Branch Rickey's Little Blue Book,

Branch Rickey’s Little Blue Book is a collection of materials related to Branch Rickey. It contains his life, insights, and how other people describe him etc. This book has nine chapters and each contains a different story. This helps readers to understand various characteristics and talents that Rickey had in the past. Rickey was, basically, a major league baseball team manager in the United States, and at the same time, was a lawyer, spellbinder, reformer, innovator and missionary. Beyond his career, moreover, he has humor, leadership, wisdom, insight, creativity. Rickey, surely, was a phenomenal person in American modern history. People can hardly resist his appeal but love and respect him more as they know him more.
Rickey’s success and his life path can be attributed to his family background. Rickey was born and raised up in a Christian family. His parents were devout Methodists who most highly valued the Wesleyan traditions such as self-discipline, education, and hard work. It is obvious when we look at his insights in the book such as his three “abides” for his children – honesty, industriousness, and infinite kindness – or some of his words like “Basic honesty allows a man to go to the mirror, look himself in the face, and not be ashamed ever.” and “Don’t be idle. Idleness is the most damnable thing. And don’t be idle in uniform when you’re not playing.”
Furthermore, he had conceived thoughts in his very heart that all men are created equal. This forced him to abandon racial discrimination which was prevalent in mid 1900s. He was so determined on his belief that he had drafted baseball players from other ethnic groups in spite of the harsh opposition from the public. He not only had said, “I broke down the color barrier.” but also had spoken, “This thing I have done was a thing I felt I had to do.” He also had criticized those people who advocated the moderation on the racial discrimination as “moral pickpockets” which means that no matter how big or small it is, “wrong is still wrong.”
Rickey had become the first person who drafted an African-American player, Jackie Robinson. It was a shocking event at the period, thus it created sensations throughout the country and many people were against Rickey’s decision and prohibited Robinson from playing at the game. The part of the book that tells how Robinson had signed up for Rickey’s team was absolutely moving. When Rickey convinced Robinson that he must handle the pressure that will clearly come upon him, Robinson replied likewise: “Mr. Rickey, I’ve got two cheeks. If you want to take this gamble, I’ll promise you there will be no incidents.” Like Jesus had spoken in the scripture – “But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.”(Matt 5:39) – Robinson set his mind to tolerate whatever circumstances he would meet with in his upcoming days. How desperate and how divine it is! Without Rickey, there was no Robinson, and without Robinson, there was no Rickey. Both men created a synergy effect which impacted not only their life but also the American society as well.
Rickey’s extraordinary industriousness affected his success as well. This characteristic developed his observation and creativity skills which led him to be outstanding in his management field. His explanations about various kinds of baseball knowledge clarify how he is excellent at observation. For example, Rickey pointed out,
“A great fault of young managers is over-coaching, over-managing, over-pointing out an instinctive fault without implementing a cure. It doesn’t do any good to tell a young player not to strike out. Put him in the cage and give the pitching machine high velocity – he loves this machine – and tell the batsman to hit good balls with intent. That’s the cure.”
He not only finds out the problem, but he presents an alternative. That is why Rickey is so talented.
In addition to that, there was a part in which Rickey explains the concept of pitching in the book. It goes likewise: “Pitching is producing delusions, practice deceptions, make a man misjudge.” Very thoughtful it is! Furthermore, the part where he analyzes the variables of all pitches was fascinating, too. He said, “A combination of three factors – velocity, direction of the spin of the ball, and speed of the spin - determines the variables of all pitches. So if the same velocity when combined with different spin directions will give either the fastball or the curve.” Plus, the story how he corrected a pitcher who used to be weak over the stolen base by giving an instruction with a specific methods was also fascinating. Base stealing, bunt, catcher, team defense, balk, code, etc were also spoken by Rickey in the book.
Another evidence that proves how much Rickey was talented in observation and creativity lies on his management background. Rickey was a forerunner that everyone else followed his steps, adopting what Rickey had implemented in the field. For instance, he had initiated recruiting high school students and introduced a farm system to save the money. The farm system, for example, was an unprecedented system which enabled Rickey to draw raw materials at low cost, and at the same time, “he got an exclusive selection of better material than the average club could get on the open market.” Furthermore, visible strike zone and electronic umpire were the other achievements that Rickey had made.
Rickey was not an ordinary baseball team manager but he apparently was extraordinary. With his educational background from Methodists values – honesty, industriousness, and infinite kindness – he not only formed a healthy spirit which drove him to become aggressively involved with the racial barrier to tear it down – with a “had to do” spirit – but also became an exceptional baseball team manager who introduced both marvelous system and management skills as well. His devotion and passion made him to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967. Rickey’s spirit will remain and remembered forever in American history and in people who have heard about him.