50 Facts About Branch Rickey

Wesley Branch Rickey was an American baseball player and sports executive.

Branch Rickey was instrumental in breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier by signing black player Jackie Robinson.

Branch Rickey created the framework for the modern minor league farm system, encouraged the Major Leagues to add new teams through his involvement in the proposed Continental League, and introduced the batting helmet.

Branch Rickey was posthumously elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967.

Branch Rickey played in Major League Baseball for the St Louis Browns and New York Highlanders from 1905 through 1907.

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Branch Rickey had a career in football, as a player for the professional Shelby Blues and as a coach at Ohio Wesleyan University and Allegheny College.

Branch Rickey was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, the son of Jacob Frank Branch Rickey and Emily .

Branch Rickey was the uncle of Beth Branch Rickey, a Louisiana political activist.

Branch Rickey graduated from Valley High School in Lucasville, Ohio, in 1899, and he 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.

Branch Rickey 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 Branch Rickey in 1903 and 1904 and the gentlemanly way Thomas handled it.

When Branch Rickey signed Robinson, Charles Thomas' story was made known in the papers.

In 1903, Branch Rickey signed a contract with the Terre Haute Hottentots of the Class B Central League, making his professional debut on June 20.

Branch Rickey was assigned to the Le Mars Blackbirds of the Class D Iowa–South Dakota League.

Branch Rickey debuted in the major leagues, with the St Louis Browns in 1905.

One opposing team stole 13 bases in one game while Branch Rickey was behind the plate, which was an American League record until 1911.

Branch Rickey injured his throwing arm and retired as a player following that season.

Branch Rickey attended the University of Michigan, where he received his LL.

Branch Rickey asked every alumnus he had ever met to write letters to Philip Bartelme, the school's athletic director, on his behalf.

Bartelme convinced the dean of the law school that Branch Rickey could handle his law studies while serving as the school's baseball coach.

Branch Rickey returned to the big leagues in 1913, as a front office executive with the Browns.

Branch Rickey became the team's manager for the final 12 games of the season, and managed the team for two more full seasons, although the Browns finished under.

Branch Rickey served in the 1st Gas Regiment during the war, and spent over four months as a member of the Chemical Warfare Service.

Branch Rickey then returned to St Louis in 1919, but clashed with new Browns owner Phil Ball and jumped to the crosstown rivals Cardinals, to become team president and manager.

In 1920, Branch Rickey gave up the team presidency to the Cards' new majority owner, Sam Breadon.

Branch Rickey noticed a colorful cardboard arrangement featuring two cardinal birds perched on a branch on a table.

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Schmidt's father, a graphic designer, assisted Branch Rickey in creating the logo that is part of a familiar staple on Cardinals uniforms.

Branch Rickey had wisely invested in several minor league baseball clubs, using them to develop future talent and supplement the Cardinals major league roster.

Second baseman Rogers Hornsby, winner of two Major League Baseball Triple Crowns, replaced Branch Rickey to become a player-manager, and in 1926, his first full year as manager, Hornsby then led the Cardinals to their first World Series championship.

Branch Rickey continued to develop the Cardinals up until the early 1940s.

Branch Rickey 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.

Branch Rickey pioneered the use of statistical analysis in baseball, when he hired statistician Allan Roth as a full-time analyst for the Dodgers in 1947.

In early 1945, Branch Rickey was anticipating the integration of black players into Major League Baseball.

Branch 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.

Red Barber recounted in Ken Burns's documentary Baseball that Branch Rickey's determination to desegregate Major League Baseball was born out of a combination of idealism and astute business sense.

However idealistic, Branch Rickey did not compensate Monarchs ownership for the rights to obtain Robinson, nor did he pay for rights to Don Newcombe, who would join the Dodgers from a Negro leagues club.

Branch Rickey attempted to sign Monte Irvin but Newark Eagles business owner Effa Manley refused to allow Irvin to leave her club without compensation.

When she threatened to sue him in court, Branch Rickey stopped the pursuit of Irvin, who would later sign with the New York Giants.

Branch Rickey's success became the crowning achievement of Rickey's illustrious career.

From 1945 through 1950, Branch Rickey was one of four owners of the Dodgers, each with one quarter of the franchise.

Immediately upon leaving the Dodgers, Rickey was offered the position of executive vice president and general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates by the team's new majority owner, John W Galbreath.

Branch Rickey fast-tracked youngsters like Law and Bob Friend, signed by his predecessor, Roy Hamey, to the majors.

Branch Rickey recruited Groat off the Duke University campus, drafted Face and Clemente from Brooklyn's minor league system, and his scouts and minor league instructors found Mazeroski and developed him for MLB delivery in 1956.

Branch Rickey immediately led a delegation of Continental League owners to a summit meeting in a Manhattan hotel with Commissioner of Baseball Ford Frick, the presidents of the National and American leagues, and a delegation of MLB club owners.

Branch Rickey wanted to come home to Missouri after suffering a heart attack at his summer home in Canada a year earlier and after the death of his son, Branch Jr.

Branch Rickey undermined St Louis general manager Bing Devine, who had begun his baseball career under Branch Rickey in the late 1930s as an office boy.

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Branch Rickey was a vocal critic of one of Devine's highest profile trades, when he acquired veteran shortstop Groat from Pittsburgh after the 1962 season.

Branch Rickey was the NL's starting shortstop in both the 1963 and 1964 All-Star games, and helped lead the 1963 Cardinals to a second-place finish.

Branch Rickey had told a story of physical courage and was about to relate an illustration from the Bible.

Branch Rickey faltered, fell back into his seat and slipped onto the floor.

Branch Rickey's brain was damaged when his breathing stopped momentarily, though his heart picked up its rhythm again.