CREW FOR RICKEY'S SALESMAN-SHIP
"Bob Cobb, former owner of the Hollywood Stars, contributes another reason for Branch Rickey's success in baseball.
'When we were part of the Dodgers' great farm system,' says Cobb, 'Rickey would assemble his scouts in a room and ask them: 'Whom can we sell that won't hurt us?' Rickey would write the names on a blackboard as the scouts mentioned players. Then he would start with the top name and inquire: 'We're going to sell this player to what team that can't hurt us?' If that player was a pitcher, and Rickey knew the Cardinals or Cubs could be annoying with more pitching, he eliminated them as possible purchasers.' "
-David Condon, Chicago Tribune (Baseball Digest, March 1959)
Branch Rickey, Pittsburgh's elder statesman: "I would rather have errors of enthusiasm than the indifference of wisdom."
-Baseball Digest, June 1959
Branch Rickey, asked what the format for the World Series would be if his plan for a third major league were adopted: "The three teams would play a round robin. A team would be eliminated upon losing its fourth game. In such a plan, it is conceivable that a Series would end in eight games, but that would be the minimum and most unlikely. At the same time, it would not be possible for the Series to run beyond 11 games, at which time two of the teams would each have had four defeats. There would be more tension and drama in such a playdown. It would test the tactical gifts of the managers to the limit, and it would be more profitable to players and club owners."
-Baseball Digest, July 1959