timconnelly
11-15-2001, 09:30 PM
The color line would have been broken at some point with or without Branch Rickey and with or without Jackie Robinson. But there is no telling how many more years longer it might have taken. It seems to me that over the last few years, Rickey’s contribution has received less attention while the unbelievable courage of Jackie Robinson has received more. I’m not sure if that’s a bad thing: Robinson was the one who spent the year facing the pressure of having to perform at a major league level as the centerpiece in a never-ending storm. But clearly, Robinson’s opportunity occurred as a result of the devious courage of Branch Rickey.
Branch Rickey developed the farm system. He had to take on Kenesaw Mountain Landis in order to do it. The farm system, for better or for worse, had a profound effect on baseball. It gave the major league teams ownership of their minor league affiliates and made the minor leagues a training ground rather than what it had been before: a place where independent leagues competed in independent pennant races with ball players who were tied to those individual teams.
Lefty Grove put up some amazing numbers with the Baltimore Orioles of the International League. He pitched with them for around 5 seasons and won 25 or so games 3 years in a row. The team was owned by Jack Dunn, who had no desire to get rid of Grove, because Lefty meant good attendance and a pennant-winning club. It cost Connie Mack over $100,000 to sign Grove with the Philadelphia Athletics. But before the farm system, this kind of thing, if not common, was always possible.
Rickey was with St. Louis when he developed the farm system. Bill James believes it killed the minor leagues and makes some very good arguments to support that.
I think two things caused Rickey to decide to break the color barrier when he did. I think the largest of the two was the death of Landis and the second was the feeling of unity caused by black patriotism in WWII. Landis, from all that I know, would have done everything in his power (and he had plenty of it) to have stalled, frustrated, and ultimately caused the failure of integration.
One of the more fascinating stories is how Rickey created the impression that he was going to start a rival Negro league and sponsor a team called the Brooklyn Brown Dodgers. By using this trick, Rickey was able to scout the Negro leagues and seek out the very best players and finally settle on the one person he thought best suited to successfully break the color line. When Robinson was approached initially, he was invited to come to New York with no idea that he would be breaking the color line. The rest, as they say…
Branch Rickey developed the farm system. He had to take on Kenesaw Mountain Landis in order to do it. The farm system, for better or for worse, had a profound effect on baseball. It gave the major league teams ownership of their minor league affiliates and made the minor leagues a training ground rather than what it had been before: a place where independent leagues competed in independent pennant races with ball players who were tied to those individual teams.
Lefty Grove put up some amazing numbers with the Baltimore Orioles of the International League. He pitched with them for around 5 seasons and won 25 or so games 3 years in a row. The team was owned by Jack Dunn, who had no desire to get rid of Grove, because Lefty meant good attendance and a pennant-winning club. It cost Connie Mack over $100,000 to sign Grove with the Philadelphia Athletics. But before the farm system, this kind of thing, if not common, was always possible.
Rickey was with St. Louis when he developed the farm system. Bill James believes it killed the minor leagues and makes some very good arguments to support that.
I think two things caused Rickey to decide to break the color barrier when he did. I think the largest of the two was the death of Landis and the second was the feeling of unity caused by black patriotism in WWII. Landis, from all that I know, would have done everything in his power (and he had plenty of it) to have stalled, frustrated, and ultimately caused the failure of integration.
One of the more fascinating stories is how Rickey created the impression that he was going to start a rival Negro league and sponsor a team called the Brooklyn Brown Dodgers. By using this trick, Rickey was able to scout the Negro leagues and seek out the very best players and finally settle on the one person he thought best suited to successfully break the color line. When Robinson was approached initially, he was invited to come to New York with no idea that he would be breaking the color line. The rest, as they say…