Branch Rickey

“A full mind is an empty baseball bat.”

“A great ballplayer is a player who will take a chance.”

“How to use your leisure time is the biggest problem of a ballplayer.”

“Thou shalt not steal. I mean defensively. On offense, indeed thou shall steal and thou must.”

“Baseball is a game of inches.”

“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.”

“All I had was natural ability.”

“Never surrender opportunity for security.”

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

“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...”

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

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

“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.”