Branch Rickey

that tell

you? They're creating their own luck, Branch Rickey said.

Do you know Branch Rickey's quote? Are you aware, baseball historian, are you aware of Branch Rickey's famous quote? Say it.

Luck is the residue of design.

No luck.

So what does that tell you? What

does that tell you? They're creating their own luck, Branch Rickey said.

Do you know Branch Rickey's quote? Are you aware, baseball historian, are you aware of Branch Rickey's famous quote? Say it.

Luck is the residue of design.

No luck.

And as they find their lines, the sky could be the limit here.

And you know what else? Branch Rickey, the late Branch Rickey, who ran the Brooklyn Dodgers, said, I much prefer youthful enthusiasm than nonchalance of old age.

Easton Cowan and Gavin McKenna, they got the attention of these older guys.

These guys aren't mailing games in anymore.

[Instrumental music] "I am looking for someone with the guts not to fight back." Some of you will recognize the line from the movie 42, a movie named for the jersey number of Jackie Robinson, the first African American to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball.

That, uh, that line, "I'm looking for someone with the guts not to fight back," is the line that Hollywood recorded from the meeting that Jackie Robinson had from the general manager of the then Brooklyn Dodgers, in which Branch Rickey, the general manager, said to him, "Listen, I'm, I'm looking for someone who's going to be able to tolerate the abuse that's going to come his way when we break this color barrier." And Jackie Robinson in the moment began to defend his manhood, say, "I can stand up to it.

I can fight it," and that's when Branch Rickey said the famous line, "I'm looking for someone with the guts not to fight back.

That would be harder." Now, that's what the movie recorded and what a lot of the secular histories will tell you even now, but that's not the whole story.

There is another story beneath, and a few of you in the room will know that.

In that three-hour meeting that Branch Rickey had with Jackie Robinson, there was another subject that was mostly on the table.

The subject occurred as the two of them, white general manager, black African American player, both believers, went through a book that was popular at the time known as The Life of Jesus.

And what the two of them explored was what would it take in that day and that age to do what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, turn the other cheek.

When do you know as a manager, when will Lee Elia have an indication that things are going to start turning for him?

Well, to take a page out of the best baseball man I've ever known in the game, and that's the late Branch Rickey, it takes anywhere from...

Four to seven years to build the ball club a championship caliber.

And the Cubs right now are on the right track.

Baseball, too, has been an integral part of the Montreal sports scene, and this present day park was the site of the old Delorimier Stadium, home of the International League's Montreal Royals.

In the '40s they were a Brooklyn Dodger farm club, and in '46 when Branch Rickey signed Jackie Robinson, organized baseball's race barrier was finally broken.

Robinson starred here that season, went on to Brooklyn the next.

The city went into the Major Leagues in 1969, and Jarry Park, a toy-sized stadium, served as the home of the expansion Expos for eight seasons.

Oh and one the count.

You know, many years ago when Branch Rickey was the theoretician in charge of the Dodgers, he talked about coconut snatchers.

One guy up in the tree and then dropping coconuts down to the other, and when they got tired, they then switched jobs.

And he said, "I want ball players who can switch jobs." And that has really been the theme in the Dodger organization for years.