Doing Well by Doing Good

Doing Well by Doing Good

By some accounts, he might have been the godliest man in baseball. He attended church regularly. He didn’t drink. And he was happily married with six children. Some called him "The Mahatma” (holy one).

By other accounts, he was bull-headed, arrogant and miserly.

But, by all accounts, he changed major league baseball for the better when he signed Jackie Robinson to a minor league contract in 1946 and promoted him to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. His name was?Branch Rickey.?

Moral choice

Race for Rickey had always been an issue. When he coached at his alma mater, Ohio Wesleyan, one of his players was Black, Charlie Thomas. As such, Thomas was denied a room at the hotel during a road trip. Rickey returned to the room to find the young man rubbing his skin disconsolately, saying he wished he could rub away the color of his skin.

In choosing?Jackie Robinson, Rickey chose a man athletically gifted, college-educated, and fiercely proud of his race, called in the parlance of the day, a Race Man. [Thomas himself persevered and became a dentist. Of Rickey, he said, "No man could have treated me better."]

Rickey, a man of deep faith, wanted equal opportunities for all races. However, Rickey was equally driven to win. And that was a key reason he wanted to break baseball's color line. The talent level in the Negro Leagues was exceptional, and Rickey wanted it for his teams. Winning also meant more revenue, and that was something Rickey excelled at generating. And it's worth noting that as a strict Methodist, he did not participate in Sunday games. But, as many noted, he had no qualms about accepting the gate receipts from those Sunday pastimes.?

Rickey invented baseball’s farm system when an executive with the St. Louis Cardinals. While he was a shrewd general manager and coach, his own playing skills were limited. In 1907 he made the roster of the New York Highlanders (later called the Yankees). He batted under .200, ranked last in fielding percentage for outfielders and catchers, and memorably set a record by allowing the most steals in a nine-inning game – 13!

In his own words

While Rickey's been dead for more than a half-century and played in the game more than a century ago, his lessons live on. A few I share here are excerpts from?Branch Rickey’s Little Blue Book: Wit and Strategy from Baseball’s Last Wise Man.

“The ethics of the game of baseball would be violated if man did not practice to become proficient in deception. In other words, you can’t go to heaven if you don’t try to fool the batter.”

“They call you an extremist if you want integration now… To advise moderation is like going to a stickup man and saying to him, ‘Don’t use a gun. That’s violent. Why not be a pickpocket instead?’ A moderate man is a moral pickpocket.”

"President Abraham Lincoln sat in his chair almost all of the time, and there was no more industrious man than he. Industry is not the expenditure of shoe leather. It is having ideas—ideas about the job you hold, how to improve it and yourself."

Rickey told his children he had “three abides.” They are honesty, industriousness, and kindness. The latter was significant in marriage. “Infinite kindness – a kindness that transcends the form of courtesy… Out of infinite kindness grow real love and understanding and tolerance and warmth. Nothing can take the place of such an enduring asset.”

A final story

At 83, Rickey checked himself out of the hospital and then drove himself a hundred miles to give a speech. As told in Ken Burns documentary series,?Baseball,?Rickey reached the podium and said he had biblical story about “spiritual courage” to share. He paused momentarily and said he could not continue. Rickey collapsed , and days later died, without uttering another word.?

Jackie Robinson attended his funeral as did?Bobby Bragan, who as a player tried to dissuade Rickey from integrating the Dodgers. Bragan, who recanted his views, came to the service “because Branch Rickey made me a better man.”

“It is not the honor you take with you,” Rickey said, “but the heritage you leave behind.”

Note: I would like to thank?Scott Simon, host of NPR’s?Weekend Edition Saturday, for his reading of?Branch Rickey’s Little Blue Book?as part of his “Open Book” series. Simon’s?commentary?shaped my thinking for this piece.

First posted on Forbes.com on 9/03/2021

+++

Read the book that is an affirmation of leadership in the face of calamity,?Grace Notes: Leading in an Upside-Down World.

Looking for leadership and management fundamentals? Visit the?John Baldoni Library. Share with colleagues and clients.

Catch my LinkedIn Live show,?GRACE under pressure, Tuesdays and Thursdays 2 p.m. ET. Streaming on YouTube, Periscope and LinkedIn. Here's my interview with Susan Fowler.

No alt text provided for this image




要查看或添加评论,请登录

John Baldoni的更多文章

  • Creating the Retirement That Works Best for You

    Creating the Retirement That Works Best for You

    When it comes to this topic, many of us say, "Yeah, whenever," and plunge back into whatever we are doing. The topic is…

    3 条评论
  • How Poetry Can Frame the War Experience

    How Poetry Can Frame the War Experience

    Catch this clip of author-poet Bill Glose discusses how poetry can help frame experience in ways that prose cannot…

    1 条评论
  • Hit 'em Straight!

    Hit 'em Straight!

    My newest collection of poetry, Golf Lessons: Chips, Chunks and Cheers debuted this past week. In lieu a Sunday column…

    3 条评论
  • How Do You Define Success?

    How Do You Define Success?

    Catch this clip of Davin Salvagno explaining how to re-discover your purpose. Here's my full interview with Davin…

    2 条评论
  • How Kindness Can Transform Horror into Poetry

    How Kindness Can Transform Horror into Poetry

    Chief among the insights we gain from reading history is that what we read is often relevant to what we are…

  • Today Is Poetry Day!

    Today Is Poetry Day!

    “John Baldoni is not afraid to the illuminate the flaws of his own game for insights and laughs. After all golf is a…

    5 条评论
  • Five Ways to Empower Yourself

    Five Ways to Empower Yourself

    The other day, I was asked how I empower myself. It was a question I had not been asked before, but after a moment's…

  • The Mind Trap

    The Mind Trap

    Catch this clip of Hortense le Gentil talking about how we can become stuck within our own mind traps. Here is my full…

    1 条评论
  • Go Looking for Bad News

    Go Looking for Bad News

    One of the hardest things for senior leaders to solicit is bad news from the ranks. Mike Ullman, one-time CEO of…

    1 条评论
  • If The Pope Can Look for Laughs So Can We

    If The Pope Can Look for Laughs So Can We

    Of all the things you think the Pope should be doing – supervising the running of a global organization, greeting…

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了