was an innovative Major League Baseball executive best known for two things: breaking baseball's color barrier by signing the African-American player Jackie Robinson, and later drafting the first Hispanic superstar, Roberto Clemente; and creating the framework to the modern minor league farm system.
Early life
Rickey was born outside of Portsmouth, Ohio, the son of Frank W. 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, 1903. However, Rickey was not ready for the rigors of the tough Central League and was assigned to LeMars, Iowa of the Class D Iowa-South Dakota League. He spent two seasons in the major leagues, debuting as a St. Louis Brown in 1905.
Rickey then spent several years at the University of Michigan as a coach and also earned a law degree.
He returned to the big leagues in 1913, as a front office executive with the Browns. Rickey became the team's manager for the final 12 games of the season, and managed the team for 2 more full seasons.
Rickey served in the military for a few years, then returned to St. Louis in 1919, this time with the Cardinals, to become team president and manager.
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 define the position of the baseball operations executive who mastered scouting, player acquisition and development and business affairs — the definition of the GM post.
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.
The Farm System
By 1930, Rickey's Cardinals, known as the "Gashouse Gang", were the class of the National League. 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.
Kenesaw Mountain Landis was concerned that Rickey's minor league system was going to ruin the game of baseball by destroying most 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.
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.
Breaking the Color Barrier
But his most memorable act with the Dodgers 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. On August 28, 1945, Rickey signed Jackie Robinson to a minor league contract. October 23, 1945, the signing was announced that Robinson would play with the Dodgers' International League affiliate in Montreal, the Royals, for the 1946 season. He would end up as the league's batting champion, and led the Royals to a dominant league championship.
People noted that Rickey's determination to desegregate Major League Baseball was born out of a combination of idealism and an astute business sense. The business element was based on the fact that the Negro Leagues had numerous star athletes, and logically the first Major League team owner to hire them would get first pick of the players at a reasonable price.
Five days before the start of the 1947 season, Rickey purchased Jackie Robinson's contract from the minor leagues. Amid much fanfare, Jackie would debut for the Dodgers on April 15, 1947, becoming the first African-American to play in modern major league baseball. 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.
Rickey continued to run the Dodgers until he resigned in 1950, with owner Walter O'Malley, in some ways, forcing him out.
Rickey returned to baseball in 1959, this time as president of a proposed third major league, the Continental League. Major League Baseball was forced to intervene, and made an agreement with Rickey to disband the league in exchange for expansion of the existing leagues.
Death
Rickey became a public speaker in his later years.
Legacy
Branch Rickey is attributed with the famous quotation: "Luck is the residue of design." (Quoted by Larry King 7/12/2006.) His descendents 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.
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