RetroSimba

Four weeks after experiencing one of his most satisfying feats _ a 1942 World Series title for a Cardinals team composed primarily of players developed within the minor-league system he created _ Branch Rickey left the organization.

Though he had played a major role in the Cardinals becoming one of baseball’s best franchises, Rickey’s relationship with club owner and president Sam Breadon had deteriorated beyond repair.

On Oct. 29, 1942, Rickey, the Cardinals’ vice president and general manager, resigned and signed a five-year contract to become president and general manager of the Dodgers.

He left the Cardinals in good shape.

Benefitting from the farm system, the Cardinals had a pipeline of talent despite departures of players into military service during World War II. In their first four seasons after Rickey left, the Cardinals won three National League pennants (1943, 1944 and 1946) and two World Series titles (1944 and 1946).

Rickey, meanwhile, upgraded the Dodgers’ farm system _ his moves positioned Brooklyn to win six NL pennants in a 10-year stretch (1947-56) while the Cardinals had none in that period _ and prepared to make his most important contribution: integrating the major leagues by bringing Jackie Robinson to the Dodgers in 1947.

Golden magic

In 1917, Breadon was part of a group of St. Louis investors who bought the Cardinals from Helene Britton. The new owners lured Rickey from the American League Browns and put him in charge of baseball operations. Breadon became the Cardinals’ principal owner in 1920.

“Finding it impossible to compete in the open market for players, Rickey conceived the idea of finding prospects when they were young and planting them on minor-league clubs, or farms,” wrote J. Roy Stockton of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “Rival baseball operators laughed at the idea, but it worked with golden magic.”

From 1926-42, the partnership of Breadon and Rickey produced six NL pennants and four World Series titles.

For most of that time, Breadon and Rickey were an odd couple who worked well together.

“It was a strange partnership always, with each having a great respect for the ability of the other while their personalities, habits and views of extracurricular things were so diametrically opposed that there never was any strong bond of friendship between the partners,” Stockton wrote.

Ice formations

The relationship began to change in 1939 when the Cardinals got embroiled in a scandal.

Baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who disliked Rickey, launched an investigation into the farm system and determined the Cardinals had violated rules by colluding to control minor-league franchises and their players.

Embarrassed, Breadon concluded Rickey had betrayed his trust.

According to Murray Polner, author of “Branch Rickey: A Biography,” Breadon “insisted his reputation had been stained, his honesty questioned” because of Rickey’s actions.

“To have the stigma broadcast by Landis, whom he loathed, was simply too much for Breadon to bear,” Polner wrote.

Breadon also was miffed with Rickey’s role in a managerial turnover. Frankie Frisch, a Breadon favorite, feuded with Rickey. Fed up, Rickey threatened to join the Cubs unless the Cardinals changed managers. In September 1938, Breadon reluctantly fired Frisch. Rickey hired a friend, Ray Blades, to replace Frisch. When the Cardinals started poorly in 1940, Breadon fired Blades without consulting Rickey.

“Persons close to the club had noticed a coolness developing between president and general manager in recent years,” Stockton wrote.

Time to go

In spring 1941, the relationship reached a breaking point. Breadon informed Rickey he wouldn’t renew his contract at the present terms when the pact expired in December 1942. Rickey was getting a yearly salary of $50,000 and a percentage of the club profits.

(The Post-Dispatch estimated Rickey received more than $1 million in salary and bonuses during his time with the Cardinals.)

Looking ahead to when his contract would expire at the end of 1942, Rickey began to plot an exit.

The 1942 Cardinals won 106 games during the regular season and edged the Dodgers, who won 104, for the pennant. When the Cardinals won four of five against the Yankees to earn the World Series crown, Rickey said it was the happiest moment of his life “because it was a victory for his boys, young men who, with only a few exceptions, were products of the now far-flung chain store system Branch had fathered and developed,” the Post-Dispatch reported.

The Dodgers, seeking a team president to replace Larry MacPhail, who was commissioned into the Army as a lieutenant colonel, contacted Rickey, 60, after the World Series. Rickey’s son was head of the Dodgers’ farm system.

Rickey also was approached by the Browns, who made a surprisingly lucrative offer. “Under its terms, Rickey might have made stock arrangements that would have netted him as much as $100,000 in little more than a year,” The Sporting News reported.

Said Browns owner Donald Barnes: “We went the limit trying to keep Mr. Rickey in St. Louis … We probably went higher in our offer than present conditions would justify. We wanted him that badly.”

Tempted to remain in St. Louis, Rickey came “very, very close” to signing with the Browns, The Sporting News wrote.

However, because the Cardinals and Browns had their offices at Sportsman’s Park and played their games there, Rickey and Breadon would have had to work in close proximity to one another. “Sam and Branch could no longer live in the same ballpark,” The Sporting News concluded.

Rickey notified Breadon in a telegram that he was joining the Dodgers.

Saying he wished Rickey “all the luck in the world,” Breadon told the Post-Dispatch, “We hardly ever had a hard word … If we failed to agree on a policy, we would iron it out. We never had any hard feelings. There are none now.”

Because of federal wartime restrictions on income, Rickey agreed to a yearly salary with the Dodgers of $35,000, but he negotiated a bonus plan in which he “stands a good chance of drawing close to a quarter of a million dollars” over the length of the contract, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported.

Breadon decided to divide Rickey’s duties among various Cardinals personnel rather than hire a replacement.

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(Updated April 5, 2025)

General manager Walt Jocketty, whose trades transformed the Cardinals into perennial contenders, was the victim of an internal management mess.

Cardinals owner Bill DeWitt Jr. became enamored of a data-driven consultant, Jeff Luhnow, who had business acumen. DeWitt brought Luhnow onto the management team, promoted him and put him in charge of the Cardinals’ player development group.

In essence, Jocketty was head of major-league baseball operations and Luhnow became head of minor-league baseball operations.

The problem was DeWitt did this without gaining the support of Jocketty. Though Luhnow reported to Jocketty, their relationship was icy _ Luhnow was DeWitt’s guy, not Jocketty’s _ and created division and tension throughout the front office.

DeWitt expected Jocketty and Luhnow to work out their differences and create organizational harmony.

Feeling undercut and underappreciated, Jocketty couldn’t work collaboratively with a baseball newcomer with whom he had wide philosophical differences.

DeWitt had said he hired Luhnow to be a “problem solver.”

The problem-maker, in DeWitt’s view, was Jocketty.

On Oct. 3, 2007, DeWitt surprised nearly everyone by firing Jocketty. The dismissal came a year after the Cardinals had won their first World Series championship in 24 seasons.

Redbirds revived

In 1994, when Anheuser-Busch owned the Cardinals, Jocketty was hired to replace Dal Maxvill as general manager. At the time, Jocketty was assistant general manager of the Rockies.

A year later, in 1995, Jocketty hired Tony La Russa to be the Cardinals’ manager. Jocketty and La Russa had worked together in the Athletics organization.

In 1996, a group led by DeWitt completed the purchase of the Cardinals from Anheuser-Busch.

With new ownership expressing a commitment to winning, Jocketty and La Russa went to work rebuilding a Cardinals club that hadn’t been to the postseason since 1987 and hadn’t won a World Series championship since 1982.

After qualifying for the postseason once in their first four years together, the leadership team of DeWitt, Jocketty and La Russa got the Cardinals into the postseason six times in a seven-year stretch from 2000-2006. The 2006 team won the World Series title.

Jocketty largely was responsible for the turnaround. His trades brought talent such as Mark McGwire, Jim Edmonds, Scott Rolen, Edgar Renteria, Darryl Kile, Woody Williams, Larry Walker and Adam Wainwright, to name just a few.

In an interview with Cardinals Yearbook in 2014, La Russa said, “Walt is an excellent example of a leader who has a great heart and is good with people. He is smart, knows the game of baseball and has the necessary toughness.”

Front office duel

Though the Cardinals had become successful, DeWitt determined the organization needed a different approach to scouting and player development. DeWitt hired Luhnow in October 2003 for the newly created position of vice president for baseball development.

Luhnow and Jocketty clashed. Communication between Luhnow and Jocketty and their staffs broke down.

“There was basically a difference of philosophy,” Jocketty said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He added, “It’s not a way I’m comfortable operating.”

Luhnow said, “I wasn’t trying to cram things down people’s throats,” but added, “I have definitely stimulated a lot of debate since I’ve been here.”

John Mozeliak, Cardinals assistant general manager, was placed in the uncomfortable role of being the conduit between Jocketty and Luhnow.

“(Mozeliak) has done a very good job of staying above the fray,” DeWitt said.

Said Cardinals president Mark Lamping: “(Mozeliak) was sometimes torn between two factions within baseball operations. Tough job for anybody to do that.”

Divorce court

After the championship high of 2006, the Cardinals finished with a losing record (78-84) in 2007.

On Oct. 3, three days after the end of the 2007 season, Jocketty was called to a morning meeting at DeWitt’s house in Clayton, Mo. During the 45-minute session, DeWitt, saying it was “time to move forward with undivided vision and purpose,” fired Jocketty, though the owner chose to frame the departure as a mutual decision. DeWitt said he and Jocketty “were in agreement our relationship … had likely run its course.”

Joe Strauss of the Post-Dispatch cited “a widening front office split” and “Jocketty’s refusal to embrace the new structure” as reasons for DeWitt’s decision.

“I don’t think it played out where we could close the divide,” DeWitt said. “There had been a divide from prior years, but not as severe as it became.”

Said Lamping: “A division within baseball operations continuing without a common purpose just doesn’t work.”

Tangled web

Jocketty had a year remaining on his contract and DeWitt said he would pay him the $1 million in salary for 2008.

Jocketty asked DeWitt to hold off announcing the dismissal to the media until he had a chance to tell his son, a high school junior, who turned 17 that day. DeWitt agreed. The announcement was made at 3 p.m.

Soon after Jocketty departed the meeting, DeWitt called La Russa at his residence in California. La Russa said he was “surprised and disappointed” by Jocketty’s departure. “I thought Walt would be back,” said La Russa.

Reflecting on his relationship with Luhnow, Jocketty said, “There are probably things I could have done and should have done to try and make it work better, but I wasn’t comfortable. I didn’t do it.”

Regarding his tenure from 1994-2007, Jocketty said, “We’ve had one of the most successful eras in Cardinals history. I hope that is how it is remembered.”

Three weeks after the shakeup, La Russa, surprising some, signed to return as Cardinals manager. On Oct. 31, Mozeliak was named to succeed Jocketty.

La Russa and Mozeliak led the Cardinals to a World Series championship in 2011.

Jocketty became general manager of the Reds in 2008 and went on to serve the club in a variety of executive roles.

Luhnow left the Cardinals in December 2011 to become general manager of the Astros. Four years later, it was learned a member of the Cardinals front office unlawfully had hacked into the Astros’ database. In 2016, Cardinals scouting director Chris Correa pleaded guilty to the crime and was sentenced to prison.

On Jan. 13, 2020, the Astros fired Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch after the two were suspended for the 2020 season by Major League Baseball for their roles in a scandal involving the stealing of signs opposing catchers flashed to pitchers.

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In a move that shifted the balance of baseball power in St. Louis, Branch Rickey left the American League Browns and joined the National League Cardinals.

On March 20, 1917, Rickey, the Browns’ business manager, became president of the Cardinals.

Rickey’s departure was fought by Browns owner Phil Ball, even though the two men didn’t get along.

At the time, the Browns were the dominant baseball franchise in St. Louis.

Under Rickey, the Cardinals would transform from a lackluster franchise into an elite one.

Meet the new boss

In 1915, Rickey served the dual roles of Browns manager and assistant to team owner Robert Hedges. Rickey performed many of the duties of a general manager.

After the 1915 season, Hedges sold the Browns to Phil Ball. One of Ball’s first moves was to hire Fielder Jones, former White Sox manager, to be manager of the Browns and reassign Rickey to the position of business manager.

In his 1982 book “Branch Rickey: A Biography,” author Murray Polner wrote Rickey and Ball “took an instant dislike to one another.”

“Ball thought Rickey’s ideas too radical and Rickey’s endless talk and large vocabulary made him uncomfortable,” Polner wrote. “Rickey was, in turn, uncomfortable with Ball’s crudeness. He considered Ball uncouth and, in matters of baseball, virtually illiterate.”

According to Rickey, Ball agreed to honor Rickey’s contract, but told him he wouldn’t stand in his way if Rickey wanted to leave.

First choice

The 1916 Browns entered September four games out of first place and finished with a 79-75 record.

The 1916 Cardinals were a mess and finished in last place at 60-93. Ownership was strapped for cash and had trouble paying bills.

On March 5, 1917, Cardinals owner Helene Britton sold the club for $375,000 to a consortium of investors led by former team president James C. Jones.

Jones and the investors polled a group of seven St. Louis journalists for their advice on who should be hired to run the baseball operations.

The response was unanimous: Rickey.

Lucrative offer

Jones offered Rickey a three-year contract at $15,000 per year to be Cardinals president, according to the St. Louis Star. Rickey, who was to be paid $7,500 as Browns business manager in 1917, went to Ball and asked to be released from his contract.

Rickey said he received absolute assurance from Ball on March 19, 1917, that he could negotiate for a job that would better his position, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

A day later, Rickey accepted the Cardinals’ offer and signed a contract with them, according to a Page 1 story in the Post-Dispatch.

Ball, though, was having second thoughts.

Baseball battle

Ban Johnson, president of the American League, didn’t want Rickey going to a club in the rival league, Rickey said. Johnson pressured Ball to stop Rickey from joining the Cardinals.

Displaying a Browns contract Rickey signed for 1917, Ball told the Post-Dispatch, “I will insist that he fulfill his agreement.”

“Rickey seems to be confused over certain promises I made to him when he signed this (Browns) contract,” Ball said. “I promised Rickey … I would also help him in bettering himself if any opportunity offered itself for him apart from baseball.

“I at no time had the notion that he would consider this offer applicable to any proposition he might receive from one of my competitors,” Ball said. “My idea was that should Rickey care to enter the law business in St. Louis I would give him every assistance that I could.”

Ball went to court and received a restraining order that prohibited Rickey from working for the Cardinals until a hearing could be held before a judge.

In the Post-Dispatch, columnist John Wray wrote, “The battle between Rickey and Ball … seems a useless waste of time and money in which the only persons to come out of the conflict with all the honors _ and considerable cash _ will be the attorneys.”

The St. Louis Star opined, “Squeamish people who have doubted that Rickey will be allowed to preside over the Cardinals on account of a prior contract with the Browns are now inclined to view the position of Rickey as one that will impregnably withstand legal assault.”

Let’s make a deal

On April 6, 1917, the day a hearing was to be held, a settlement was reached that allowed Rickey to join the Cardinals.

“Rickey agreed to the terms of the settlement only after much persuasion,” the Post-Dispatch reported. “He and his personal attorney, George Williams, were very eager to bring the case to trial, but they were persuaded in the end, for the good of baseball, to accept the settlement out of court as proposed by Ball’s lawyers.”

Though the Cardinals under Rickey improved significantly in 1917 _ they finished in third place at 82-70 _ it wasn’t until Sam Breadon became principal owner in 1920 that the franchise had the backing it needed to solidify and blossom.

Supported by Breadon, Rickey built professional baseball’s first farm system, providing the Cardinals with a steady supply of talent trained under a shared organizational philosophy.

Rickey, who had returned to the field as Cardinals manager in 1919 while still running the administrative baseball operations, was put back in the front office by Breadon fulltime in May 1925 and the Cardinals won their first pennant and World Series championship the next year.

Previously: The story of Branch Rickey and his final journey

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(Updated May 26, 2020)

Looking to build on a reputation as a keen talent evaluator and decision-maker, Ted Simmons left a front-office job with the Cardinals for an executive position with a National League division rival.

On Feb. 5, 1992, Simmons, 42, resigned as Cardinals director of player development and accepted an offer to become general manager of the Pirates.

Emerging from a field of finalists that included Walt Jocketty, Simmons got the job because of the work he had done in improving the Cardinals farm system and because of his connections with Pirates president Mark Sauer.

Simmons’ rise was derailed, however, when, 16 months after becoming general manager, he suffered a heart attack and resigned.

Talent show

Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in December 2019, Simmons, a catcher, played 13 seasons (1968-80) for St. Louis, batting .298 and producing 1,704 hits and 929 RBI in 1,564 games.

In 1988, after Simmons finished his playing career with the Braves, he rejoined the Cardinals as head of their minor-league system.

Ray Lankford, Bernard Gilkey and Todd Zeile were among the prospects who developed into Cardinals players during Simmons’ tenure, enabling St. Louis to replace Willie McGee, Vince Coleman and Terry Pendleton.

Donovan Osborne, John Mabry and Dmitri Young were drafted by the Cardinals while Simmons was farm director.

Sauer, an Anheuser-Busch executive, joined the Cardinals as deputy chief operating officer and learned the baseball operation from Simmons.

Sauer was promoted to Cardinals executive vice president and chief operating officer in 1990. He left in October 1991 to become president and chief executive officer of the Pirates.

Search for success

Three months after he arrived in Pittsburgh, Sauer fired general manager Larry Doughty. Though the Pirates had won division titles in 1990 and 1991, Sauer was dissatisfied with the quality of the farm system under Doughty.

In his search for a general manager, Sauer identified five finalists. In addition to Simmons, they were:

_ Cam Bonifay, Pirates assistant general manager.

_ Bill Lajoie, former Tigers general manager.

_ Murray Cook, former general manager of the Yankees, Reds and Expos.

_ Walt Jocketty, director of baseball administration for the Athletics.

Simmons interviewed with Sauer in late January 1992. Simmons told Dan O’Neill of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the session was “thorough, intense and in-depth.”

Eliminating Jocketty (who two years later would become general manager of the Cardinals) and Cook, Sauer pared the list to Simmons, Lajoie and Bonifay.

Lajoie, a scout with the Braves, was the preferred choice of Pirates manager Jim Leyland. When he was scouting director of the Tigers, Lajoie was a mentor to Leyland, who had been a player and manager in Detroit’s farm system.

Simmons told the Post-Dispatch he thought Bonifay would get the job.

Earned reward

Simmons was in a meeting when Cardinals chief executive officer Stuart Meyer came in and told him to expect a call from Sauer. A short while later, Sauer asked Simmons to be general manager.

Sauer described Simmons as “an outstanding evaluator of young talent” and “a good communicator.”

Asked whether their friendship was a factor in hiring Simmons, Sauer told the Pittsburgh Press, “My experience with Ted gives me a comfort level and confidence in what he can do, but this was not an issue of friendship. What I think made Ted the best choice was his demonstration of skills in the area of developing players in St. Louis.”

Said Simmons: “There’s no question Mark and I are friends, but there is also no question that during the time I was with Mark in St. Louis he was my boss … If I thought I stood here as general manager of the Pirates because I was Mark’s friend, No. 1, I would be embarrassed; No. 2, I would be ashamed.”

Simmons departed the Cardinals with the respect of general manager Dal Maxvill and manager Joe Torre.

“I’m extremely happy for him,” said Maxvill. “We had a great relationship. He was very loyal to me and to the organization. You couldn’t ask for better than Teddy.”

Said Torre: “He never does anything halfway.”

Pressure in Pittsburgh

Dedication and drive were qualities that helped Simmons get the job. Those attributes could become negatives, though, if not kept in check.

In their praise of Simmons, Maxvill and Sauer unintentionally foreshadowed trouble.

“His skin will have to be thick,” Maxvill said. “You can’t get too excited or too upset … You have to not let things bother you and just try to do the best you can and the best for the ballclub. I think he knows that.”

Said Sauer: “He’s very consumed with baseball. He lives and breathes baseball on many different layers.”

The Pirates won a third consecutive division title in Simmons’ first year as general manager. They were on the verge of clinching the 1992 pennant until the Braves rallied for three runs in the ninth and won Game 7 of the NL Championship Series.

With ownership putting pressure on Sauer and Simmons to cut payroll, the Pirates’ best hitter, Barry Bonds, and best pitcher, Doug Drabek, became free agents and left. Second baseman Jose Lind was dealt to the Royals for prospects.

Simmons, who smoked two to three packs of cigarettes a day, was tasked with trying to rebuild from within the organization.

Medical emergency

On June 8, 1993, Simmons, 43, was working in his office when he was stricken with a heart attack.

“I thought I was going to die,” Simmons told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

“It was tolerable pain in my chest and between my shoulder blades. It was acute, intolerable pain in my upper left arm. I knew what was happening.”

Simmons called the team trainer, who got Simmons to a car and drove him to a hospital. Simmons underwent an emergency angioplasty operation to re-open a completely blocked artery to his heart.

Two weeks later, on June 19, 1993, Simmons was back at the ballpark when he announced he was resigning to focus on his health.

Sauer promoted Bonifay to the position of general manager.

In an interview in 2020 with Stan McNeal of Cardinals Gameday Magazine, Simmons said, “I’m very proud of my time in Pittsburgh because it was a very difficult time for the franchise. By getting payroll down like I did, that was essentially the first step of what was a four-step process that led to their new ballpark.”

Simmons said he stopped smoking the day he went into the hospital: “You know what helped me? I was in intensive care, and one of the nurses was a smoker. She had that cigarette smell on her clothes, in her hair, and it dawned on me: That’s how I’ve been stinking all these years.”

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