Biography

He had a mediocre major league playing career as a catcher at the turn of the twentieth century.

Helped break baseball's color line by signing up Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers, who became the modern major league's first African-American player in 1947.

As an executive with the Brooklyn Dodgers, pioneered the use of baseball statistics for evaluating players.

He invented the modern farm system while as an executive with the St. Louis Cardinals during the 1920s and 1930s.

Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Committee on Baseball Veterans in 1967.

Luck is the residue of design.

Trade a player a year too early rather than a year too late.

Baseball is a game of inches.

(Responding to Ralph Kiner's request for a raise in salary while Rickey was the general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates during the early fifties) "We finished last with you, we can finish last without you." (Kiner was traded later on)

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