Kenesaw Mountain Landis

"Don't go to those owners if you get into trouble, come to me. I'm your friend. They're no good." 

-Kenesaw Landis

Have you ever watched an action or superhero movie in which the hero makes a last minute rescue just in a nick of time?  Always seems to happen right?  That was the case with Kenesaw Mountain Landis.  He wasn't an action move hero or even a brave leader of a nation.  He was the very first commissioner of Major League Baseball.

There were times in baseballs' history where baseball needed "saving".  There was the 1994 players strike which left a bitter taste in a lot of fans mouths.  And recently there was (and in some sense still is) the steroid era.  But the event which Landis came to the rescue was the 1919 Black Sox scandal.

In a nutshell the Black Sox scandal was centered around the 1919 World Series.  A number of players for the Chicago White Sox fixed the games to allow the Cincinnati Reds to prevail.  There is much more to this story and we'll cover it in a future post.

Now, on to Kenesaw.  Regarding his name - Kenesaw Mountain.  Kenesaw Mountain was the site of a Civil War battle in which his father was injured and he gave his son that name.  As a boy, Kenesaw was a big baseball fan.  Landis dropped out of high school in 1885 (seemed to be the thing to do back then).   But, in 1891 he earned a Law degree from the University of Cincinnati.  In 1905 Landis was appointed as a U.S. District Judge by Teddy Roosevelt.

In 1914 a rival league known as the Federal League brought an anti-trust suit  against the MLB.  Judge Landis was asked to preside over the case.  Landis somehow manged to delay the case just long enough until the Federal League folded.   In 1919, following the Black Sox scandal, baseball needed to be saved and the owners knew exactly who the right man for the job was. The owners appointed Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis as the first commissioner of the MLB.

One of the first things Judge Landis did was ban eight White Sox players from baseball.  Throughout his tenure he imposed numerous suspensions and fines. The superstars of the league were not exempt.  He once hit up Babe Ruth with a suspension for barnstorming.  Some other improvements and implementations Landis was know for were: developing the minor league system, support of breaking the color barrier and making the All-Star game an official yearly event. 

In 1944 with his health failing, Landis died as the commissioner.  He was known as the man who restored integrity to baseball following the black sox scandal and ran a tight ship during his tenure.   To this day the MVP award has his name on it.

Thanks for reading

-Tom