Top 48 Branch Rickey Quotes
#1. He (Leo Durocher) had the ability of taking a bad situation and making it immediately worse.
Branch Rickey
#2. Man may penetrate the outer reaches of the universe, he may solve the very secret of eternity itself but for me, the ultimate human experience is to witness the flawless execution of the hit-and-run.
Branch Rickey
#3. The greatest untapped reservoir of raw material in the history of our game is the black race.
Branch Rickey
#4. Good luck is what is left over after intelligence and effort have combined at their best. Luck is the residue of design.
Branch Rickey
#6. I don't care if I was a ditch-digger at a dollar a day, I'd want to do my job better than the fellow next to me. I'd want to be the best at whatever I do.
Branch Rickey
#7. We win if the world is convinced of two things, that you are a fine gentleman, and a great baseball player.
Branch Rickey
#8. Fill in any figure you want for that boy (Mickey Mantle). Whatever the figure, it's a deal.
Branch Rickey
#9. If things don't come easy, there is no premium on effort. There should be joy in the chase, zest in the pursuit.
Branch Rickey
#10. Worry is simply thinking the same thing over and over again and not doing anything about it.
Branch Rickey
#13. Some day I'm going to have to stand before God, and if He asks me why I didn't let that [Jackie] Robinson fellow play ball, I don't think saying 'because of the color of his skin' would be a good enough answer.
Branch Rickey
#14. I was in the top ten percent of my law school class. I am a Doctor of Juris Prudence. I have an honorary Doctor of Laws. So, would somebody please tell me why I spent four mortal hours today conversing with a person named Dizzy Dean.
Branch Rickey
#15. Thou shalt not steal. I mean defensively. On offense, indeed thou shall steal and thou must.
Branch Rickey
#16. Luck is the residue of opportunity and design.
Branch Rickey
#19. I am alarmed at the subtle invasion of professional football, which is gaining preeminence over baseball. It's unthinkable.
Branch Rickey
#20. A great ballplayer is a player who will take a chance.
Branch Rickey
#21. How to use your leisure time is the biggest problem of a ballplayer.
Branch Rickey
#24. Leo Durocher is a man with an infinite capacity for making a bad thing worse.
Branch Rickey
#25. Don't worry about your individual numbers. Worry about the team. If the team is successful, each of you will be successful, too.
Branch Rickey
#26. Baseball people, and that includes myself, are slow to change and accept new ideas. I remember that it took years to persuade them to put numbers on uniforms.
Branch Rickey
#27. I'm a man of some intelligence. I've had some education, passed the bar, practiced law. I've been a teacher and I deal with men of substance, statesman, business leaders, the clergy ... So why do I spend my time arguing with Dizzy Dean?
Branch Rickey
#28. Ethnic prejudice has no place in sports, and baseball must recognize that truth if it is to maintain stature as a national game.
Branch Rickey
#30. I did not mind the public criticism. That sort of thing has not changed any program I thought was good.
Branch Rickey
#31. Don't look at the hole in the doughnut. Look at the whole doughnut.
Branch Rickey
#32. Cobb lived off the field as though he wished to live forever. He lived on the field as though it was his last day.
Branch Rickey
#33. The only thing Abner Doubleday ever started was the Civil War.
Branch Rickey
#34. I cannot face my God much longer knowing that his black creatures are held separate and distinct from his white creatures in the game that has given me all that I can call my own.
Branch Rickey
#35. It (a baseball box score) doesn't tell how big you are, what church you attend, what color you are, or how your father voted in the last election. It just tells what kind of baseball player you were on that particular day.
Branch Rickey
#36. The man with the ball is responsible for what happens to the ball.
Branch Rickey
#38. Thinking about the devil is worse than seeing the devil.
Branch Rickey
#39. Only in baseball can a team player be a pure individualist first and a team player second, within the rules and spirit of the game.
Branch Rickey
#40. The world's not so simple anymore, I guess it never was. We ignored it, now we can't.
Branch Rickey
#42. There was never a man in the game who could put mind and muscle together quicker and with better judgment than (Jackie) Robinson.
Branch Rickey
#43. It is not the honor that you take with you, but the heritage you leave behind.
Branch Rickey
#44. Trade a player a year too early rather than a year too late.
Branch Rickey
#45. Baseball people are generally allergic to new ideas; it took years to persuade them to put numbers on uniforms, and it is the hardest thing in the world to get Major League Baseball to change anything - even spikes on a new pair of shoes - but they will eventually ... they are bound to.
Branch Rickey
#46. When (Rube) Waddell
had control and some sleep, he was unbeatable.
Branch Rickey
#47. I find fault with my children because I like them and I want them to go places - uprightness and strength and courage and civil respect and anything that affects the probabilities of failure on the part of those that are closest to me, that concerns me - I find fault.
Branch Rickey
#48. I don't like the subtle infiltration of 'something for nothing' philosophies into the very hearthstone of the American family. I believe that 'Thou shalt earn the bread by the sweat of thy face' was a benediction and not a penalty. Work is the zest of life; there is joy in its pursuit.
Branch Rickey
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