He was not much of a player and not much more of a manager, but by the time Branch Rickey (1881€“1965) finished with baseball, he had revolutionized the sport€"not just once but three times. In this definitive biography of Rickey€"the man sportswriters dubbed €œThe Brain,€ €œThe Mahatma,€ and, on occasion, €œEl Cheapo€€"Lee Lowenfish tells the full, colorful story of a life that forever changed the face of America€s game.

From 1917 to 1942, Rickey was the mastermind behind the Saint Louis Cardinals who enabled small-market clubs to compete with the rich and powerful by creating the farm system . Under his direction in the 1940s, the Brooklyn Dodgers became the first true €œAmerica€s team.€ By signing Jackie Robinson and other black players, he single-handedly thrust baseball into the forefront of the civil rights movement. Lowenfish evokes the peculiarly American complex of God, family, and baseball that informed Rickey€s actions and his accomplishments. His book offers an intriguing, richly detailed portrait of a man whose life is itself a crucial chapter in the history of American business, sport, and society.