Branch Rickey by Jimmy Breslin
147 pages

★ (the rarely seen one star from me)

Brach Rickey is best known for being the first man to break the color-barrier in Major League Baseball by signing Jackie Robinson to the Dodgers. But besides that, he was the innovator of introducing many things that are still used within the sport today such as batting helmets, batting cages, sabermetrics, and “farming” aka minor league baseball teams (note: do not be confused that he was the inventor of these things, he just was the one to start implementing them).

I don’t know how I got through this book. Branch Rickey contributed so much to baseball and yet so much is missed in this book. I know it’s a short book (in comparison to some of his biographies which are over 700 pages) but I think the author could have gotten in a lot of important details if he didn’t dedicate PAGES to word-by-word testimonies on a minor situation Robinson was in when he was younger (more specifically statements from many whites when Robinson refused to move to the back of a bus. I realize it may be important to know their reaction but the author went overboard in 10 pages worth of statements). He probably could have accomplished more detail on Rickey (you know...who the book is about) if the author didn’t focus on himself so much – for instance when he talks about Rickey’s smoking habit but then goes into his own story on how he used to smoke and his reasons for quitting the habit. Really Mr. Author? I don’t care. The author also goes back and forth on past and present tense when writing the book which was annoying and unnecessary, in my opinon. The author seems to focus on Jackie Robinson but not so much on his interaction with Branch Rickey. If I were to hand you this book and told you to read it without knowing the title, I think one would easily be confused what this book is actually about. I’m not into sports but I can’t blame that for the reason for my huge distaste in this book. I wanted to give up on this book so badly but stuck with it. It’s one redeeming quality? It was short.
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I never knew about Rickey's incredible eye for baseball talent. He could have a wing of the hall of fame just for his players. Jackie Robinson, who I believe was the best player as well as the best man to ever enter the baseball diamond, understandably is the brightest star in constellation created by Branch Rickey, but it also included Dizzy Dean, Roy Campanella, and Roberto Clemente to name a few. Many of the men Mr. Rickey put on the field shown as brightly off the field for their care and compassion, as their talent did on the field.

Breslin drips Brooklyn in his story telling, and seems truly astonished at Mr. Rickey's character as possibly only a hardened, cynical street kid can be. I was raised in a southern home, a football home,a home where we did not care if another baseball ever crossed the sky. Through Branch Rickey Jimmy Breslin makes obvious to even a football fan that a baseball story is worth the hearing. ( )

Evidently Breslin was asked to write a Penguin Biography, then allowed to select his subject. I can understand that, but it seems an odd way to edit a series.

This is an odd book. It's more a "Scenes from a Life" than a proper biography, and it largely concentrates on Rickey's efforts to integrate baseball and his relationship with Jackie Robinson. There's too little about Rickey's other major impacts on the game, as the development of the minor league farm system is only lightly touched and Rickey's involvement in the Continental League is only barely mentioned. Nor is there any serious discussion of the way Rickey actually assembled and administered baseball teams.

Frankly, I was hoping for something with more substance. That said, this book's well-written, shows evidence of serious research, and tells the story Breslin wanted to share quite well. Worth reading, but incomplete.



This review has also been published on a dabbler's journal.
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1900-1950 biograPHY OF baseball owner and manager, during the integration of Blacks into American Baseball, discusses predjudices of newspapers owners, players and political conflicts. ( )

" The two men sat across from each other at Joe's Restaurant. Breaking salt rolls into crumbs, Rickey immediately told Barber, "Mrs. Rickey and my family say I'm too old at sixty-four, and my health is not up to it. They say I've gone through enough baseball and [taken enough] from the newspapers. That every hand is baseball will be against me. But I'm, going to do it."

"He looked straight into my eyes," remembered [Red] Barber, fixing my attention."

Rickey said, "I'm going to bring a Negro to the Brooklyn Dodgers."
Barber remembered Branch Rickey speaking slowly as he said it. "I'm going to bring a Negro to the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Barber sat straight and silent.

"I don't know who he is," continued Rickey, "or where he is, but he is coming.""

Whatever one may think of the controversial Jimmy Breslin, it's difficult to deny that he's a great writer, and due to his long career and many connections to the sports world and New York in general, he was the perfect choice to write this book on Branch Rickey for the Penguin Lives series. Although he, himself, met Rickey only once, Breslin read extensively about him, and interviewed many people who still remembered the man who brought Jackie Robinson, the first African American, player into Major League Baseball.

What little I knew about Rickey came from watching Ken Burns' documentary, Baseball, and from reading books about Jackie Robinson; but I always wanted to know more about man who put the wheels of integration in motion. What motivated Rickey? Altruism? Money? Religion? Baseball?
It was all of these, and yet it was none. In the simplest explanation, it was Rickey's sense of fairness that drove him to integrate Major League Baseball. That he was the manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers gave him the opportunity to make his dream of equality take root in the game of baseball. That he was a religious man, made him see the righteousness of his cause and allowed him to bring other like-minded individuals into the fold. When faced with those who were neither fair nor religious, Rickey appealed to their sense of business acumen. These talented young African Americans were the future of baseball. He saw it as a good financial investment (although it was devastating to the Negro Leagues), and wasn't afraid to sell the concept on its business merits, and make money in the process, too. In short, he was a clever, fair, and honest man with a dream of racial equality. It took him years of planning and the ideal choice of Jackie Robinson to make it happen, but Branch Rickey, can be credited with the integration of Major League Baseball. Not bad for a poor boy "from the hills and swamps of Southern Ohio."

Told in a largely anecdotal style, Branch Rickey is a short, fascinating read for baseball and history fans, regaling the reader with little-known stories of baseball lore. At one point, the always opinionated Breslin (once a heavy drinker) inserts his own theory on alocohol, smoking, and cancer, opposing Rickey's ardent lifetime antipathy towards liquor. This is the one digression that detracts from the story, which otherwise reads like an old friend telling well-worn family lore. (perhaps old friends may be forgiven a digression or two)

And with long-practiced ease, Breslin artfully weaves the story of Branch Rickey into the context of today, pulling the ends of the story together in the middle, with people cheering the election of Barack Obama from their local polling place - Jackie Robinson High School. How fitting.

I love baseball.

This is an adult nonfiction title, but get your glasses out, because its font is better suited for much younger eyes! (Centennial LT Std 45 Light, if you're interested)

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