Branch Rickey To Remain as Buc Advisor

Article taken from The Ames Daily Tribune, October 20, 1955


PITTSBURGH (UP) - Branch Rickey, still insisting he'll "lick the greatest challenge of my life," said today he will fight for a National League pennant for the Pittsburgh Pirates even after resigning Nov. 1 as general manager of the club.

"I will refuse to sit back and be a watcher," Rickey, now 74, said after announcing Wednesday he would step down as general manager and executive vice president of the habitual tail-end Pirates.

"My challenge remains here and I'm going to like it. I will remain as an active advisor until I have either done so or died," the bushy browed executive said.

Five Year Regime

Rickey came here in late 1950 after highly successful tenures as general manager of the St. Louis Cardinals and the Brooklyn Dodgers, where he built the pennant winners. But under his five-year regime, Pittsburgh finished last in shared seventh place with the Chicago Cubs. Three of his Pirate teams lost 100 or more games.

The "Top Branch" said he realized what he was doing when he accepted the task of rebuilding the hapless Pirates, "But I have learned the hard way."