A full mind is an empty bat.
Branch Rickey

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

All I had was natural ability.
Branch Rickey

Baseball is a game of inches.
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.
Branch Rickey

Cobb lived off the field as though he wished to live forever. He lived on the field as though it was his last day.
Branch Rickey

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

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

I don't care if I was a ditch-digger at a dollar a day, I'd want to do my job better than the fellow next to me. I'd want to be the best at whatever I do.
Branch Rickey

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


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

It is not the honor that you take with you, but the heritage you leave behind.
Branch Rickey

Leisure is the handmaiden of the devil.
Branch Rickey

Luck is the residue of design.
Branch Rickey

Never surrender opportunity for security.
Branch Rickey

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

Problems are the price you pay for progress.
Branch Rickey

The greatest untapped reservoir of raw material in the history of our game is the black race.
Branch Rickey

The man with the ball is responsible for what happens to the ball.
Branch Rickey

Thinking about the devil is worse than seeing the devil.
Branch Rickey