EXTRA INNINGS A Life Lesson from Branch Rickey The lives of Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson are intertwined—the story of one can’t be told without the other. Rickey, the white owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers and Robinson, a talented ballplayer from the Negro Leagues, changed the game forever when they integrated Major League Baseball in 1947. Wesley Branch Rickey, named after John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, enrolled at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio in 1901 to play football and baseball. One summer he played semi-pro baseball, which by rule made him ineligible to play at the college level; however, the University solved the problem by naming him their baseball coach. On a road trip to play Notre Dame, Charles Thomas, his African-American catcher, was refused a room in the team’s hotel. Rickey persuaded the hotel manager to let Thomas stay in another bed in Rickey’s room. Later, he observed Charles sitting on his bed, crying, and tugging at his fingers as though pulling the skin off, saying, “It’s my skin, it’s my skin. If only I could rub it off!” Rickey said the scene of Charles crying haunted him for the rest of his life. Rickey started his pro career as a catcher for minor league teams in the Midwest. The Cincinnati Reds purchased his contract, but then cut him before his first game because he refused to play on Sundays—not because he opposed it, but because he had promised his mother that he wouldn’t do it. He bounced around with the Chicago White Sox, St. Louis Browns, and the New York Highlanders (later called the Yankees). A below-average player with a .239 batting average, he called it quits to go to law school at the University of Michigan. Unfortunately, he contracted tuberculosis and wound up in a New York sanitarium. After recovery, he went back to Michigan, coached the baseball team, got his law degree, then picked Boise, Idaho as a place to establish a law firm. It was a total bust. He had one client in two years—a kidnapper who spit at him and told him to leave the jail. That seemed like an excellent time to quit law and accept a job as a baseball scout for the St. Louis Browns. From there he became president and manager of the crosstown St. Louis Cardinals. In 1942 the Brooklyn Dodgers hired him as team president, then moved him up to General Manager and part-owner. Branch Rickey was unwavering in his belief that segregation was wrong. There was no law against integrating baseball—just a “gentleman’s agreement” among the Commissioner, team owners, sportswriters and many players. Defying the other owners’ resolution, Rickey quietly scoured the Negro Leagues and Caribbean to find the ideal player to integrate baseball. He picked Jackie Robinson as the person with the courage and fortitude to withstand the hostility that would come. In 1945 Rickey shook up the status quo by signing Robinson to play for Montreal, the Dodgers’ farm team. Then on April 15, 1947, the Brooklyn Dodgers, Branch Rickey, and Jackie Robinson made history as Robinson trotted from the dugout to his position at first base, shattering the color barrier in baseball. Rickey’s motives to integrate weren’t entirely altruistic—he was also pursuing increased revenue from ticket sales—but he gave this as his primary reason: “Someday I'm going to have to stand before God, and if He asks me why I didn't let that Robinson fellow play ball, I don't think saying 'because of the color of his skin' would be a good enough answer.” Innovator, 1967 Hall of Fame inductee, ESPN’s most influential figure in 20th-century sports—he accomplished much for baseball. However, his greatest contribution was teaming up with Jackie Robinson to blaze the trail for integrated baseball, thus providing a spark for the Civil Rights movement in America. A powerful lesson in inner courage coupled with bold action. Pete Aman 6/24/20