In a career that spanned multiple generations and multiple revolutionary changes in baseball, Branch Rickey was always looking to innovate. Lee Lowenfish titled his 2007 biography of him – Branch Rickey: Baseball's Ferocious Gentleman – partly because Rickey had described his ideal baseball team as “a band of ferocious gentleman,” and Lowenfish says “in many ways Rickey lived the life of a ferocious gentleman.” The author recalls Rickey once said of one of his favorite players, Pepper Martin of the St. Louis Cardinals …
“He will spend all day trying to beat you, and then stay up all night trying to make you well.” says, “In many ways Branch Rickey was a Pepper Martin of the baseball front office, who combined a lust for competition and excellence with genuine warmth, humor, and compassion.”
(Lee Lowenfish. Branch Rickey: Baseball's Ferocious Gentleman. 2007.)
John Monteleone in Branch Rickey's Little Blue Book: Sayings from Baseball's Last Wise Man, said he was “the man of ultimate paradoxes: a combination of “capitalist/moralist/competitor/do-gooder/visionary/reactionary all rolled into one.”
It was also said that as a salesman extraordinaire, Rickey could sell a fur coat to a Hottentot (of Southwestern Africa) and snow to an Eskimo” and “there was no break in the flow of his words that fell in plangent (loud, reverberating) tones from Rickey's lips. I cannot recall a word he said at the table but who asks for syntax from the incantatory surge of the sea?”
Make no mistake, Branch Rickey was a great young athlete; however, his greatest attribute was his superior intellect. In the fall of 1892 the Rickey family (with the exception of Frank, Branch's father, who stayed to work the farm on Duck Run) moved into Lucasville. Part of the reason for their move was their belief that 11-year-old Branch was especially bright and the one-room schoolhouse near Duck Run at Little Buck Knob had given him all it could. It was recorded that “Lucasville had a better school, with more than one overworked teacher and with a more complex curriculum.”
Sepia color photo of
the school building, located at the corner of West and Scioto Streets
in Lucasville. Branch Rickey went to this school. In the 1920's
modern brick schools replaced this wooden building. H. A. Lorberg,
“The Public School, Lucasville, O.,” Local History Digital
Collection, accessed April 3, 2022,
https://www.yourppl.org/history/items/show/15410.
The Rickeys moved into Squire Crain's house on Valley Pike across from Chandler Moulton's store – the village evidently called this dwelling a hotel (“Just a big house,” said Branch Rickey, later recalling the move.). They rented three rooms on each of two floors with separate entries at the front and rear.
At the time, the Lucasville school offered instruction in twelve grades but no diploma. Its two-story wooden building, bustling halls, and three large classrooms were a dramatic change from Duck Run. Instructors like Frank Appel and James H. Finney helped Rickey cultivate his burning desire for formal education.
In my own youth, I found the Valley schools in Lucasville to be both a great atmosphere for learning and also a baseball institution with a long legacy of tradition and winning. We began formal competition in baseball in junior high at Valley, and that program soon allowed me to discover what Lowenfish meant by “a ferocious lust for competition and excellence with genuine warmth, humor, and compassion.”
Valley coaches like Doug Booth, Don Pfleger, and Paul Gregory contributed so much to the Valley system while helping instill a love for the game in their players. OHSBCA Hall of Fame Coach Dean Schuler continued this excellent tradition. And now, Nolan Crabtree has already taken a team to the state early in his career as head high school coach.
The baseball tradition in Lucasville is vital to the lifeblood of the community as are its fine schools. Branch Rickey knew that, and so do all the ball-playing grads of Valley. Purple races through the veins of its athletes, and the history of sports in Lucasville is a road map to future success. How much of this comes directly from Branch? I'll put it like this: From Ric Allwood to Gene Tenace to Elmer Gregory to Dean Schuler to Randy Evans to Wayne Street to Mike Alley to Patrick Riehl to present-day players like George Arnett, Breckon Williams, Carter Nickel, and Hunter Edwards – all can testify to the respect given to athletics and education.
Branch Rickey Comes Home in 1953
Local author Dale Taylor wrote a wonderful account of the history of baseball in Scioto County titled Simpler Times: Baseball Stories From a Small Town. Taylor chronicles the Branch Rickey homecoming in 1953. Please allow me to share it with you …
“Sunday, October 18, 1953 found the Rickeys (Branch and Jane) back in the friendly, small-town confines of Lucasville (Scioto County) preparing for the “Rickey Day” celebration on Monday. They attended the Stockdale Methodist Church, where Rickey had helped finance a new church organ. Nationally, Rickey had more than a few critics throughout his career, and some had called him 'the Brooklyn hymn singer' and 'Brother Rickey.'
“Baseball Commission Kenesaw Mountain Landis, once went so far as to call him 'a hypocritical preacher,' during an outburst, but when Rickey sat beside the new church organ and sang Methodist hymns at Stockkdale, well, it was surely vintage Rickey and vintage small-town 1950s America.
“The homespun festivities seemed to be a welcome change of pace for baseball's 'Mahatma.' On Monday, he spoke to students at his alma mater, Lucasville (Valley) High School, and also at the now defunct Stockdale High School, not far from his birthplace.”
(Dale Taylor. Simpler Times: Baseball Stories From a Small Town. (Dedicated To Elmer Gregory 1948-1997) Shawnee State University. January 01, 1997.)
History Note:
Rickey was born into the devoutly religious farm family near Little California (later renamed Stockdale) in Pike County, Ohio, on December 20, 1881. He was the middle of three sons of Jacob Franklin Rickey and Emily Brown Rickey.
He began to learn about the Bible from his mother before he could speak the words. Her religious teachings influenced his entire life. In respect for her love of the Sabbath Day, Rickey abstained from Sunday baseball.
While he was a youngster growing up in Stockdale, OH, Rickey learned about baseball from an older brother, Orla. He took quickly to the game, sharpening his interest and knowledge by reading baseball stories in the Cincinnati Enquirer newspaper and scanning advertisements in Spalding’s Guide, a trade publication. Baseball became, and remained, his Number 1 sport.
(Dave Tabler. “It’s my skin! It’s my skin, Mr. Rickey!” https://www.appalachianhistory.net/2017/06/its-my-skin-its-my-skin-mr-rickey.html. June 01, 2017.)
Taylor continues …
“(During Rickey Day in 1953) … he used his unequaled gift as he visited the house where he was born, near Stockdale and delivered a Cold War speech that demanded complete attention to the students – a fear which is sometimes difficult in school assemblies. In a near patriotic-pitched fervor, he remained true to his conservative political and religious principles.
“'This is no time to be silent. If we are to pass on our heritage of freedom and liberty, we must stand up and be heard. Don't break with the tradition and customs of your school and community. Don't be persuaded by “isms” that are infiltrating our country,' he said. (Portsmouth Times. October 19, 1953.)
“A high school band played as he visited the house where he was born, near Stockdale. He was presented a picture of the home, much as it had appeared when Rickey had been born there on a December day many years before.
“Although my memory had faded, I remember once being told that one of the girls in the high school band fainted during the band's performance at the Rickey home place that day. Rickey quickly went to the scene, helped the beleaguered girl to her feet, and offered her his handkerchief and business card. I believe she still has both … The memory was typically Rickey with his gentlemanly sense of protocol.
Black & white photo image of the Portsmouth Navies. A semi-pro team organized in 1899. Branch Rickey and Al Bridwell played briefly for the Navies. In this photo taken about 1902, Bridwell is pictured in the 3rd row, 4th from the left. Unknown, “Portsmouth Navies Baseball Team,” Local History Digital Collection, accessed April 3, 2022, https://www.yourppl.org/history/items/show/2864.
“A large crowd gathered that afternoon at the Scioto County Fairgrounds. Some of his Ohio Weslyan and Scioto County friends anticipated the long-awaited reunion. Ed Appel, his college roommate, was there just as he had been when Rickey arrived at Ohio Wesleyan back in 1901. Hi cousin Eph, who was just like a brother attended too, just as he had been in the 1902 OWU championship infield. Their friend and teammate, Clyde Brant, was gone, and they surely felt his absence. After all, Brant had struggled side-by-side on the sandlots of Lucasville and Delaware. A newspaper photographer quickly snapped a group picture of the remaining Lucasville Eagles. It had been Rickey's first real baseball team. Branch Rickey was now all the way home.
1902 Ohio Wesleyan
University baseball team. The true highlight of this image rests on
the floor, as a young Branch Rickey lounges alongside his brother.
They are identified as "W.B. Rickey" and "E. Rickey.”
Photograph with the Rickey Brothers. Lelands.
“Al Bridwell, who had played for years in the majors was there. While with the Giants, Bridwell had gotten the hit that made the 'Merkle Boner' one of the most famous moments in baseball history. Bridwell and Rickey were old, trusted friends who had played for the Portsmouth Navies. 'Big Al' later managed the Houston Buffs, one of Rickey's Cardinal farm teams.”
(Dale Taylor. Simpler Times: Baseball Stories From a Small Town. (Dedicated To Elmer Gregory 1948-1997) Shawnee State University. January 01, 1997.)
I believe Taylor's book is currently out of print on Amazon. I'm sure the Portsmouth Public Library has a copy. And, the Portsmouth Visitors Center on 2nd Street may have copies for sale. Maybe Dale will read this and post availability in the “Comments” below. Dale is on Facebook. He will probably sell you a copy of this great book: https://www.facebook.com/dale.taylor.315/photos.
Merkle Boner
History Note:
The year was 1908. The Chicago Cubs were going to win their last World Series until their fateful run in 2016. But, before they could win the Series, they had to beat the New York Giants for the National League pennant. On September 23, 1908, the Cubs were at the Polo Grounds, playing the third game of a four-game series. Fred Tenney, the Giants regular first baseman, had sprained his ankle and was not going to be in the lineup. John McGraw, manager of the Giants, had to make a decision. Who would he start at first for Tenney? The answer for McGraw was easy. Fred Merkle. Merkle was young, talented and in his second season for the Giants.
Fast Forward – the game was tied 1 to 1 in the bottom of the ninth … with two outs. Pinch hitter, Moose McCormick was on third and Merkle was on first. At bat was Giant shortstop, Al Bridwell.
He gets a base hit. ballgame, right? Nope.
Giants fans streamed onto the field. Merkle, alarmed by the wave of humans coming his way, bolted for the clubhouse without touching second base. That was the boner. He didn’t touch second base, which meant that the play was still live.
But, who would notice that in all the melee? Nobody right? Not right. Cub’s second baseman, Johnny Evers, of Tinker to Evers to Chance fame, noticed. He needed to find that ball. This is where it gets a bit murky.
The first scenario goes like this: Giants third base coach, Joe McGinnity saw what was developing, found the ball, and threw it as hard as he could into the stands. A lucky, or not so lucky, fan caught it and continued his way through the crowd only to be tackled by two Cubs (or possibly two New York police officers) and have the ball wrestled away from him. The ball was then brought to Evers at second base. Evers got the attention of the umpire.
The second scenario goes like this: McGinnity, Christy Mathewson, and a fan were trying to get the ball away from Evers. The fan snagged it and threw it into the stands. Then Evers got a different ball, pretending that it was the live ball, and got the attention of the umpire.
How ever you spin it, the outcome is the same. There was no way that the game could go on. The fans were all over the field and most of the players had retreated to the clubhouse. So, the game was called and both the Giants and Cubs claimed victory.
What happens next? If it had just been a regular game with no postseason implications then fine, but this was a pennant race. Somebody needed to make a decision. But who was going to make it?
League president, Harry C. Pulliam. And what did he decided?
Tie game. Giants 1, Cubs 1. The game would be replayed if the teams were stalemated at the end of the season. And, guess what? The two teams were tied at the end of the season
Two weeks later, on October 8, the Cubs and Giants met for a one-game playoff at the Polo Grounds. The Cubs won 4 to 2. They had won the pennant. They went on to win the World Series. It would only take 108 years to win another one.
Merkle’s teammates and manager never blamed him. It was the public that had a field day and over the next fourteen years in the big leagues, Fred could never live it down. Even now, although it has been almost 112 years, the last name Merkle is still synonymous with boner.
(Benjamin Sabin. “The Merkle Boner: The Story Of Fred Merkle.” https://lastwordonsports.com/baseball/2020/08/07/the-merkle-boner-the-story-of-fred-merkle/. August 07, 2020.
"For Fred's sake, I wish it had never happened; it caused him so much grief. Let me amend what I said a minute ago: there's one thing that happened in baseball I would change if I could do it all over again. I wish I'd never gotten that hit that set off the whole Merkle incident. I wish I'd struck out instead. If I'd done that, then it would have spared Fred a lot of unfair humiliation. Yes, I wish I'd struck out. It would have been better all around."
– Al Bridwell, to Lawrence Ritter, The Glory of Their Times, April 6, 2010
Al Bridwell
“Big Al” Bridwell was a colorful sort on and off the diamond. A former boxer, he once slugged McGraw and left the Hall of Famer sprawled in the dugout. He also launched a bat at Hall of Fame umpire Hank O'Day during a frank disagreement in a game, but did not make it two for two in laying out future Cooperstown enshrinees.
Fred Snodgrass recalled (in The Glory of Their Times) Bridwell's skill with firearms during spring training one year; Al putting a bullet right through a pocket watch that pitcher Bugs Raymond had tossed in the air.
On July 17, 1906, Bridwell married Margaret Lorraine McMahon, and the couple resided in Portsmouth. They enjoyed hunting and were said to be “crack shots.” Giants outfielder Fred Snodgrass related this anecdote about Bridwell and Giants pitcher Bugs Raymond:
“I remember once, in spring training, we all went to a fish fry on the final day before leaving camp. Somebody brought along a couple of target guns, and we were all shooting at targets. Bugs said, ‘Here, hit this.’ And he took out his pocket watch, a very good watch that had been given to him in the minor leagues. I remember Al Bridwell was shooting at the time. Bugs threw the watch up in the air, and Al put a bullet right through the middle of it!”
(Stephen V. Rice. “Al Bridwell." https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/al-bridwell/s. Society For American Baseball Research.)
History Note
“There was never a more graceful player than Bridwell.” – Sportswriter Sam Crane, 1910
Al Bridwell was a natural in the field, one of finest defensive shortstops of the Deadball Era. Hitting did not come naturally to him, but as a member of the New York Giants, he became a solid hitter under the tutelage of manager John McGraw. In his prime, Bridwell was “regarded as being right in the Hans Wagner–Joe Tinker class of shortstops.
Albert Henry Bridwell was born on January 4, 1884, in Friendship, Ohio. He was the youngest of the 10 children of Samuel F. and Mary Ann (Webb) Bridwell. The family moved to Portsmouth, beside the Ohio River, in 1888. Samuel was a common laborer. To help make ends meet, Al quit school at the age of 13 and worked in a shoe factory. In his time off, he played baseball on local teams. He played against and admired Branch Rickey, who was two years older. A shortage of level ground in Portsmouth meant games were often played on dry riverbeds. A flash flood interrupted one game, forcing the players and umpire to swim to shore.
As a member of the semipro Portsmouth Navies, Bridwell played against the Columbus (Ohio) Senators of the American Association in the fall of 1902. Bobby Quinn, the Senators’ business manager, was impressed and offered him a contract. Bridwell played 28 games at shortstop for Columbus in 1903 before going in June to the Atlanta Crackers of the Southern Association.i In 81 games for Atlanta, he hit only .196. He returned to Columbus for the 1904 season and batted .264 in 151 games. His fielding caught the eye of Garry Herrmann, president of the Cincinnati Reds. “He is the fastest man on the infield I ever saw,” said Herrmann. The Reds acquired him in August 1904. In his major-league debut, on April 16, 1905, Bridwell smacked a pinch-hit single off Chick Robitaille of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Bridwell stood 5-feet-9 and weighed 170 pounds. He batted left-handed and threw right-handed. The Reds used him as a utility man in 1905, and he hit .252 in 82 games. “For a beginner, he did well,” said Sporting Life. The Reds traded him, and in 1906, he was the starting shortstop on the last-place Boston Beaneaters. Bridwell showed great range in the field but was weak at the plate, with a .227 batting average and only 10 extra-base hits in 459 at-bats.
After his baseball career, Bridwell was sheriff of Scioto County, Ohio, and later a company policeman employed by the Wheeling Steel Corporation in Portsmouth.
Looking back on his baseball career, Bridwell said: “I don’t really think I’d change a thing. Not a thing. It was fun all the way through. A privilege, that’s what it was, a privilege, to have been there.” On January 23, 1969, the slick-fielding shortstop died at the age of 85, in Portsmouth.
(Stephen V. Rice. “Al Bridwell." https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/al-bridwell/s. Society For American Baseball Research.)
“Bridwell is not fluking. He is pulling the same fast stuff every day, making quick pick-ups and throws from awkward positions and getting his share of bingles. Few of his hits travel for extra bases, but any of the opposing pitchers will tell you that Bridwell in a pinch is one of the most dangerous men in the National League at bat.”
– Chicago Day Book, 1913
Branch Rickey first became known in the sports world not through baseball but through football. Rickey was the head coach of the football team at Ohio Wesleyan University and had helped them become tied for second in their division. While being the head coach of the football team, Rickey was also playing baseball for the Major League New York Highlanders as catcher.
Rickey’s life in baseball began as a player for the St. Louis Browns and New York Highlanders from 1905-07. Rickey's MLB career was certainly less than spectacular. At the beginning of his playing career, Rickey had a very serious shoulder injury that always kept coming back whenever he threw the ball. In one game, he allowed thirteen consecutive runners to steal bases; while attempting to throw a runner out at second, his throw was so bad that it ended up in right field.
(David Esquivel. “The Most Influential Man in Baseball: Branch Rickey.” Saint Mary's University Researchy Scholars. https://stmuscholars.org/the-most-influential-man-in-baseball-branch-rickey/. March 24, 2018.)
Since he had a constant shoulder injury, it caused Rickey to retire from baseball. Soon after he was officially done as a player of baseball, Rickey went on to get a front office job with the St. Louis Browns organization in 1913. From then on, Rickey's legend blossomed through his dedicated, hard work.
It was in the front office where Rickey found his calling. He invested in the purchases of several minor league teams and created a feeder system – later termed the “farm system” – that developed young players and seasoned them for the major leagues. By the early 1930s, Rickey’s investments paid off as the Cardinals, led by homegrown talent including Pepper Martin, Joe Medwick and brothers Dizzy and Paul Dean, won three pennants and two World Series from 1930 to 1934. Soon, other major league teams copied Rickey’s idea and created their own farm systems.
In his two decades with the Cardinals, Rickey made his club nearly perennial contenders in the National League with his shrewd negotiating tactics.
Rickey brought his innovative spirit with him to Brooklyn. It was Rickey’s steadfast opposition to baseball’s color barrier that would forever identify him as one of the game’s great pioneers. He signed Negro League star Jackie Robinson to a minor league contract in 1945, and paved the way for Robinson’s major league debut on April 15, 1947.
(“ Wesley Branch Rickey Inducted to the Hall of Fame in: 1967.” https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/rickey-branch. National Baseball Hall of Fame.)
Rickey is remembered as “the most influential man in baseball.”According to historian Harold Seymour:
“Branch Rickey stands forth as professional baseball's counterpart of that oldest stereotype of American folklore, the shrewd hard-working, God-fearing Yankee trader. He was also one of baseball's genuine innovators, an administrator who made a lasting imprint upon the industry....[His] seeming contradictions between profession and practice, together with this skill and oratorical obfuscation and circumlocution, caused many to regard Rickey as a hypocritical mountebank. Yet even his detractors acknowledged Rickey's industriousness, organizing genius, an unsurpassed ability to judge the potential of raw recruits.... Rickey built the Cardinals into a baseball empire that, at its peak, comprised 32 clubs, 600 or 700 players, and an investment of more than $2 million.”
(Harold Seymour, "Rickey, Branch Wesley" in John A. Garraty, Encyclopedia of American Biography. 1974.)
Members of Branch Rickey's family also became involved in baseball. Son Branch Jr. was an executive with the Dodgers and Pirates for over two decades prior to his 1961 death, and grandson Branch Rickey III served as a farm system director with the Pirates and Cincinnati Reds and president of the Triple-A American Association and Pacific Coast League during a 57-year baseball career.
His brother Frank Wanzer Rickey (1888–1953) scouted for the Cardinals and Dodgers. Frank Rickey's son-in-law, Charles A. Hurth (1906–1969), was a longtime minor league executive who served as president of the Double-A Southern Association and, briefly in the spring of 1961, as the first general manager of the Mets when Branch Rickey and the team were still discussing a top role in the New York front office; Hurth and Rickey were ultimately replaced by George Weiss, the former Yankee executive.
(Joe Paisley. "Commissioner Branch Rickey III likes what PCL is doing while watching Colorado Springs Sky Sox lose.” TCA Regional News. August 05, 2015.)
Moreover, Rickey's
influence continued to loom large after his passing, especially in
the National League. One year after his 1965 death, five of the
league's ten general managers – Howsam (Cardinals), Devine (Mets),
Brown (Pirates), Buzzie Bavasi (Dodgers) and Bill DeWitt (Reds), as
well as NL president Giles – had at one time worked under Rickey
during his long executive career.
Did you know Branch Rickey coached -ichigan?
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