Explore Quotes by Branch Rickey

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.

If things don't come easy, there is no premium on effort. There should be joy in the chase, zest in the pursuit.

Ethnic prejudice has no place in sports, and baseball must recognize that truth if it is to maintain stature as a national game.

I am alarmed at the subtle invasion of professional football, which is gaining preeminence over baseball. It's unthinkable.

How to use your leisure time is the biggest problem of a ballplayer.

He (Leo Durocher) had the ability of taking a bad situation and making it immediately worse.

I don't like the subtle infiltration of 'something for nothing' philosophies into the very hearthstone of the American family. I believe that 'Thou shalt earn the bread by the sweat of thy face' was a benediction and not a penalty. Work is the zest of life; there is joy in its pursuit.

A great ballplayer is a player who will take a chance.

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.

Don't worry about your individual numbers. Worry about the team. If the team is successful, each of you will be successful, too.

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.

Never surrender opportunity to security.

Leisure is the handmaiden of the devil.

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?

Fill in any figure you want for that boy (Mickey Mantle). Whatever the figure, it's a deal.

A game of great charm in the adoption of mathematical measurements to the timing of human movements, the exactitudes and adjustments of physical ability to hazardous chance. The speed of the legs, the dexterity of the body, the grace of the swing, the elusiveness of the slide - these are the features that make Americans everywhere forget the last syllable of a man's last name or the pigmentation of his skin.

Problems are the price you pay for progress.