Branch Rickey
| Branch Rickey | |
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| Catcher / manager / functionary | |
| Born: December 20, 1881 Portsmouth , United States 
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| Died on: December 9, 1965 Columbia , United States
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| Suggested: Left | Threw: Right |
| Debut in Major League Baseball | |
| June 16, 1905 with the St. Louis Browns | |
| Last MLB assignment | |
| August 25, 1914 with the St. Louis Browns | |
| MLB statistics (until end of career) |
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| Batting average | , 239 |
| Hits | 82 |
| Runs Batted In | 39 |
| Teams | |
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As a player
As a manager
As general manager
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| Awards | |
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| member of | |
 Baseball Hall of Fame
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| Recorded | 1967 |
| Special selection | Veterans Committee |
Wesley Branch Rickey (born December 20, 1881 in Portsmouth , Ohio , † December 9, 1965 in Columbia , Missouri ) was an American baseball player , manager and official in Major League Baseball . His nickname was The Mahatma .
biography
Branch Rickey's career as a player in the American League was short and not very successful. He played his first of only 120 games on June 16, 1905 for the St. Louis Browns . In 1907 he moved to the New York Highlanders , for which he played 52 games that season. Due to an injury to his limb, he quit professional baseball and spent several years at the University of Michigan as a coach. There he also earned a law degree. In 1913 he returned to the Major Leagues and worked as a manager for the St. Louis Browns. There his talent was shown in discovering young players. George Sisler and Dizzy Dean were his discoveries. In 1916 new owners took over the Browns and fired Rickey. He then spent some time in the military before he was signed to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1919 as manager and team president. During the 1925 season he was replaced as manager of Rogers Hornsby , but remained in responsibility as an official. In 1926 the Cardinals won the World Series against the Yankees, but then sold Hornsby to the New York Giants and signed Frankie Frisch as 2nd baseman, who would be an outstanding player for the Cardinals for the next ten years. The Cardinals would then be the dominant team in the National League , known as the Gashouse Gang , in the years to come . In 1931 the team won the World Series again.
Rickey had meanwhile built an organization within minor league teams that was very similar to today's structure. The then Major League Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis saw this very critically, as he believed that equal opportunities for the teams would no longer be maintained and the independence of the smaller teams was at risk. However, the future should show that Rickey's path was the one that later gave the minor leagues their right to exist and that almost all teams in minor league baseball are branches of the big clubs. The Cardinals had their best year in his last year as General Manager . They won 106 games and won the World Series.
In 1943, Branch Rickey joined the Brooklyn Dodgers . It was there that he would bring about the greatest change in baseball in the 20th century. On August 28, 1945 Rickey Jackie Robinson had a minor league contract signed to let it play in Montréal in the International League in the 1946 season. Robinson was the best batsman in the International League that season and was to play in the major leagues on April 15, 1947 as the first African-American player in the history of modern baseball. Robinson was voted the first rookie of the year and the Dodgers reached the World Series against the Yankees, in which they were defeated in seven games.
In the 1950s, Rickey still worked as General Manager at the Pittsburgh Pirates , but there he was denied great success.
In November 1965, he collapsed while giving a speech on his induction into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame , and died a month later at the age of 83. In 1967 he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee .
Stations as a player
- 1905-1906 St. Louis Browns
- 1907 New York Highlanders
- 1914 St. Louis Browns
Positions as a manager
- 1913–1915 St. Louis Browns
- 1919-1925 St. Louis Cardinals
Representation in film and television
- In the 1950 film The Jackie Robinson Story played by Minor Watson .
- Played by Edward Herrmann in the 1996 television film Soul of the Game .
- In the movie 42 - The Real Tale of a 2013 Sports Legend played by Harrison Ford
Web links
- Player information and statistics from Baseball Reference or Fangraphs or The Baseball Cube or Baseball Reference (Minor League) (English)
- Data as a manager (English)
- Branch Rickey in the Hall of Fame (English)
- Branch Rickey in the database of Find a Grave (English)
| personal data | |
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| SURNAME | Rickey, Branch |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Rickey, Wesley Branch |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American baseball player, manager and official |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 20, 1881 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Portsmouth , Ohio |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 9, 1965 |
| Place of death | Columbia , Missouri |