This photo is from Alice Moulton Barker’s collection now housed at Heritage House. Alice was Branch’s niece by marriage. (Posted: Linda Scott, Lucasville Area Historical Society)
Now, I have to confess that I live in Southern Ohio, and I am a lifelong, die-hard Cincinnati Reds fan. That being said, I don't speak too much about our rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals. But, I grew up in Lucasville, which also makes me a big Branch Rickey supporter, so I want to write about the latest post from the Lucasville Area Historical Society.
Now you probably remember Branch Rickey primarily for signing Jackie Robinson, who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Yes, that alone puts Rickey's star in the heavens.
With Rickey's assistance, Robinson not only broke the color barrier, but he won the inaugural Rookie of the Year Award in 1947, was an All-Star for six consecutive seasons from 1949 through 1954, and won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949 – the first black player so honored. Robinson played in six World Series, and contributed to the Dodgers' 1955 World Series championship.
If that's all you know about Branch Rickey, you may consider that enough for his greatness. Yet, expand your mind, please. Rickey was known as baseball's greatest innovator. "The Mahātmā" is legendary for his successful creations – brainchild after brainchild he fostered that him the utmost respect and honors at baseball's highest level. He was a baseball mastermind.
Today I want to write about how Branch Rickey built the St. Louis Cardinals into a baseball empire that, at its peak, comprised 32 clubs, 600 or 700 players, and an investment of more than $2 million. (Only $2 million? Consider the times)
Is it any wonder that the Cardinal Nation is extremely proud of Branch Rickey's daring innovations, as they are still widely used throughout baseball today? He established the first "farm system" for developing major league talent and encouraged the use of statistical analysis in evaluating players. He believed the minors were the lifeline that smaller market teams needed to compete with the big clubs like the vaunted New York Yankees. He also promoted modern training methods and equipment.
His idea for a developmental system was borne from the lack of honesty and integrity among independent minor league owners. They were more likely to sell a player to the highest bidder than to honor their deal with the team that originally had a player’s rights.
In the early 1920’s, St. Louis Cardinals general manager Branch Rickey began implementing a plan that would change baseball history. Although Rickey had previously toyed with idea as the St. Louis Browns general manager, it was with the crosstown Cardinals where his idea came to life.
Historical Note:
In 1913, Rickey became an executive for the Browns, signing future Hall of Famer George Sisler and later managing the team for more than two seasons. In 1919, Rickey joined the St. Louis Cardinals as team manager and president. In 1925, he was fired as manager by owner Sam Breadon, a serendipitous move which allowed Rickey to focus exclusively on being an executive.
The innovative Rickey revamped the Cardinals' roster, laying the groundwork for six pennants and four World Series during his 24 seasons there. He quickly released players who did not meet his standards, turning around a previously mediocre franchise. Rickey then acquired eventual stars Joe Medwick and brothers Dizzy and Daffy Dean, who shaped the Cardinals' legendary "Gashouse Gang" in the 1930s.
(John McMurray. “Branch Rickey Revolutionized Baseball In More Ways Than One.” Investor's Business Daily. https://www.investors.com/news/management/leaders-and-success/branch-rickey-revolutionized-baseball-in-more-ways-than-one/. April 12, 2017.)
"The farm system allowed Rickey to institute the 'Cardinal Way,' It was an organizational philosophy extending from the lowest farmhands to the Major League team. It instituted organization-wide training techniques and defined what sort of players the team's scouts would seek. There became a pride in being a Cardinal. Rickey was the first baseball executive to develop this kind of organizational framework."
– Daniel R. Levitt, co-author with Mark L. Armour of In Pursuit of Pennants: Baseball Operations from Deadball to Moneyball
Soon after Rickey created his system, he realized that he needed a cohesive philosophy of scouting, instruction, and coaching. The Cardinals were not signing ready-made players; they were signing boys who needed to be taught how to play. Every part of the game—bunting, sliding, run-down plays, and so on—Rickey wanted to be taught consistently throughout the organization. And Rickey wanted the scouting and player-development parts of the system to work hand in hand. He perfected the system.
(Daniel R Levitt. “Branch Rickey: In Pursuit of Pennants.” https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/6346-branch-rickey/. Twins Daily. February 13, 2015.)
John McMurray, writer for the many publications like The New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, and Investor's Business Daily writes …
“More broadly, Rickey elevated and exemplified the baseball general manager position, a role that most often had been taken on by an owner or team president. Under Rickey, it would include everything from player development to scouting.
“Rickey left an 'unmatched resume in the game,' wrote Armour. "As a general manager he dramatically changed how teams find and develop players, and what players are allowed to play the game. His place as the greatest GM in baseball history is secure."
(John McMurray. “Branch Rickey Revolutionized Baseball In More Ways Than One.” Investor's Business Daily. https://www.investors.com/news/management/leaders-and-success/branch-rickey-revolutionized-baseball-in-more-ways-than-one/. April 12, 2017.)
Oh, by the way, Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis was dismissive of Rickey's farm system, fearing it would destroy the existing structure. Landis tried to crush the system, even calling for the release of nearly 100 Cardinal players. However, the success of the farming system was too big to ignore, and other teams began developing their own minor league teams, following Rickey’s plan.
Rickey’s innovation opened the door for stability and growth – not just for the Cardinals, but for all major league baseball organizations. Without the minor leagues, St Louis may not have become synonymous with winning. Without the farm system there may never have been a Stan Musial, a Bob Gibson, a Steve Carlton, a Vince Coleman, an Albert Pujols or a Yadier Molina wearing the “Birds On The Bat” and most likely never 11 World Series titles, the second most in baseball history.
“Starting the Cardinals farm system was no sudden stroke of genius. It was a case of necessity being the mother of invention. We lived a precarious existence. Other clubs would outbid us.”
– Branch Rickey
As for Rickey, he continued on as an executive for the Cardinals’ organization for the nearly twenty years. Rickey brought a pathway by which the Redbirds continue to grow and develop some of the best in baseball. Today the Cardinals have 263 players under contract including the 40-man roster. Of the 26-man active Cardinals roster, 14 are homegrown. That is 15, if you count Adam Wainwright, who was obtained in a deal while still a minor leaguer. It serves as a testimonial to Rickey’s vision of building a pipeline of development and success.
The Branch Rickey Formula – symbols, familiar to all baseball fans, are explained in the caption to the picture above. The part of the equation in the first parenthesis stands for a baseball team's offense. The part in the second parenthesis represents defense. The difference between the two—G, for the game or games—represents a team's efficiency.
Why Did Branch Rickey Leave the Cardinals?
So, with Rickey's unparalleled success, the obvious question is – Why did Rickey leave St. Louis?
Four weeks after experiencing one of his most satisfying feats – a 1942 World Series championship for a Cardinals team composed primarily of players developed within the minor-league system he created – Branch Rickey left the organization.
The relationship began to change in 1939 when the Cardinals got embroiled in a scandal. Baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who (as stated before) disliked Rickey, launched an investigation into the farm system and determined the Cardinals had violated rules by colluding to control minor-league franchises and their players.
Embarrassed, club owner and president Sam Breadon concluded Rickey had betrayed his trust.
According to Murray Polner, author of Branch Rickey: A Biography (2007), Breadon “insisted his reputation had been stained, his honesty questioned” because of Rickey’s actions.
“To have the stigma broadcast by Landis, whom he loathed, was simply too much for Breadon to bear,” Polner wrote.
Breadon also was miffed with Rickey’s role in a managerial turnover. Frankie Frisch, a Breadon favorite, feuded with Rickey. Fed up, Rickey threatened to join the Cubs unless the Cardinals changed managers. In September 1938, Breadon reluctantly fired Frisch. Rickey hired a friend, Ray Blades, to replace Frisch. When the Cardinals started poorly in 1940, Breadon fired Blades without consulting Rickey.
“Persons close to the club had noticed a coolness developing between president and general manager in recent years,” wrote J. Roy Stockton in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.”
(Mark Tomasik “retrosimba.” “Why Branch Rickey left Cardinals for Dodgers. Cardinals history beyond the box score. https://retrosimba.wordpress.com. October 29, 2017.)
“It was a strange partnership always, with each having a great respect for the ability of the other (Rickey and Breadon) while their personalities, habits and views of extracurricular things were so diametrically opposed that there never was any strong bond of friendship between the partners.”
– J. Roy Stockton, sportswriter for 46 years with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
On October 29, 1942, Rickey, the Cardinals’ vice president and general manager, resigned and signed a five-year contract to become president and general manager of the Dodgers.
He left the Cardinals in good shape.
Benefiting from the farm system, the Cardinals had a pipeline of talent despite departures of players into military service during World War II. In their first four seasons after Rickey left, the Cardinals won three National League pennants (1943, 1944 and 1946) and two World Series titles (1944 and 1946).
Rickey, meanwhile, upgraded the Dodgers’ farm system. His moves positioned Brooklyn to win six NL pennants in a 10-year stretch (1947-56) while the Cardinals had none in that period and prepared to make his most important contribution: integrating the major leagues by bringing Jackie Robinson to the Dodgers in 1947.
At Dodgertown, Rickey introduced now commonplace tools such as batting cages, hitting tees, and pitching machines. He also required players to wear batting helmets. Collectively, these modernizations helped batters safely take more practice swings without burning out his pitching staff. Rickey also introduced the simple technique of hanging up strings to help his pitchers visualize the strike zone.
(Eric S. Hintz. “Branch Rickey, Baseball Innovator.” Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation. January 17, 2020.)
Historical Note:
Even with baseball’s latest realignment of the minor leagues, the system created by Rickey continues paying dividends for the Cardinals, such as Dylan Carlson, a potential 2021 National League Rookie of the Year. Year in and year out, depending on who you ask, the Cardinals system ranks anywhere from the top 10 (as the pre-eminent deliberator Keith Law had them in 2020) to the bottom third where the website prospects1500.com has them in 2021.
In The Cardinal Nation’s annual breakdown of how a half-dozen national analysts rank farm systems, St. Louis remains in the middle third. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and the parameters by which they assess.
Rickey’s innovations—including the farm system, expanded spring training, statistical analytics, and an integrated game—are reflected everywhere across professional baseball. As historian Richard Puerzer has rightly suggested, “Branch Rickey’s fingerprints are on virtually every aspect of the modern game of baseball.
No matter how it is measured, Branch Rickey’s genius lives on.
(Lou Roesch. “The Cardinals Remain on the Path Branch Rickey Blazed.” Exclusively for members of The Cardinal Nation. April 15, 2021.)
General Manager Branch Rickey examines the roster for the Brooklyn Dodgers and its minor league affiliates in Montreal and St. Paul, 1946. Photo by Harold Rhodenbaugh, in “A Branch Grows in Brooklyn,” Look (1946 March 19), 75. Courtesy of Look Magazine Photograph Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-137425
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