1914 Spring Training
Branch Rickey is just 32 years old and is entering his first full season as a manager in the major leagues. Most managers his age are player-managers. Even though he will pinch-hit twice during the upcoming regular season, he really doesn’t fit that bill. Rickey did play in the major leagues prior though. Including the two in ‘14, Rickey appeared in 120 major league games. He came up primarily as a catcher, but he was also utilized in the outfield and at first base. He was originally called up by the Reds in 1904. He did not appear in any games that year as he let management know he would not play on Sundays and manager Joe Kelley decided he would not play on any other day ending in “y” either. He was released shortly after being called up.
He was drafted by the White Sox in the 1905 Rule 5 draft but did not appear with them. In a trade for another catcher (Frank Roth) he went to the Browns at the end of the 1905 season, appearing in one game. 1906 will be Rickey’s career year, also with the Browns. He bats .284 with a respectable 3 home runs in the deadball era. He is traded to the New York Highlanders (Yankees) for Joe Yeager. Rickey had a poor season hitting .182 in what would turn out to be his last season as a major league player excepting the two at-bats in ‘14. Yeager, then in his thirties, would only play two more seasons with much greater production than Rickey.
Bob Hedges had owned the Browns since he bought the Milwaukee American League franchise in 1901. He moved the team to St. Louis in 1902 and renamed them the Browns which was the original name of the Cardinals franchise. Hedges knew Rickey as a player for his Browns and in 1913 hired him for the Browns’ front office. Rickey was soon promoted to vice-president and then Hedges was convinced to let Rickey also take over as field manager. Hedges was also on-board with developing a minor league system to help compete for talent against wealthier teams. That was a strategy Rickey refined when managing wealthier teams.
Rickey brings the first group (today we refer to that as pitchers and catchers) from St. Louis on Feb. 15th. Rickey will attempt to employ the “college method” of coaching the pros. Hedges was fully in support. The first sign of this was “the rules”. No card playing, no drinking, no smoking and no cursing for the duration of the season. All would be met with fines. The players’ routine was very regimented. Up at 7 am, breakfast at 7:30, class at 8 am, walk to the park at 9 am, on the field by 9:30 working in groups. The groups of 8 – 10 players would be distributed to different workstations (running lanes, sliding pits, batting or bunting cages, pitchers’ mounds, handball courts plus on-field drills). 11:30 am is back to the hotel for lunch via streetcar, 1 pm class sessions, 2 pm streetcar to park, 2:30 – 5 pm practice/intrasquad games, streetcar back to hotel, dinner 6 – 7 pm, free time 7 – 11, lights out and doors locked at 11 pm. That last one caught lefty pitcher Earl Hamilton three times in one week as he arrived after the doors were locked and had to sleep out on the sand.
Rickey managed the players by himself initially with 23 players coming in the first group including nine catchers. That number swelled to 47 players by the 18th when the second group arrived along with two additional coaches. The group was treated to dinner at the Hotel Lizotte on Passe-A-Grille beach as a welcoming party.
Rickey would emphasize baserunning and bunting throughout camp workouts. Western union ran a special cable out to the ballpark. 4,000 words per day were being sent out with St. Petersburg bylines primarily by St. Louis writers. Many comments were written about the markedly improved baserunning of that year’s Browns team by those writers as well as writers covering opposing teams.
A feature for St. Petersburg this camp is that Al Lang steps in as the baseball company’s financial manager over the ballpark. He will oversee ticketing. The tickets themselves will be pre-sold at American Bank and Trust where D. E. (Don) Beech the secretary of the Board of Trade works. Beech, as mentioned previously, was a college buddy of Rickey’s and when the bank closes perhaps during the Depression, Rickey brings him to the Cardinals as an executive. There all also game-day ticket booths at the park that Lang oversees. Lang has one additional duty: the company is responsible for supplying the baseballs to the team. It was not uncommon to see Lang racing kids for foul balls. He attempted to retrieve every ball that he could.