Branch Rickey

Pulitzer Prize–winning Breslin offers this slim biography on baseball manager and executive Branch Rickey, a man Breslin refers to as a “Great American.” What results is a well-rounded look at a man who not only reformed competitive sports but also influenced the norms of society by helping Jackie Robinson break baseball’s color barrier. Born to a tight-knit family in Ohio in the late 19th century, Rickey’s career as a major league player didn’t last long (as a catcher, he once allowed 13 stolen bases in a game), so he graduated from law school and became the manager of the St. Louis Browns. Yet his most far-reaching achievements happened decades later during his time in Brooklyn, when he shook baseball to its foundations by bringing Robinson to the Dodgers. Rickey as general manager knew there would be backlash and Robinson would be subject to rampant racism, but he was undeterred and never stooped to the level of those who attempted to sabotage his work. As he later told a group of students, “racial extractions and color hues and forms of worship become secondary to what men can do.” Breslin’s gift for easy-to-read yet hard-hitting prose will touch even those who aren’t baseball fans. (Mar.)