[8] In his final season, the Michigan squad — led by brilliant sophomore first baseman and left-handed pitcher George Sisler, who batted .445 — compiled a 21–4–1 won-lost record, a winning percentage of .827.

During this period, Rickey also spent two seasons–1904 and 1905—coaching baseball, basketball and football at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania where he also served as athletic director and as an instructor of Shakespeare, English, and freshman history.

That September, a persistent Hedges presented Rickey with a new opportunity: to become his top assistant and business manager of the MLB Browns themselves, at a substantial salary increase, effective after Michigan's 1913 baseball season.

After three months in the Browns' front office, on September 17, 1913, Rickey was also appointed field manager, replacing incumbent George Stovall and adding those responsibilities to his existing duties.

Veteran players Jimmy Austin and, later, Burt Shotton became Rickey's "Sunday managers", running the Browns on the Sabbath in the young pilot's absence.

But during the 1915–1916 offseason, as part of the settlement of the Federal League "war", Hedges sold the Browns to the former operator of the Feds' St. Louis entry, Philip DeCatesby Ball.

A local consortium of businessmen, including automobile dealer Sam Breadon,[18] quickly formed to buy the financially strapped team and keep it from moving elsewhere.

[20] The dispute was resolved in April 1917, when Rickey was permitted to assume his duties as the Cardinals' club president and business manager; he also purchased a small share of the team.

Each contributed to a strong bounce-back season in 1917: Hornsby batted .327 in 145 games and led the team in hits, and Huggins guided the Cardinals to 82 wins and a third-place finish.

But Huggins, who had been a member of a rival ownership group that lost its bid for the Cardinals to Breadon's syndicate, departed for the New York Yankees at season's end; there he would lead an eventual American League and MLB powerhouse as a consolation prize for Ban Johnson's circuit.

Recovering from a bout of pneumonia contracted aboard ship, Rickey commanded a training unit of the Chemical Warfare Service that included Ty Cobb and Christy Mathewson.

[24] After the November 11, 1918, armistice ended hostilities, Rickey returned to the United States on December 23 and, when he resumed his duties with the Cardinals, he succeeded Hendricks as field manager for 1919.

Twenty-year-old Ohio Wesleyan graduate Howard Freigau started 81 games at shortstop, and outfielders Ray Blades and Heinie Mueller became key contributors.

Aged 43 at the time of his firing, Rickey had been a player, manager and executive in the Major Leagues, and there had been little indication to this point that he would ever belong in a baseball hall of fame.

"[28] Although he was not the first executive titled as a general manager in Major League Baseball history — his actual title was business manager — through his activities, including inventing and building the farm system, Rickey came to embody the position of the baseball operations executive who mastered roster construction, scouting, player acquisition and development, and business affairs, came to define the responsibilities of a 20th-century GM.

With eight owned or affiliated farm teams by 1931,[32] the system was fed by the Cardinals' scouting corps, headed by Charley Barrett (1871–1939), who introduced tryout camps to identify young amateur talent across the U.S. to fill the pipeline.

The team was led by a new crop of players developed by the Cardinals, two of whom, Enos Slaughter and Stan Musial, became Hall of Famers; and several others, among them future MVP Marty Marion, who were among the best at their position during their eras.

Landis died in 1944, but Rickey had already set the process in motion, having sought (and gained) approval from the Dodgers Board of Directors in 1943 to begin the search for "the right man.

Rickey, along with Gus Greenlee who was the owner of the original Pittsburgh Crawfords, created the United States League (USL) as a method to scout black players specifically to break the color line.

[36] Around this time, Rickey held tryouts of black players, under the cover story of forming a new team in the USL called the "Brooklyn Brown Dodgers."

While managing at Ohio Wesleyan University, a black player, Charles Thomas, was extremely upset at being refused accommodation, because of his race, at the hotel where the team stayed.

His chances at complete franchise control at risk, O'Malley was forced to offer more money, and Rickey finally sold his portion for $1.05 million (equivalent to approximately $13,300,000 in 2023[41]).

[1] Immediately upon leaving the Dodgers, Rickey was offered the position of executive vice president and general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates by the team's new majority owner, John W. Galbreath.

Wrote author Andrew O'Toole in 2000, "The core of the 1960 championship team [notably Roberto Clemente, Dick Groat, Bill Mazeroski, Elroy Face and Vern Law, among others] was put together and nurtured by Rickey.

[1] A significant shift in population from the Eastern and Midwestern United States to the West and South after World War II wreaked havoc with the established 16-team, two-league major league structure, opening up growing markets and triggering a two-decade-long series of franchise relocations beginning in 1953.

[45] Three weeks after the formation of the new circuit was announced, on August 18, 1959, Rickey sold his stake in the Pirates, resigned as board chairman, and signed a 16-month contract to become the first president of the new league at a reported $50,000 annual salary (equivalent to approximately $522,603 in 2023[41]).

He made public appearances—for example, as the "mystery guest" on the prime-time TV quiz show What's My Line?—to advance his view that a third, eight-team league would be more beneficial to baseball than expansion of the two existing circuits.

[49] Then, on June 27, Rickey suffered a "serious" heart attack—his second cardiac event since 1958—while staying at his summer home on Canada's Manitoulin Island and was airlifted to a Sudbury, Ontario, hospital for treatment.

[59] In 1992, Rotary International of Denver, Colorado, created the Branch Rickey Award, which is given annually to a Major League Baseball player in recognition of exceptional community service.

One year after his 1965 death, five of the league's ten general managers—Howsam (Cardinals), Devine (Mets), Brown (Pirates), Buzzie Bavasi (Dodgers) and Bill DeWitt (Reds), as well as NL president Giles—had at one time worked under Rickey during his long executive career.