Branch Barrett Rickey

Branch Barrett Rickey, born 1 November 1945, grandson of Branch Rickey, serves as the president of the Pacific Coast League. He replaced the retiring Bill Cutler, who served as PCL president from 1979 to 1997. Rickey had been the president of the American Association which was disbanded during a realignment by the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues in a scale-down from three Triple-A leagues — the PCL, International League, and AA — to two in 1997.

Rickey is noted for the redevelopment of minor league baseball as a "fan friendly" sport that caters to a broader audience of families, women, and children. Under his watch, the virtually all ballparks in the Pacific Coast League have received facelifts and attendance has risen from the low thousands into the multiple thousands at most the stadiums in the league.

Prior to his involvement as a league president, Branch spent over twenty years in Major League Baseball with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds: as a scout, assistant scouting director during the 1970s, and in the 1980s as director of player development.

At Ohio Wesleyan University, Rickey played baseball, wrestled, and was co-captain of the Varsity Soccer team. He is a member of Delta Tau Delta fraternity.[1] He has officiated freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling, culminating with his participation as a referee in the Olympic Games.

He began his professional career with the Pirates in 1963 at age 17 when he became business manager of their Rookie League affiliate in the Appalachian League, at Kingsport, Tennessee.

He worked with Pirates rookie teams during the summers while at Ohio Wesleyan. After graduating with a degree in philosophy, he entered the Peace Corps in 1969,[2] working as a college campus recruiter and subsequently as a U.S. regional recruitment director in 1971.

He returned to professional baseball in 1972 as assistant director of the Kansas City Royals Baseball Academy in Sarasota, Florida. The Academy was a major-league experiment to take teenage players with overall athletic skill and develop them into major league players. When the Academy was closed by the Royals in 1974, Rickey rejoined the Pirates.

Rickey comes from a long line of baseball men of the same name. His grandfather, Branch Rickey, invented the baseball farm system, a chain of levels of development teams that serve a major-league baseball club. He also invented the batting cage, the batting helmet, and a host of workouts and development programs that are standards of baseball. Rickey's grandfather built dynasties with the St. Louis Cardinals and Brooklyn Dodgers, and was best known outside of baseball for breaking the color line and admitting Dodgers star Jackie Robinson to what had been all-white baseball leagues. His father, Branch Rickey Jr., served as farm system director for both the Dodgers and the Pirates.

Rickey is also known for his community involvement. He speaks regularly to students and others who wish to further their own lives. He dedicates a significant amount of time to those seeking to gain knowledge about his grandfather and of baseball as a whole. He seeks to continue the legacy left by his late grandfather of community sustanence and learning.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.delts.org/about/famousdelts.html Retrieved 2012-02-19
  2. ↑ "Rickey Continues Family Tradition". Spokane Daily Chronicle. AP. 13 March 1975. p. 41. Retrieved 19 October 2010.

External links

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