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Rickey, Branch

Rickey, Branch, 1881–1965, American baseball executive, b. Stockdale, Ohio. As manager or executive, he was with the St. Louis Browns (1913–15), the St. Louis Cardinals (1917–42), the Brooklyn Dodgers (1943–50), and the Pittsburgh Pirates (1950–59). He was the first to institute the minor league farm system (1919) and integrated the major leagues by signing (1945) Jackie Robinson to a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

See biography by M. Polner (1982); H. Frommer, Rickey and Robinson (1982).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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