Branch Rickey Quotations

If things don't come easy, there is no premium on effort. There should be joy in the chase, zest in the pursuit.

It is not the honor that you take with you, but the heritage you leave behind.

Trade a player a year too early rather than a year too late.

How to use your leisure time is the biggest problem of a ballplayer.

Problems are the price you pay for progress.

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

The greatest untapped reservoir of raw material in the history of our game is the black race.

Thinking about the devil is worse than seeing the devil.

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.

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.

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.

A great ballplayer is a player who will take a chance.

The man with the ball is responsible for what happens to the ball.

Thou shalt not steal. I mean defensively. On offense, indeed thou shall steal and thou must.

Cobb lived off the field as though he wished to live forever. He lived on the field as though it was his last day.

Leo Durocher is a man with an infinite capacity for making a bad thing worse.

Luck is a residue of design.

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.

Leisure is the handmaiden of the devil.

When (Rube) Waddell had control and some sleep, he was unbeatable.

Baseball is a game of inches.

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

Branch Rickey made me a better man.

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.

There was never a man in the game who could put mind and muscle together quicker and with better judgment than (Jackie) Robinson.

I did not mind the public criticism. That sort of thing has not changed any program I thought was good.

Luck is the residue of opportunity and design.

He (Leo Durocher) had the ability of taking a bad situation and making it immediately worse.

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.

The only thing Abner Doubleday ever started was the Civil War.

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.

The world’s not so simple anymore, I guess it never was. We ignored it, now we can’t.

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 look at the hole in the doughnut. Look at the whole doughnut.

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

First of all, a man, whether seeking achievement on the athletic field or in business, must want to win. He must feel that the thing he is doing is worthwhile; so worthwhile that he is willing to pay the price of success to attain distinction.

Worry is simply thinking the same thing over and over again and not doing anything about it.

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.

Never surrender opportunity to security.

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

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.

Good luck is what is left over after intelligence and effort have combined at their best. Luck is the residue of design.

Things worthwhile generally don’t just happen. Luck is a fact, but should not be a factor. Good luck is what is left over after intelligence and effort have combined at their best. Negligence or indifference are usually reviewed from an unlucky seat. The law of cause and effect and causality both work the same with inexorable exactitudes. Luck is the residue of design.

Success is that place in the road where preparation meets opportunity.

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.

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.

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.

Hitting the ball was easy. Running around the bases was the tough part.I always loved the game, but when my legs weren't hurting it was a lot easier to love.

Our pitching staff is a conspiracy of ifs.

The applause belongs to the teams. They are the ones who provided the fans an experience on such an exceptional level that enabled the League overall to reach this previously unattained plateau.

This ball - this symbol; its it worth a whole man's life?

Danny Murtaugh is a gentleman and a gentle man. Get that? A gentleman and a gentle man.

In summary, we're on the right track and have the right group to make good things happen for Portland.