May 14th, 1934 - NL Player of the Week - Branch Rickey

NL "Player" of the Week - Branch Rickey

(Ed note: this week, as we will in the future, we look at the important "business side" of baseball by pofiling one of the game's most important non-players)

Wesley "Branch" Rickey began his career in major league baseball as a player with the St. Louis Browns and the New York Highlanders as the Yankees were then called, but he is best known one of the greatest executives and innovators the game has ever seen.

Although Rickey is best known for his hiring of Jackie Robinson and demolishing baseball's color line, this was only one in a long string of bold, "outside the box" Rickey innovations that marked his career from his time coaching baseball at his alma mater, Ohio Wesleyan University. Rickey would go on to earn a law degree (and also coach baseball) at the University of Michigan after his brief stint in the major leagues.

Although many associate Rickey with the Brooklyn Dodgers, most of his long career was spent in St. Louis, first with Browns from 1913 to 1916 and then with the Cardinals from 1917 to 1942. It was his time with the Cardinals that Rickey developed the idea for a system where the Cardinals would recruit raw talent via tryouts and then maintain the Cardinal ties of players with promise via the development of a web of minor league teams either owned by the Cardinals or with some legal requierment to sell their contracts only to the Cardinals. This system became known as the "farm system" and led to serious clashes between Rickey and Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who believed every professional team's obligations should be to win ball games rather than supply a parent organization with talent.

Rickey was a devout Methodist, who was famous for observing the sabbath as a player, manager and executive. Among his most important contributions to the game after his time in St. Louis and Brooklyn were signing Roberto Clemente during a brief stint with Pittsburgh, and being the motivating force behind baseball's expansion in the 1960s after Rickey and others tried to organize a new major league, the "Continental League" (as it would have teams thoughout North America, including Canada) in 1959. The league disbanded without playing a game, but only after the Major Leagues had agreed to expand.

Development of the farm system, integration and expansion were the three most profound of Rickey's innovations. Others included the "daylight play" (whereby pitchers turn and throw to second base when they can see "daylight"between the baserunner and the shortstop covering), using a shotputting guard to correct overstriding by hitters, and the use of bands to help pitchers target their pitches. Rickey was at heart a teacher and coach, known for his power to inspire and motivate players and others in his many causes.

Rickey had a reputation for being tight with players' salaries despite his own relatively lavish compensation. It is hard to determine whether Rickey's teams were paid less than others during an era (1920s through 1950s) when baseball did not have the money it has now. Rickey always pointed to the enormous amounts of money his teams spent on the farm system, and in his elaborate preperation to integrate baseball, which was a well thought out, developed campaign designed to counter deep seated prejudices among enough of the public that many owners maintained the "gentleman's agreement" out of fear that many whites would not watch an integrated sport. Also, Rickey was forever helping out former players after their baseball careers ended. At the end of the day, the fierce loyalty shown him by former players and employees is evidence that he was, all things considered, good to work for.

Rickey was an innovative conservative. His temperment and ends were essentially conservative, yet he did not adhere to tradition in his means. Rickey believed deeply that the reserve clause and the antitrust exemption that enabled it were essential to baseball's well being. He was also deeply involved in Republican party politics, served in the army during World War I, led bond drives in World War II and was forever supporting various fraternal and charitable causes.

Rickey was named a "Contributor" by the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967.

http://www.dickperez.com/
FG