Branch Rickey: Baseball’s Ferocious Gentleman (review)

Branch Rickey was arguably one of the most important professional baseball figures during the twentieth century, and Lee Lowenfish’s book on Rickey does this complicated man great justice. Rickey’s story, richly told by Lowenfish, is all here—his formative years in Ohio, his education at Ohio Wesleyan and the University of Michigan, his days as a player and manager with the St. Louis Browns and Cardinals, his creation of the farm system, the pennant-winning years with the Cardinals and Brooklyn Dodgers, Jackie Robinson’s breach of the color barrier, the creation of a contender in Pittsburgh, the forced expansion of Major League Baseball because of his role in the Continental League, and details of his family life. Lowenfish tells us that Rickey had three passions: God, baseball, and family, but he was far more complex than that.

Lowenfish’s subtitle, “Baseball’s Ferocious Gentleman,” belies the paradox that was Rickey the man. It is a theme that permeates the work. For instance, Rickey’s religious conservatism and his aversion to anything tinged with communism failed to be much of factor in his role as the social activist who brought baseball into the forefront of America’s integration movement. Lowenfish explains that he combined “a lust for competition and excellence with a genuine warmth, humor, and compassion” (9). Rickey rarely stepped inside a baseball park on the Sabbath, but he was so competitive that on several occasions he attempted to settle arguments with antagonists on the field or in the clubhouse with fisticuffs. Sportswriter John Chamberlain noted that “Rickey was one of the slyest men who ever lived, but in all fundamentals, a man of honor” (321). Conversely, St. Louis sportswriter John Sheridan wrote that the baseball executive was “a trifle too good, too religious, too strict, too Puritanical” (85).

Players did not always appreciate Rickey. Several resented how he treated them at contract time. A hard bargainer, Rickey often overwhelmed players with logic and intellect. Realizing that he made 10 percent on most player transactions, many players believed that Rickey did not want to win pennants, but wanted to finish just close enough to the top to draw fans and make a profit. When Rickey arrived in Brooklyn, writer Jimmy Powers launched his “El Cheapo” campaign—an effort to expose Rickey as a hypocrite. Surprisingly, the straight-laced Rickey was willing to take on “projects”—players or employees with quirks who had talents or traits he admired. Enter such characters as Leo Durocher, Pepper Martin, Dizzy Dean, Larry MacPhail, Fred Toney, and Rogers Hornsby.

Moreover, Rickey, a teetotaler, was rarely understood by members of the press. The annual sportswriters’ dinner in St. Louis was cancelled for years after Rickey got into a verbal altercation with a drunken John Wray over whether Rickey ever lied. When Rickey left St. Louis for Brooklyn in 1942, Lowenfish states that most writers were ambivalent. “They never could understand his many friends and passions or his inevitable circumlocutions of speech” (319), and Rickey confessed to one writer that he had not accomplished much in life except that he had finally learned to translate Cicero’s speeches from Latin to English.

In Brooklyn, Rickey was highly appreciated by most who recognized his intellect, passion for the game, and abundant energy. One Brooklyn fan stated that Rickey “was a man of many faucets all running at once” (324). Rickey promised to make Brooklyn the baseball capital of America and came close to realizing his promise. Writer Tom Meany, who was influenced by John Gunther’s description of Gandhi, dubbed Rickey “The Mahatma” because he was “an incredible combination of Jesus Christ, Tammany Hall, and your father” (325).

According to Lowenfish, Rickey was an idealist who believed in providing opportunities for players and other employees willing to work hard. He also attempted to infuse the enthusiasm of college athletics into the professional game. Moreover, Rickey believed in racial equality—a trait that traced its roots deep within his Methodist background. It not only...