Wesley Branch Rickey (December 20, 1881 – December 9, 1965) was an American professional baseball catcher, manager, sports executive, and team owner.
He was instrumental in breaking the baseball color line by signing black player Jackie Robinson. He also created the framework for the modern minor league farm system, encouraged the major leagues to add new teams through his involvement in the proposed Continental League, introduced the batting helmet, and created the standard 20-80 scouting scale. He was posthumously elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967.
Rickey played 4 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Browns and New York Highlanders.
After struggling as a player, Rickey returned to college, graduating from the University of Michigan.
Back in the major leagues in 1913, he embarked on a successful career variously as a manager, executive, and owner, starting with the St. Louis Browns, then the St. Louis Cardinals, Brooklyn Dodgers and Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Cardinals elected him to their team Hall of Fame in 2014.
Rickey also had a career in football, as a player for the professional Shelby Blues and as a coach at Ohio Wesleyan University and Allegheny College.
He received the nickname "Mahatma" after sportswriter Tom Meany read an article describing Mahatma Gandhi as a combination of "your father and Tammany Hall."
Rickey was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, the son of Jacob Frank Rickey and Emily (née Brown).
Rickey was the uncle of Beth Rickey, a Louisiana political activist. He graduated from Valley High School in Lucasville, Ohio, in 1899.
Rickey was a catcher on the baseball team at Ohio Wesleyan University, where he obtained his B.A. Rickey was a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity.
Rickey attended the University of Michigan, where he received his LL.B.
While at Michigan, Rickey applied for the job as Michigan's baseball coach.
Rickey asked every alumnus he had ever met to write letters to Philip Bartelme, the school's athletic director, on his behalf.
Bartelme recalled, "Day after day those letters came in." Bartelme was reportedly impressed with Rickey's passion for baseball and his idealism about the proper role of athletics on a college campus. Bartelme convinced the dean of the law school that Rickey could handle his law studies while serving as the school's baseball coach. Bartelme reportedly called Rickey into his office to tell him he had the job if only "to put a stop to those damn letters that come in every day." The hiring also marked the beginning of a lifelong friendship and business relationship between Rickey and Bartelme.
Bartelme and Rickey worked together for most of the next 35 years."
During his four years as head baseball coach from 1910 to 1913, Rickey's record was 68–32–4. In his final season, the Michigan squad — led by brilliant sophomore first baseman and left-handed pitcher, future Hall of Famer George Sisler, who batted .445 — compiled a 21–4–1 won-lost record, a winning percentage of .827.
Before his front office days, Rickey played both football and baseball professionally.