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76 Branch rIcKey Moral Capitalist —RobeRt F. leWis ii intRoDuCtion During most of his career, Branch Rickey was, according to Robert Peterson ,“the most successful front-office operator in baseball.”1 Like the moguls who dominated the movies in the 1930s and 1940s, Rickey’s success largely depended on an oligopolistic environment similar to the Hollywood studio system that had Rickey counterparts such as Louis B. Mayer and Darryl F. Zanuck exploiting their studio “teams” of “players” without legal or worker challenge. Both the MLB and studio oligopolies are considerably less dominant today as a result of legislation and union interventions,and the public as well as the players have benefited from these diffusions of power. In his later years, Rickey could not achieve what he did throughout most of his career. A 1922 Supreme Court decision affirming MLB’s antitrust exemption provided legal protection for his exploitative activities by assuring perpetual subordination of players. Rickey exercised virtually complete control over his players, “enabled by the overwhelming power of the perpetual reserve system,” which remained in effect for almost two decades beyond his MLB executive tenure.2 With free agency and arguably the most powerful union in the country (as well as a more critical media) working against MLB executive dominance today, Rickey’s bombastic controlling style would not succeed. Therefore, it is unlikely that he would currently enjoy the high general esteem bestowed by the baseball and larger community if his career had begun a half century or so later. His generally positive reputation perseveres primarily because of his signing of Jackie Robinson. That event, which MLB continuously and almost compulsively celebrates, overshadows his dubious methods and accomplishments in an era of virtually unencumbered executive exploitation. Rickey’s strong personality, evangelical religious zeal, teaching ability, and entrepreneurial business acumen, supported by his competent son-assistant, would now perhaps be more suitable attributes for a Billy Graham/Oral Roberts career.A TV evangelist retains the operational and personal freedom that Branch Rickey: Moral Capitalist 77 used to be available to MLB executives and movie moguls. But the current MLB environment would not give Rickey the license he needed to excel.Rickey had a strong moral component as well as the ability to make money, both of which are suitable for an evangelist. Equipped with an aphorism for every occasion, Rickey generally took the offensive: “A moderate is a moral pickpocket .”3 Always willing to lecture an audience,like an evangelist,he tended to make profound assertions to justify any of his actions and sometimes shifted from one extreme to the other. As an articulate, forceful moralist, Rickey as a TV evangelist could have rallied his flock on current religious issues. One can envision the archconservative Rickey today as an ardent right-to-lifer. In 1943, Time magazine observed that the Dodger president “talks like an evangelist in a voice that exploits the whisper as aptly as the roar.”4 A potential fatal flaw, however, in this new, fabricated role—as well as in the prior real life—is reflected in John C. Chalberg’s observation that preacher Rickey was “not above thinking he was above it all.”5 Some failed TV evangelists as well as other public figures have had that egocentric flaw.As a result of significant postmortem research, notably reflected in Lee Lowenfish’s recent biography, Rickey’s current reputation has become more problematic. The new Rickey might have to forsake his perennial cigar (sometimes used as a prop to help him collect his thoughts), but the image of oversized hat raked back, bushy eyebrows, Churchillian bow tie, booming incessant voice, and (in later years) cane would help make this “moral capitalist” iconic in today’s media environment. Modern versions of his private plane and chauffeured car would still serve as appropriate embellishments for the capitalist aspect of his image, while his background and forceful style would demonstrate his strong moral sense of right and wrong. Scott Simon notes that Rickey was“one of life’s great unscripted actors.”6 In the current investigative journalism environment, however, Rickey the evangelist or baseball executive would likely not fare as well on the public stage. While his vulnerability existed in kinder media days, it was less destructive to his image. The media tended to chide but not excoriate him. In covering Rickey during his tenure as the Dodgers’ president, noted sportswriter Red Smith punned,“Rickey is a man of many facets—all turned on.”7 Sportswriters labeled Rickey’s Dodger...

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