- Branch Rickey, Jr.
Wesley Branch Rickey, Jr. (January 31 ,1914 –April 10 ,1961 ) was an American front office executive inMajor League Baseball . The son ofBaseball Hall of Fame club executiveBranch Rickey , who among his many achievements invented thefarm system and led the movement within baseball to break the color line, Branch Jr. — called "The Twig" by many — was a highly respected farm system director, but never led his own organization. He was the father of Branch Barrett Rickey, widely known as "Branch Rickey III," a longtime baseball executive and the current president of thePacific Coast League .After graduating from
Ohio Wesleyan University , Branch Rickey Jr. entered baseball in 1935 as business manager of theAlbany, Georgia "Travelers" of the Class DGeorgia-Florida League , one of the many farm clubs in his father'sSt. Louis Cardinals organization. In 1939, he joined the archrivalBrooklyn Dodgers as farm director, recruited by the then-Brooklyn president,Larry MacPhail . However, in a strange turn of events, when MacPhail resigned at the end of the 1942 season to rejoin the armed forces, he was replaced by Branch Sr., who eventually became a co-owner of the Brooklyn club.The younger Rickey then worked with his father as the Dodgers' farm director, and, after 1947, assistant
general manager until the end of the 1950 season, whenWalter O'Malley acquired controlling interest in the team and forced Rickey Sr., his former partner, out of the Brooklyn organization.Rickey Sr. then moved to the
Pittsburgh Pirates as executive vice president and general manager, with Branch Jr. as the Pirates' vice president and farm system director. The younger Rickey held that post until his premature death in Pittsburgh at age 47 onApril 10 ,1961 . He had long been troubled bydiabetes , andhepatitis andpneumonia were also factors in his passing.Although the 1951-55 reign of Branch Sr. as GM of the Pirates has been widely viewed as a failure, he and Branch Jr. put into place the successful Pittsburgh organization of the 1960s and 1970s. Led by the great
Roberto Clemente , drafted by the Rickeys from the Dodgers, the Bucs won the1960 World Series and the1971 World Series . Pittsburgh contended through the rest of that decade, winning its last Series in 1979.External links
* [http://thedeadballera.com/Obits/Rickey.BranchJr.Obit.html The Dead Ball Era]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.