Branch Rickey Baseball Quotations

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.

Baseball is a game of inches.

Fill in any figure you want for that boy (Mickey Mantle). Whatever the figure, it's a deal.

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.

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.

A game of great charm in the adoption of mathematical measurements to the timing of human movements, the exactitudes and adjustments of physical ability to hazardous chance. The speed of the legs, the dexterity of the body, the grace of the swing, the elusiveness of the slide - these are the features that make Americans everywhere forget the last syllable of a man's last name or the pigmentation of his skin.

These are uncertain times. We cannot be content to rest on yesterday's laurels. These are times when we must strengthen rather than let down those standards which have stood in such good stead in crises that are past. Baseball cannot be selfish, or irresponsible, or lax. Neither can the men who operate it.

We win if the world is convinced of two things, that you are a fine gentleman, and a great baseball player.

He's the best prospect I've ever seen.

Don't worry about your individual numbers. Worry about the team. If the team is successful, each of you will be successful, too.

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.

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?

A full mind is an empty bat.

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

I am alarmed at the subtle invasion of professional football, which is gaining preeminence over baseball. It's unthinkable.

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.

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.