Wesley Branch Rickey Bio/Wiki, Net Worth, Married 2018
Wesley Branch Rickey (December 20, 1881 – December 9, 1965) was an innovative Major League Baseball (MLB) executive elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967. He was perhaps best known for breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier by signing African American player Jackie Robinson, for drafting the first Afro-Hispanic superstar, Roberto Clemente, for creating the framework for the modern minor league farm system, for encouraging the Major Leagues to add new teams through his involvement in the proposed Continental League, and for introducing the batting helmet.Rickey played in MLB for the St. Louis Browns and New York Highlanders from 1905 through 1907. After struggling as a player, Rickey returned to college, where he learned about administration from Philip Bartelme. Returning to MLB in 1913, Rickey embarked on a successful managing and executive career with the St. Louis Browns, the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Yankees, Brooklyn Dodgers and Pittsburgh Pirates. The Cardinals elected him to their team Hall of Fame in 2014.Rickey also had a career in the sport of American football, as a player for the professional Shelby Blues and as a coach at Ohio Wesleyan University and Allegheny College. His many achievements and deep Christian faith earned him the nickname "the Mahātmā."
University of Michigan, Ohio Wesleyan University, University of Michigan Law School
Spouse
Jane Moulton Rickey
Children
Branch Rickey, Jr., Mary Rickey Eckler, Alice Rickey Jakle, Elizabeth Rickey Wolfe, Jane Rickey Jones, Sue Rickey Adams
Parents
Jacob Frank Rickey, Emily Brown
Siblings
Frank Wanzer Rickey, Orla Edwin Rickey
Star Sign
Sagittarius
#
Quote
1
I was in the top ten percent of my law school class. I am a Doctor of Juris Prudence. I have an honorary Doctor of Laws. So, would somebody please tell me why I spent four mortal hours today conversing with a person named Dizzy Dean.
2
Ethnic prejudice has no place in sports, and baseball must recognize that truth if it is to maintain stature as a national game.
3
The greatest untapped reservoir of raw material in the history of our game is the black race.
4
(Responding to Ralph Kiner's request for a raise in salary while Rickey was the general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates during the early fifties) "We finished last with you, we can finish last without you." (Kiner was traded later on)
5
Baseball is a game of inches.
6
Trade a player a year too early rather than a year too late.
7
Luck is the residue of design.
#
Fact
1
Inducted into the Ohio Wesleyan University Athletics Hall of Fame in 1961 (inaugural class).
2
Inducted into the Greater Akron [Ohio] Baseball Hall of Fame in 2004.
3
As General Manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, he signed a Latin player who was left unprotected by the Brooklyn Dodgers - Roberto Clemente.
4
Played for the St. Louis Browns (1905-1906, 1914) and New York Highlanders (later known as the Yankees) in 1907.
5
Managed the St. Louis Browns (1913-1915) and St. Louis Cardinals (1919-1925).
6
In 1959, Rickey created a third major league named the Continental League. To counteract this, the National and American Leagues decided to add four new teams during the 1961 and 1962 seasons. This left the new league stillborn and not a single game was played (though it did create the expansion that Rickey had advocated many years earlier). Seven of the eight cities awarded franchises in the league (New York, Houston, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Toronto, Denver, and Atlanta) are part of Major League Baeball today.
7
General manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers (1943-1949) and the Pittsburgh Pirates (1950-1955).
8
Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Committee on Baseball Veterans in 1967.
9
He invented the modern farm system while as an executive with the St. Louis Cardinals during the 1920s and 1930s.
10
As an executive with the Brooklyn Dodgers, pioneered the use of baseball statistics for evaluating players.
11
Helped break baseball's color line by signing up Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers, who became the modern major league's first African-American player in 1947.
12
He had a mediocre major league playing career as a catcher at the turn of the twentieth century.
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
Babe Ruth: The Man, the Myth, the Legend
1990
Video short
Himself (voice)
World Wide '60
1960
TV Series
Himself - Interview subject
What's My Line?
1959
TV Series
Himself - Mystery Guest
See It Now
1952
TV Series documentary
Himself
Archive Footage
Title
Year
Status
Character
A Football Life
2011
TV Series
Himself
Pride Against Prejudice: The Larry Doby Story
2007
TV Movie documentary
Himself
The 20th Century: A Moving Visual History
1999
TV Mini-Series documentary
Himself
Baseball
1994
TV Mini-Series documentary
Himself
Known for movies
Babe Ruth: The Man, the Myth, the Legend (1990) as Himself
World Wide '60 (1960) as Himself - Interview subject
$13 Million
