Tag Archives: Branch Rickey
Dixie Walker
Dixie Walker (Baseball. Born, Villa Rica, GA, Sept. 24, 1910; died, Birmingham, AL, May 17, 1982.) Another Yankees reject who made his name in Brooklyn, Fred Walker was doubtless one of the best $10,000 investments in baseball history. After parts of five seasons with the Yankees, Walker was sent to the White Sox via waivers […]
Fresco Thompson
Fresco Thompson (Baseball. Born, Centreville, AL, June 6, 1902; died, Fullerton, CA, Nov. 20, 1968.) A second baseman who did brief tours with the Giants (1926, 1934) and Brooklyn (1931-32), Lafayette Fresco Thompson later became a Dodgers executive. Thompson was named assistant farm director in 1949 and a vice president the next year after Walter […]
Branch Rickey
Branch Rickey (Baseball. Born, Stockdale, OH, Dec. 20, 1881; died, Columbia, MO, Dec. 9, 1965.) When Branch Rickey came to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1942, he inherited a club that had won the 1941 National League championship. The team, however, was soon to yield to the ravages of age, accelerated by the onset of World […]
Lou Niss
Lou Niss (Sports editor. Born, Minsk, Russia, Oct. 5, 1903; died, New York, NY, Apr. 30, 1987.) The last sports editor of the Brooklyn Eagle, Louis Niss was also the first front-office employee hired by the Mets, in 1960. Niss began his newspaper career in 1923 wirh the Brooklyn Times and worked his way through […]
Kirby Higbe
Kirby Higbe (Baseball. Born, Columbia, SC, Apr. 4, 1915; died, Columbia, SC, May 6, 1985.) Although he pitched for the Cubs, Phillies, Pirates, and Giants in his 12-year career (1937-43, 1946-50), Walter Kirby Higbe will be most remembered for his 1941 season in Brooklyn, when the righthander was the N.L. top pitcher (22-9) and the […]
Joan Payson
Joan Payson (Baseball. Born, New York, NY, Feb. 5, 1903; died, New York, NY, Oct. 4, 1975.) A lifelong fan of baseball and horse racing, Mrs. Charles Shipman Payson could afford to indulge her interest. Mrs. Payson was born Joan Whitney, an heiress to a sizable fortune. She owned a share of the New York […]
Phil Douglas
Phil Douglas (Baseball. Born, Cedartown, GA, June 17, 1890; died, Seguatchie Valley, TN, Aug. 1, 1952.) A talented righthanded spitballer, Phillip Brooks Douglas tried to drink his way out of the majors. When that didn’t work, Douglas let his hatred for his manager get him barred for life. In a career that included stops with […]
Happy Chandler
Happy Chandler (Baseball. Born, Corydon, KY, July 14, 1898; died, Versailles, KY, June 15, 1991.) A brash, noisy product of old-style Kentucky Democratic politics, Albert Benjamin Chandler was the second commissioner of baseball (1945-51). Chandler was also Lieutenant Governor (1931-35), twice Governor (1935-39, 1955-59) and U.S. Senator (1939-45) of his native state. He followed Kennesaw […]
