by Lee Lowenfish
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Product Description
He was not much of a player and not much more of a manager, but by the time Branch Rickey (1881–1965) finished with baseball, he had revolutionized the sport—not just once but three times. In this definitive biography of Rickey—the man sportswriters dubbed “The Brain,” “The Mahatma,” and, on occasion, “El Cheapo”—Lee Lowenfish tells the full and colorful story of a life that forever changed the face of America’s game. As the mastermind behind the Saint Louis Cardinals from 1917 to 1942, Rickey created the farm system, which allowed small-market clubs to compete with the rich and powerful. Under his direction in the 1940s, the Brooklyn Dodgers became truly the first “America’s team.” By signing Jackie Robinson and other black players, he single-handedly thrust baseball into the forefront of the civil rights movement. Lowenfish evokes the peculiarly American complex of God, family, and baseball that informed Rickey’s actions and his accomplishments. His book offers an intriguing, richly detailed portrait of a man whose life is itself a crucial chapter in the history of American business, sport, and society. (20070901)
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 O^O, 2008-11-07
This book took me months to finish, not because it was dull, which it is not, but because it is dense, a 750 page tome and written memoriam to Branch Rickey, the man known in baseball as "The Ferocious Gentleman," "The Mahatma," or (less flatteringly), "El Cheapo." How does an author manage to write a 750 page biography about a general manager? Lee Lowenfish has written an exhaustive, painstakingly researched, very readable biography of Mr. Wesley Branch Rickey, a biography which also happens to be an exhaustive, painstakingly researched, and very readable history of baseball (down to the box scores of individual games) in the early-to-mid Twentieth Century, the period of Rickey's lifetime.
Rickey is well-known as the man who worked to integrate Major League Baseball with the signing of another Ferocious Gentleman, Jackie Robinson. Jackie's appearance in the everyday world of professional baseball, and his wholehearted embrace by the fans of the Brooklyn Dodgers was an augury of vast change in the American landscape. A line can be drawn directly from Jackie Robinson to President Barack Obama.
Branch Rickey is a point on that line. Born into a religious (but hardly joyless) Methodist household with strict Sabbatarian views, the Midwestern-born Rickey was a dynamo who excelled in school, coached and played high school and college football, worked to support his family, attended law school, taught Bible classes, and had a short but impressive career in the Major Leagues as a catcher, all at once.
Rickey's personal ethical views were rock steady--he did not drink, rarely swore, worked tirelessly, was strictly monogamous, and never involved himself with Sunday baseball---but he was a believer in American diversity, who befriended Jews, Catholics, African-Americans, and hard-living, ethically flexible reprobates like Rogers Hornsby, Leo Durocher and Dizzy Dean, uncritically.
Rickey seemed to have a touch with marginal teams, turning them from money-losing and dispirited agglomerations of men in uniform into powerhouses of talent and business success. His work with the St. Louis Cardinals, who went from worst to first and became known as the roughnecking "Gashouse Gang" was legendary, as was his work with the Brooklyn Dodgers, who transmogrified from the laughingstock "Daffiness Boys" to the beloved "Boys of Summer." Rickey almost singlehandedly created the farm system, and he instituted scientific techniques in spring training that allowed ballplayers to develop and hone their natural talents, making the game far more interesting and precise.
Rickey's story of how he came to racial awareness has the ring of contrivance, but it is undoubtedly true, though enhanced as a good raconteur's tales always are. One of Rickey's star black college players was denied accommodations in South Bend, Indiana---"It's my skin, Mr. Rickey! If I could only tear it off!"---and this pathos awoke Rickey to the great injustice of color prejudice. Whatever the actual moment held, Rickey was to remember the incident, and it changed him, then our nation, and then the world.
Rickey was far from perfect. He tended at times to be sanctimonious and hortatory, he did not handle losing very well, and he was chintzy with his teams to an extreme, all of which made him unpopular with some. He was obstinate on occasion, a not-altogether bad quality which he used to his advantage in bucking the tide to such magnificent effect.
Considering that Rickey earned $95,000.00 in 1928(!), he certainly knew how to value his own effort. He is the only baseball executive ever to garner a percentage of all trades made to and from his teams.
Ironically, he hated and was hated by his Dodgers business partner, Walter O'Malley, who, like him, was a stocky raconteur, smoked big cigars, wore round rimless glasses on his broad face, and was "El Cheapo II." In photos the two men are hard to distinguish. Rickey however, had an inherent Love Of The Game and a respect for the fans and players that the avaricious, unsentimental and ultimately disgusting Big Oom lacked. Had Rickey retained control of the Brooklyn Dodgers they would still BE the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Branch Rickey was that rara avis, a baseball intellectual, who demanded that his men think, act and work together for the benefit of themselves, their teammates, their fans, their communities, their country, and the world. The life of this courteous, temperate, bespectacled Ferocious Gentleman has had an impact which still reverberates in our collective consciousness today.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Branch Rickey and America, 2008-07-10
An excellent biography of Branch Rickey and his accomplishments during the first 65 years of the 20th century.
It is a fascinating story of his life,life in America,a history of baseball and the social mores of the era.
Fascinating reporting on the recruitment and emergence of Jackie Robinson.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
18 GIFT BOOKS LATER, WHAT A GREAT BOOK, 2008-07-01
Lee Lowenfish has written a fabulously researched book that is an entry point into the history of baseball since the start of the 20th century. Yes, I knew that Branch Rickey ran the Dodgers and hired Jackie Robinson, breaking the color barrier in major league baseball. I didn't know, however, that he started his career in St. Louis and as I read this easy to like book, I began sending copies to people I thought would be interested.
I'm 65 (born in 1943) and started listening to New York baseball games in the car with my Dad starting in about 1948. As we drove, we'd hear the Yankees and the Giants and the Dodgers. Did I know that I was listening to history as Jackie Robinson ran the bases?
Many of my friends are 20 years older than I am. I thought that this book would bring back wonderful memories for them and I was right.
Imagine, to date I've sent 18 books as gifts to people from New York, St. Louis, Los Angeles. Everyone has been reading and loving Lowenfish's book.........each for a different reason.
SO BUY THE BOOK ALREADY.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
He Lived A Full Life, 2007-12-31
If you consider yourself a baseball fan you need to read this book, because Branch Rickey was an integral part of the game's history. The book is 600 pages long, but the reading style flowed easily for me, and held my interest throughout the book. The legal profession's loss was baseball's gain as he devoted practically his entire life to serving the game while serving others at the same time. He spoke his mind and rubbed some people the wrong way, but this conservative Republican knew a wrong when he saw it, and opened up the game of baseball to the Negro race when other owners dared not disrupt the status quo. After a stint at coaching at the University of Michigan where he encountered who he deemed one of his two favorite players, George Sisler, he moved on to St. Louis to cover the lowly Browns where he worked under his favorite superior, Robert Hedges. From there it was to the Cardinals where he placed his stamp on the Redbirds successful teams of the mid-1930s Gashouse Gang, and early 1940's which were under the ownership of Sam Breadon. From there it was on to Brooklyn where he made history by signing Jackie Robinson along with others who would become stars of Roger Kahn's book "The Boys of Summer" during the 1950s. Following the 1950 season he left the Dodgers following a power struggle with "The Big O", Walter O'Malley. The Pittsburgh Pirates came calling, and once again Rickey built a cellar-dwelling franchise into a championship 1960 team with players such as Dick Groat and stealing an unprotected Roberto Clemente from the Dodgers' minor league system. Rickey's last stop was back in St. Louis when Cardinals' owner "Gussie" Busch hired Rickey as a consultant. This proved an unwise move on the part of both Busch and Rickey. Rickey clashed with Redbird general manager "Bing" Devine who was in the process of building a winner in St. Louis. Rickey wanted Stan Musial to retire, certainly an unpopular suggestion where The Man reigned supreme. Rickey died in November of 1965 while making a speech in Columbia, Missouri. I remember listening to it on St. Louis radio station KMOX. This book is filled with legendary baseball characters such as Larry MacPhail, Red Barber, Leo Durocher, "Pepper" Martin (Rickey's other favorite player), Clyde Sukeforth, Rogers Hornsby, Frankie Frisch, Connie Mack, and numerous others. Incidentally, I was disappointed to learn that Mack was the only owner who protested to Rickey personally regarding the signing of Robinson. Mack is quoted, "I used to have respect for Rickey. I don't have any more." Mack added that his Athletics would not play the Dodgers in Florida if Robinson came with them. Don't be intimidated by the length of the book. To adequately cover Rickey's life it needs to be a lengthy book. If you enjoy baseball history this book will be a breeze. Treat yourself! You will also enjoy Rickey's quotations which are still appropriate today.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
 Decent content, but bland to grating writing style, 2007-09-11
Let me touch on that last first.
Branch Rickey may have used the term "ferocious gentlemen" about various people he appreciated. It certainly was NOT used regularly of others about him, definitely not to the point where it became a moniker.
But, Lowenfish tags Rickey with it, and uses it of him about every 10-15 pages. It's grating, it's off-putting, and does nothing to move the story line forward. Nor does it do anything for me in a good sense of establishing Lowenfish as a special author.
There's a few small errors of fact in the book. Most notably, the 1948 Chicago Tribune headline was "Dewey DEFEATS Truman" and not "Dewey BEATS Truman."
Other than that, while not leaden, the style of the book is not crisp, either.
As far as content, the book could either have been written a bit tighter and be 50 pages shorter, or else have been longer and more jam-packed. Rickey's Brooklyn years and especially his relationship with Walter O'Malley come immediately to mind. What first set them off against one another? Did Rickey have any quotable comments about O'Malley? Ditto for O'Malley about Rickey.
In other words, this book isn't bad as a Rickey bio -- if you can get past Lowenfish's writing tics. But, there's surely a more compelling -- and better written -- book available.
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