Branch Rickey: Trail-Blazer by Cory

Branch Rickey: Trail-Blazer by Cory - February 2016 Scholarship Essay

If I could choose any historical figure to have dinner with and pick their brain I’d have to choose Branch Rickey, the President and General Manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1942-1950. Mr.Rickey was the man who pushed for the signing of Jackie Robinson, the first African-American player in Major League Baseball. Branch Rickey was an innovator as he knew the possible consequences that not only he could face, but the organization and the league as a whole if Jackie even stepped foot on the field. But, despite the controversy and the chaos Jackie being on a Major League roster would cause, Mr. Rickey felt it was time for a color change for baseball, and he was right.

Branch Rickey didn’t stop with just signing Jackie and putting him on the field, he guided him through all of the criticism and gave all of his players the courage to not fight back. I can’t speak enough about what Mr. Rickey means to the game of baseball, I believe he isn’t given enough credit for laying his career, life, and reputation on the line for Robinson to be able to play for a Major League franchise. Don’t get me wrong, Jackie Robinson is one of the cornerstones for the game of baseball, but I’m recognizing the man who made it possible and possible for him to reach the heights he did and thanks to that, both of them are immortalized in Cooperstown, New York in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.

I wonder what the game of baseball would be like had Branch Rickey not had the courage to sign Jackie and give him the opportunity African-American baseball players before him such as Satchel Paige, Cool Papa Bell, and Josh Gibson never had. Perhaps nobody else would’ve possessed Mr. Rickey’s innovative mindset and never allowed colored people to play in the Major Leagues, leaving them only the Negro Leagues with limited resources. Without Branch Rickey it’s possible that Babe Ruth would still hold the all-time homerun record had Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds never been given the chance to break it. I’ve always dreamed of having the chance to speak with Mr. Rickey and ask him what possessed him to do what he did, and express not only my gratitude, but the gratitude of baseball fans of every gender, race, and ethnicity in the world.
Every time I think about the inner conflict Mr. Rickey must’ve faced it leads me to contemplate on whether I would’ve had the courage to sign Jackie Robinson and allow him to break the MLB’s color barrier. I hope that I would possess the mindset to have made the same decision as he did, but then again I will most likely not have to make a choice as detrimental to a culture as Mr. Rickey did. I not only speak for myself, but the game of baseball itself by thanking Mr. Branch Rickey on pushing the envelope and putting a colored athlete in a Brooklyn Dodgers uniform on April 15, 1947.