Jimmy Cooney: Playing For Manager Branch Rickey

Shortstop Jimmy Cooney played for St. Louis Cardinals manager Branch Rickey in the 1920s.

Jimmy Cooney was a shortstop who played parts for all of seven seasons with the Red Sox, Giants, Cardinals, Cubs, Phillies and Boston Braves between 1917 and 1928, when he and his brother, Johnny, were teammates.

He is the only player to be involved in two unassisted triple plays.

We visited on the front porch at his home in Cranston, Rhode Island, in the spring of 1986 - Norman L. Macht

Branch Rickey was the Cardinals’ manager 1919-1925. He had too many complicated signs. Players got crossed up trying to follow them.

He had a team meeting every morning at 10:30. Lasted an hour and a half. He used such big words that players didn’t know what he was talking about. If you had a good day, Rickey would bring up some mistake you made four or five days ago. 

Rickey handled the contracts. One guy went into his office one morning looking for a raise and came out hours later with no raise.

He could talk you out of anything. But he didn’t talk much on the bench during a game. Judas Priest was the strongest language he used. He didn’t manage on Sundays. Burt Shotton, a coach, took his place.

Second baseman Rogers Hornsby and Rickey didn’t get along. Hornsby would be reading the racing form during the meetings. Stud poker and horses were his gambling interests.

When I was called up from Milwaukee, Rickey told me and first baseman Jim Bottomley to take all the pop flies on the right side no matter where they were. He didn’t trust Hornsby catching them. 

The St. Louis official scorer helped Hornsby, giving him hits on balls that if I was the batter they’d be errors. 

I heard Branch Rickey tell this story about an outfielder, Heinie Mueller. Mueller was acquired by the Cardinals in 1920. He went up to Rickey’s office to sign a contract. Rickey said, “Can you hit?”

“I can hit as good as Tris Speaker,” said Heinie.

“Can you run?”

“I’m as fast as Ty Cobb.”

“Can you steal bases?”

“I can steal bases as good as Max Carey.”

Rickey says, “Judas Priest!”

Heinie says, “I don’t know him, but I’m just as good as he is.”

Rickey always reminded Heinie, “When you’re in the outfield and you get the sign that the pitcher’s going to throw a slow ball, move in. For a fastball, move out.”

Eventually, the fans in the bleachers caught on to Heinie’s movements.

One day with three on, the catcher called for a fastball and Heinie moved in and the ball was hit over his head and they lost the game.

When Rickey asked him why he did that, he said, “I knew it was gonna be a fastball but the crowd in the bleachers was getting on me and I wanted to cross them up.”

Legendary baseball manager Branch Rickey

Later, when Heinie Mueller and I were both in Buffalo, he told me this story about playing for John McGraw. In a close game, the Cubs had a man on third and one out.

A spitball pitcher was pitching for the Giants. The batter hit a fly ball to Mueller in left field. He went to throw it home and the ball slipped out of his hand and wound up in center field.

After the inning he comes in and McGraw cusses him out: “Don’t you know we’ve got a spitball pitcher out there? Put some dirt on your hands.” Heinie says, “You goddamn Irishman, there ain’t no dirt out there. It’s all grass.”

I was involved in two similar unassisted triple plays. I was on second base when Jim Bottomley hit into one made by Pittsburgh shortstop Glenn Wright.

The other was one I made in 1927 when Paul Waner lined out to me and I caught Lloyd Waner off second and tagged Clyde Barnhart coming down from first.