Don’t look at the hole in the doughnut. Look at the whole doughnut.
BRANCH RICKEYDon’t look at the hole in the doughnut. Look at the whole doughnut.
BRANCH RICKEYA full mind is an empty bat.
BRANCH RICKEYFirst of all, a man, whether seeking achievement on the athletic field or in business, must want to win. He must feel that the thing he is doing is worthwhile; so worthwhile that he is willing to pay the price of success to attain distinction.
BRANCH RICKEYThe man with the ball is responsible for what happens to the ball.
BRANCH RICKEYI don’t care if I was a ditch-digger at a dollar a day, I’d want to do my job better than the fellow next to me. I’d want to be the best at whatever I do.
BRANCH RICKEYWe win if the world is convinced of two things, that you are a fine gentleman, and a great baseball player.
BRANCH RICKEYFill in any figure you want for that boy (Mickey Mantle). Whatever the figure, it’s a deal.
BRANCH RICKEYBaseball people are generally allergic to new ideas; it took years to persuade them to put numbers on uniforms, and it is the hardest thing in the world to get Major League Baseball to change anything—even spikes on a new pair of shoes—but they will eventually…they are bound to.
BRANCH RICKEYThinking about the devil is worse than seeing the devil.
BRANCH RICKEYI cannot face my God much longer knowing that his black creatures are held separate and distinct from his white creatures in the game that has given me all that I can call my own.
BRANCH RICKEYLuck is a residue of design.
BRANCH RICKEYLeisure is the handmaiden of the devil.
BRANCH RICKEYThe only thing Abner Doubleday ever started was the Civil War.
BRANCH RICKEYIt (a baseball box score) doesn’t tell how big you are, what church you attend, what color you are, or how your father voted in the last election. It just tells what kind of baseball player you were on that particular day.
BRANCH RICKEYThe world’s not so simple anymore, I guess it never was. We ignored it, now we can’t.
BRANCH RICKEYNegligence or indifference are usually reviewed from an unlucky seat. The law of cause and effect and causality both work the same with inexorable exactitudes. Luck is the residue of design.
BRANCH RICKEY