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Only in baseball can a team player be a pure individualist first and a team player second, within the rules and spirit of the game.

Branch Rickey

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Branch Rickey
Age: 83 †
Born: 1881
Born: December 20
Died: 1965
Died: December 9
Baseball Player
Stockdale
Ohio
Wesley Branch Rickey
Within
Individualist
Games
Rules
Spirit
Baseball
Firsts
Pure
First
Second
Player
Game
Team

More quotes by Branch Rickey

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He (Leo Durocher) had the ability of taking a bad situation and making it immediately worse.
Branch Rickey
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Baseball people, and that includes myself, are slow to change and accept new ideas. I remember that it took years to persuade them to put numbers on uniforms.
Branch Rickey
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Leisure is the handmaiden of the devil.
Branch Rickey
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I'm a man of some intelligence. I've had some education, passed the bar, practiced law. I've been a teacher and I deal with men of substance, statesman, business leaders, the clergy... So why do I spend my time arguing with Dizzy Dean?
Branch Rickey
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Some day I'm going to have to stand before God, and if He asks me why I didn't let that [Jackie] Robinson fellow play ball, I don't think saying 'because of the color of his skin' would be a good enough answer.
Branch Rickey
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Never surrender opportunity to security.
Branch Rickey
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I find fault with my children because I like them and I want them to go places - uprightness and strength and courage and civil respect and anything that affects the probabilities of failure on the part of those that are closest to me, that concerns me - I find fault.
Branch Rickey
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There never has been a man in the game who could put mind and muscle together quicker and with better judgment than Robinson.
Branch Rickey
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He's the best prospect I've ever seen.
Branch Rickey
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These are uncertain times. We cannot be content to rest on yesterday's laurels. These are times when we must strengthen rather than let down those standards which have stood in such good stead in crises that are past. Baseball cannot be selfish, or irresponsible, or lax. Neither can the men who operate it.
Branch Rickey
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Thinking about the devil is worse than seeing the devil.
Branch Rickey
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I cannot face my God much longer knowing that his black creatures are held separate and distinct from his white creatures in the game that has given me all that I can call my own.
Branch Rickey
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The only thing Abner Doubleday ever started was the Civil War.
Branch Rickey
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Thou shalt not steal. I mean defensively. On offense, indeed thou shall steal and thou must.
Branch Rickey
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Trade a player a year too early rather than a year too late.
Branch Rickey
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Man may penetrate the outer reaches of the universe, he may solve the very secret of eternity itself but for me, the ultimate human experience is to witness the flawless execution of the hit-and-run.
Branch Rickey
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Luck is a residue of design.
Branch Rickey
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Good luck is what is left over after intelligence and effort have combined at their best. Luck is the residue of design.
Branch Rickey
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When (Rube) Waddell had control and some sleep, he was unbeatable.
Branch Rickey
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It (a baseball box score) doesn't tell how big you are, what church you attend, what color you are, or how your father voted in the last election. It just tells what kind of baseball player you were on that particular day.
Branch Rickey