Branch Rickey: Baseball's Ferocious GentlemanU of Nebraska Press, 1 gen 2009 - 683 pagine He was not much of a player and not much more of a manager, but by the time Branch Rickey (1881?1965) finished with baseball, he had revolutionized the sport?not just once but three times. In this definitive biography of Rickey?the man sportswriters dubbed ?The Brain,? ?The Mahatma,? and, on occasion, ?El Cheapo??Lee Lowenfish tells the full, colorful story of a life that forever changed the face of America?s game. From 1917 to 1942, Rickey was the mastermind behind the Saint Louis Cardinals who enabled small-market clubs to compete with the rich and powerful by creating the farm system . Under his direction in the 1940s, the Brooklyn Dodgers became the first true ?America?s team.? By signing Jackie Robinson and other black players, he single-handedly thrust baseball into the forefront of the civil rights movement. Lowenfish evokes the peculiarly American complex of God, family, and baseball that informed Rickey?s actions and his accomplishments. His book offers an intriguing, richly detailed portrait of a man whose life is itself a crucial chapter in the history of American business, sport, and society. |
Sommario
The Making of a Baseball Brain 18991918 | 11 |
From Catcher to Coach | 38 |
Branch Rickey and the St Louis Browns | 61 |
War Overshadows Everything | 88 |
The St Louis Prime of Branch Rickey 19191942 | 107 |
Years of Contention and Frustration | 129 |
That Championship Season | 155 |
The Neardynastic Years and a Place in Whos Who | 176 |
The Secret Path to the Young Man from the West | 349 |
An Historic Meeting in Brooklyn | 371 |
Prelude to a Pennant | 385 |
When All Hell Almost Broke Loose | 407 |
When Most of Heaven Rejoiced | 427 |
A Year of Disappointment Odd Choices and an Adieu to Leo | 446 |
A Branch Bends in Brooklyn | 464 |
A Branch Is Chopped in Brooklyn | 482 |
Another Championship Season and Then Decline | 203 |
Prelude to the Gashouse Gang | 224 |
The Triumph of the Gashouse Gang | 239 |
Years of Frustration | 264 |
More Years of Loss and Farewells to Dizzy Dean and Charley Barrett | 284 |
Going Out on Top | 300 |
The Birth of the Mahatma 19431950 | 321 |
My Greatest Thrill in Baseball Hasnt Happened Yet | 503 |
Mr Rickey Prepares to Do the Continental | 533 |
The Continental Dance Card Goes Blank | 557 |
Meet Me in St Louis Final Chorus | 580 |
Notes | 599 |
Bibliography | 643 |
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American in Action American League athletic August ball ballpark base Baseball's batting Bill Biography black players Branch Rickey Jr Branch Rickey Papers Breadon Brooklyn Dodgers Browns career catcher City coach Commissioner Continental League Cubs Dizzy Dean Durocher's Ebbets Field executive fans farm system fielder football franchise Gashouse Gang Giants going Hall of Fame hitter home run interview Jackie Robinson Jane Rickey John June Landis Larry MacPhail League teams Leaguers Leo Durocher Louis Cardinals Louis Post-Dispatch Lowenfish manager Mann Medwick Minor National League Negro League never Ohio Wesleyan outfielder owner Parrott pennant race Pepper Martin Pirates pitcher pitching Pittsburgh play Polner president Reds Rickey's Rogers Hornsby rookie Sam Breadon scout season second baseman shortstop signed Sporting sportswriter spring training story team's teammates Total Baseball trade victory Walter O'Malley wanted Washington DC World Series Yankees York young