Word: rickey
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Dodger fans, than which there are none more fanatic, long ago gave Ebbets Field a charm of its own. Branch Rickey, who became president of the Brooklyn club last winter, has made it over into vendetta alley. Hawkeyes from the stands size up each Rickey move; hawkeyes from Rickey's aerie perched over home plate size up every reflex in the stands. There is plenty for each side...
...Illusions, Some Signs. Branch Rickey looks like Lionel Barrymore playing Thaddeus Stevens, talks like an evangelist in a voice that exploits the whisper as aptly as the roar. When he left his world-champion St. Louis Cardinals to take the Brooklyn job, he was in his right mind. One of baseball's most successful businessmen, he had no illusions. Not long before he signed to boss the Dodgers he had said: "Whoever takes over the Brooklyn management will find himself in a burial ground...
...Rickey did not choose to be buried. When the team started slipping, he got out the ax. Down it came on seasoned Dolph Camilli, Buck Newsom, Joe Medwick, Johnny Allen. When he was through pruning, only 14 of the 34 spring players remained. With few exceptions, other clubs could find no new material worth buying. In St. Paul, Rickey found 6 ft. 6½ in. First Baseman Howard Schultz; in Montreal, Outfielder Luis Olmo; in Durham, Outfielder Gene Hermanski. He brought in other youngsters. He asked 20,000 school and semi-pro coaches to name their best players...
While the shouting died, the mystery remained (the seventh-place Phillies under Harris-his first year-had already won 39 games, had won only 42 all last year). Sour rumor said that Brooklyn's Branch Rickey was really running Philadelphia's Bill Cox, that Rickey was lining up Bucky Harris against a day when Rickey could get rid of Brooklyn's noisy manager Leo Durocher...
...Dodgers' best pitcher. But the Old Showboat's arrogance got Manager Leo ("Lippy") Durocher's goat. When it came to a showdown last week-after Bobo's suspension for insubordination had caused a brief "sympathy strike" among his teammates-Dodger Boss Branch Rickey upheld Durocher. Newsom, only three years ago reputed to be baseball's highest-paid pitcher, was waived out of the National League, traded to the St. Louis Browns...