Rickey was a general manager, president and eventually 1/3 owner of the Dodgers in 1942. Many saw him as an eccentric man, he was known for being a Methodist Man. Branch was looking for a “perfect” candidate to integrate baseball. In the movie 42, the process of choosing the perfect candidate to use to integrate baseball is shown, they saw Jackie Robinson and his records and that he knew when not to speak, when to defend himself and that he had previously played on an integrated team, USC football . Branch felt those were the necessary qualities needed by the person who would break baseball's color line. There have been many rumors about why Branch Rickey decided to break the color barrier, one of the most notable being that financially the Brooklyn Dodgers were not doing well financially