Wesley Branch Rickey Jr. (January 31, 1914 – April 10, 1961) was an American front office executive in Major League Baseball.
The son of Baseball Hall of Fame club executive Branch Rickey, who among his many achievements invented the farm system and led the movement within Organized Baseball to break the color line, Branch Jr. — called "The Twig" by many — was a highly respected farm system director, but never headed his own organization.
[1] Branch Jr. entered baseball in 1935 as business manager of the Albany Travelers of the Class D Georgia–Florida League, one of the many farm clubs in his father's St. Louis Cardinals organization.
In 1939, he joined the archrival Brooklyn Dodgers as farm system director, recruited by the then-Brooklyn president, Larry MacPhail.
[2] However, in a strange turn of events, when MacPhail resigned at the end of the 1942 season to rejoin the armed forces, he was replaced by Branch Sr., who in 1945 became a co-owner of the Brooklyn club.