Branch Rickey

Wesley Branch Rickey (December 20, 1881 – December 9, 1965) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) executive. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967.

He was best known for breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier by signing African American player Jackie Robinson, for drafting the first Afro-Hispanic superstar, Roberto Clemente, for creating the framework for the modern minor league farm system, for encouraging the Major Leagues to add new teams through his involvement in the proposed Continental League, and for introducing the batting helmet.

Further reading
Branch Rickey: Baseball's Ferocious Gentleman, by Lee Lowenfish (University of Nebraska Press); winner of the Seymour Medal for 2008, nominee for 2007 CASEY Award, Roy Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
 Branch Rickey: A Biography by Murray Polner Atheneum; Signet; and MacFarland, publishers
 Branch Rickey by Jimmy Breslin; Viking 2011

Other websites

Category:1881 births
Category:1965 deaths
Category:Deaths from heart failure
Category:Businesspeople from Ohio