I think the salaries would shock him and the ticket prices being charged would cause him to nearly swallow his unlit cigar. The lack of fundamentals in so many players would cause him grief. I can imagine his eyebrows bouncing up and down in astonishment and disgust if he read (as I did in this morning’s paper) that Yankees manager Joe Girardi said that Alex Rodriguez need not practice sliding in his rehab from hip surgery. Rickey invented sliding pits and all his players had to know how to slide on each leg and towards every corner of each base. Starting from his first days as a team leader in St. Louis he was using track techniques to try to increase his players’ speed. I think the salaries would shock him and the ticket prices being charged would cause him to nearly swallow his unlit cigar. The lack of fundamentals in so many players would cause him grief. I can imagine his eyebrows bouncing up and down in astonishment and disgust if he read (as I did in this morning’s paper) that Yankees manager Joe Girardi said that Alex Rodriguez need not practice sliding in his rehab from hip surgery. Rickey invented sliding pits and all his players had to know how to slide on each leg and towards every corner of each base. Starting from his first days as a team leader in St. Louis he was using track techniques to try to increase his players’ speed.
Yet in most other areas of today’s baseball I think that Rickey’s teams would compete and do well.![](https://go.authorsguild.orghttp://www.booktrib.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/cover-lowenfish4.jpeg" "cover-lowenfish4")
He would embrace the internet and the ability to communicate with people all over the world (though being an incessant traveler, he’d still prefer face-to-face meetings). He would listen intently to the "Moneyball" statisticians and absorb the new information without being a robotic slave to it (as too many pundits and even baseball evaluators seem to be these days.)
He would have loved the international presence in the game. In one of my favorite stories from “Baseball’s Ferocious Gentleman” he told in 1952 a fledgling Pittsburgh Pirates farmhand by the name of Mario Cuomo (yes, that Mario Cuomo) that the Latin American throwing arms truly impressed him. Rickey would soon pluck away from the Dodgers’ farm system one of the best arms of them all, Roberto Clemente.
Rickey himself rarely traveled out of North America. He never returned to Europe after his service in France as a 36-year-old Major in the American special Chemical Warfare unit of World War I. Two future Hall of Famers Ty Cobb and Christy Mathewson were Captains in his command. Rickey always wanted to take a return trip with his wife to visit some of the beautiful French gardens but never found the time to arrange it.
Yet what he found time to do in service of his three great passions of religion, family and baseball make for one helluva story. --Lee Lowenfish author BRANCH RICKEY: Baseball's Ferocious Gentleman
Yet in most other areas of today’s baseball I think that Rickey’s teams would compete and do well. He would embrace the internet and the ability to communicate with people all over the world (though being an incessant traveler, he’d still prefer face-to-face meetings). He would listen intently to the "Moneyball" statisticians and absorb the new information without being a robotic slave to it (as too many pundits and even baseball evaluators seem to be these days.)
He would have loved the international presence in the game. In one of my favorite stories from “Baseball’s Ferocious Gentleman” he told in 1952 a fledgling Pittsburgh Pirates farmhand by the name of Mario Cuomo (yes, that Mario Cuomo) that the Latin American throwing arms truly impressed him. Rickey would soon pluck away from the Dodgers’ farm system one of the best arms of them all, Roberto Clemente.
Rickey himself rarely traveled out of North America. He never returned to Europe after his service in France as a 36-year-old Major in the American special Chemical Warfare unit of World War I. Two future Hall of Famers Ty Cobb and Christy Mathewson were Captains in his command. Rickey always wanted to take a return trip with his wife to visit some of the beautiful French gardens but never found the time to arrange it.
Yet what he found time to do in service of his three great passions of religion, family and baseball make for one helluva story. --Lee Lowenfish author BRANCH RICKEY: Baseball's Ferocious Gentleman
Yet in most other areas of today’s baseball I think that Rickey’s teams would compete and do well.
He would embrace the internet and the ability to communicate with people all over the world (though being an incessant traveler, he’d still prefer face-to-face meetings). He would listen intently to the "Moneyball" statisticians and absorb the new information without being a robotic slave to it (as too many pundits and even baseball evaluators seem to be these days.)
He would have loved the international presence in the game. In one of my favorite stories from “Baseball’s Ferocious Gentleman” he told in 1952 a fledgling Pittsburgh Pirates farmhand by the name of Mario Cuomo (yes, that Mario Cuomo) that the Latin American throwing arms truly impressed him. Rickey would soon pluck away from the Dodgers’ farm system one of the best arms of them all, Roberto Clemente.
Rickey himself rarely traveled out of North America. He never returned to Europe after his service in France as a 36-year-old Major in the American special Chemical Warfare unit of World War I. Two future Hall of Famers Ty Cobb and Christy Mathewson were Captains in his command. Rickey always wanted to take a return trip with his wife to visit some of the beautiful French gardens but never found the time to arrange it.
Yet what he found time to do in service of his three great passions of religion, family and baseball make for one helluva story. --Lee Lowenfish author BRANCH RICKEY: Baseball's Ferocious Gentleman
Yet in most other areas of today’s baseball I think that Rickey’s teams would compete and do well.
He would embrace the internet and the ability to communicate with people all over the world (though being an incessant traveler, he’d still prefer face-to-face meetings). He would listen intently to the "Moneyball" statisticians and absorb the new information without being a robotic slave to it (as too many pundits and even baseball evaluators seem to be these days.)
He would have loved the international presence in the game. In one of my favorite stories from “Baseball’s Ferocious Gentleman” he told in 1952 a fledgling Pittsburgh Pirates farmhand by the name of Mario Cuomo (yes, that Mario Cuomo) that the Latin American throwing arms truly impressed him. Rickey would soon pluck away from the Dodgers’ farm system one of the best arms of them all, Roberto Clemente.
Rickey himself rarely traveled out of North America. He never returned to Europe after his service in France as a 36-year-old Major in the American special Chemical Warfare unit of World War I. Two future Hall of Famers Ty Cobb and Christy Mathewson were Captains in his command. Rickey always wanted to take a return trip with his wife to visit some of the beautiful French gardens but never found the time to arrange it.
Yet what he found time to do in service of his three great passions of religion, family and baseball make for one helluva story. --Lee Lowenfish author BRANCH RICKEY: Baseball's Ferocious Gentleman