Jimmy Breslin on Branch Rickey

The American journalist and author Jimmy Breslin died on March 19^th this year.

Jimmy Breslin

Over the years, I had occasionally read his column and essays in magazines.  Some time back I read one of his novels – World Without End, Amen, I think.

Upon his death, it was easy to find some of his better-known pieces like Digging JFK Grave was His Honor http://www.newsday.com/opinion/digging-jfk-grave-was-his-honor-jimmy-breslin-1.6481560 and, after John Lennon’s death, A Part of Cop’s Past Live Dies. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/archives-jimmy-breslin-tells-aided-john-lennon-article-1.2039625

In 1986 Breslin was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary "for columns which consistently champion ordinary citizens".

He could write.  I figure I can learn something (well, many things) so I picked up his last published book Branch Rickey.

Breslin liked to talk with his subjects. Rickey, who died in 1965 was long gone by 2011.  Nevertheless, the author was confident he could “rely on big-name historians… and that this (experience) would be immensely pleasurable.”

The historians disappointed Breslin.  “History writers should be put not in jail but under it.”

Breslin’s book used a lot from Arthur Mann’s earlier work on Rickey that had formed the basis of The Jackie Robinson Story, a 1950 film (starring Robinson himself and Sandra Dee).

Branch Rickey

Although I knew a fair bit about Rickey and the story of him bringing Robinson up to major league baseball, I certainly picked up new insights from Breslin.

Robinson was some athlete. It is arguable that baseball wasn’t even his best sport.  

Seventy years ago today (July 26^th), at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field he stole home and hit a home run in the same game. 

That feat is perhaps a good indicator of his athleticism.  1947 was his rookie season with the Dodgers.  His numbers that year were .297 (Batting Average), .383 (On Base Percentage- OBP), 29 stolen bases and 12 home runs.  He retired with a lifetime .311 batting average and a.409 OBP.

I have vague memories of Robinson at the end of his career.  I’m sure I didn’t fully appreciate what he had to endure in order to excel over 10 seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Robinson stealing home in 55 World Series.  Yogi Berra says he tagged him out 

Rickey and Robinson faced incredible bigotry.  Significant portions of white America at large, sportswriters and the other owners weren’t interested in change.

The owners, for example, issued a statement in the summer of 1946.  That was the year that Robinson was tearing up the International League playing second base with the Montreal Royals. Entitled Race Question the statement read in part: 

“Baseball will jeopardize its leadership in professional sport if it fails to give full appreciation to the fact that the Negro player and the Negro fan are part and parcel of the game. Certain groups in this country, including political and social-minded drumbeaters, are conducting pressure campaigns in an attempt to force major league clubs to sign Negro players.  Members of these groups are not primarily interested in Professional Baseball.

Signing of a few Negro players for the major leagues would be a gesture-but it would contribute little or nothing towards a solution of the real problem. Let’s look at the facts:”

Those “facts” identified requirements of a major league player.  Things like technique, coordination and discipline. You apparently need seven years in the minors to gain these skills and attitudes.

As a result, the “young Negro player never has a good chance in baseball.  This is the reason there are not more players who meet major league standards in the big Negro leagues.”

Fifteen of sixteen owners voted for this declaration.  Rickey’s was the only opposition.  I guess you could call him a social-minded drumbeater.

Branch Rickey

This particular statement the owners issued was in response to the Ives-Quinn Act of 1945.  Sponsored by the New York Republican Irving Ives, it was the first state law to prohibit discrimination in employment on the basis of race, creed, color, or national origin. Rickey, a Republican himself, had lobbied hard for this legislation.  Its passage meant that the Dodger boss had the legal backing to bring Robinson up to the majors.

It goes without saying that Rickey was a principled man. He jeopardized his own major league career, he was a catcher, as he had promised his mother he would never play on Sundays. Managers weren’t impressed.

Rickey earned a law degree, practiced for a day or so before returning to his alma mater to coach baseball.  And baseball was where he stayed.

Branch Rickey invented the baseball farm system changing the “look of baseball long before he ever heard of Jackie Robinson.”

Rickey was a baseball man but “nowhere in his religious training did he take a vow of poverty.” He sold hundred of players and took a 10% commission on their sale.  

When future Hall of Famer Johnny Mize wanted too much money, Rickey sold him for $50,000 and took his 10%.  That was 1941 and Rickey’s salary was $50,000.

Rickey understood better than anyone that there was a business case for Negro League players to play in the major leagues.

He did a great thing in American life, says Breslin.  Later in the McCarthy era, together with Robinson, he got caught up in attacking actor/singer Paul Robeson alleged communist views and later threw in with Richard Nixon.

Breslin would have told them that “the wise shoemaker sticks to his trade and maintains a mouth filled with nails.”

Rickey argued that, “ethnic prejudice has no place in sports, and baseball must recognize that truth if it is to maintain stature as a national game.” 

That was a tough case to make and he made it.

Baseball and society are better places for his contribution.  Breslin’s too.