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Kenesaw Mountain Landis original photo 1st MLB Baseball Commissioner vintage:
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Kenesaw Mountain Landis original 8x10 inch photo 1st MLB Baseball Commissioner vintage
Kenesaw Mountain Landis was an American jurist who served as a United States federal judge from 1905 to 1922 and the first Commissioner of Baseball from 1920 until his death.
Kenesaw Mountain Landis (/ˈkɛnɪsɔː ˈmaʊntɪn ˈlændɪs/; November 20, 1866 – November 25, 1944) was an American jurist who served as a United States federal judge from 1905 to 1922 and the first Commissioner of Baseball from 1920 until his death. He is remembered for his resolution of the Black Sox Scandal, in which he expelled eight members of the Chicago White Sox from organized baseball for conspiring to lose the 1919 World Series and repeatedly refused their reinstatement requests.[1] His iron rule over baseball in the near quarter-century of his commissionership is generally credited with restoring public confidence in the game.
Landis was born in Millville, Ohio. Raised in Indiana, he became a lawyer, and then personal secretary to Walter Q. Gresham, the new United States Secretary of State, in 1893. He returned to private practice after Gresham died in office.
President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Landis to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in 1905. Landis received national attention in 1907 when he fined Standard Oil of Indiana more than $29 million (approximately $800 million in 2021) for violating federal laws forofferding rebates on railroad freight tariffs. While Landis\'s action was reversed on appeal, he was seen as a judge determined to rein in big business. During and after World War I, Landis presided over several high-profile trials of draft resisters and others whom he saw as opposing the war effort. He imposed heavy sentences on those who were convicted, although some of the convictions were reversed on appeal, and other sentences were commuted.
In 1920, Landis was a leading candidate when American League and National League team owners, embarrassed by the Black Sox scandal and other instances of players throwing games, sought someone to rule over baseball. Landis was given full power to act in the sport\'s best interest, and used that power extensively over the next quarter century. Landis was widely praised for cleaning up the game, although some of his decisions in the Black Sox matter remain controversial: supporters of \"Shoeless Joe\" Jackson and Buck Weaver contend that he was overly harsh. Others blame Landis for, in their view, delaying the racial integration of baseball. Landis was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame by a special vote shortly after he died in 1944.
Early life and pre-judicial career (1866–1905)Boyhood and early career (1866–1893)
The five Landis boys in November 1882; Kenesaw (second from left) was almost sixteen years old.Kenesaw Mountain Landis was born in Millville, Ohio, on November 20, 1866, the sixth child and fourth son of Abraham Hoch Landis, a physician, and Mary Kumler Landis. The Landises descended from Swiss Mennonites. Abraham Landis had been wounded fighting in the U.S. Army at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in Georgia, and when his parents proved unable to agree on a name for the new baby, Mary Landis proposed that they call him Kenesaw Mountain. At the time, both spellings of \"Kenesaw\" were used, but later \"Kennesaw Mountain\" became the accepted spelling of the battle site.[2]
Abraham Landis worked in Millville as a country physician. When Kenesaw was eight, the elder Landis moved his family to Delphi, Indiana, and subsequently to Logansport, Indiana, where he purchased and ran several local farms—his war injury had caused him to scale back his medical practice.[3] Two of Kenesaw\'s four brothers, Charles Beary Landis and Frederick Landis, became members of Congress.[4]Kenesaw (second on left) in 1908 with his four brothers, two of whom served in CongressAs \"Kenny\", as he was sometimes known, grew, he did an increasing share of the farm work, later stating, \"I did my share—and it was a substantial share—in taking care of the 13 acres ... I do not remember that I particularly liked to get up at 3:30 in the morning.\"[5] Kenesaw began his off-farm career at age ten as a news delivery boy.[5] He left school at 15 after an unsuccessful attempt to master algebra. He worked at the local general store and then as errand boy with the Vandalia Railroad. Landis applied for a job as a brakeman, but was laughingly dismissed as too small. He then worked for the Logansport Journal, and taught himself shorthand reporting, becoming in 1883 official court reporter for the Cass County Circuit Court.[6] Landis later wrote, \"I may not have been much of a judge, nor baseball official, but I do pride myself on having been a real shorthand reporter.\"[7] He served in that capacity until 1886.[7] In his spare time, he became a prize-winning bicycle racer and played on and managed a baseball team.[6] Offered a professional contract as a ballplayer, he turned it down, stating that he preferred to play for the love of the game.[8]
In 1886, Landis first ventured into Republican Party politics, supporting a friend, Charles F. Griffin, for Indiana Secretary of State. Griffin won, and Landis was rewarded with a civil service job in the Indiana Department of State. While employed there, he applied to be an attorney. At that time, in Indiana, an applicant needed only to prove that he was 21 and of good moral character, and Landis was admitted. Landis opened a practice in Marion, Indiana, but attracted few clients in his year of work there. Realizing that an uneducated lawyer was unlikely to build a lucrative practice, Landis enrolled at Cincinnati\'s YMCA Law School (now part of Northern Kentucky University) in 1889. Landis transferred to Union Law School (part of Northwestern University) the following year, and in 1891, he took his law degree from Union and was admitted to the Illinois Bar.[9] He began a practice in Chicago, served as an assistant instructor at Union and with fellow attorney Clarence Darrow helped found the nonpartisan Chicago Civic Centre Club, devoted to municipal reform.[10] Landis practiced with college friend Frank O. Lowden; the future commissioner and his law partner went into debt to impress potential clients, buying a law library secondhand.[11]
Washington years and aftermath (1893–1905)
Executive and State Department listings from 1894, showing Landis\'s salary of $2,000In March 1893, President Grover Cleveland appointed federal judge Walter Q. Gresham as his Secretary of State, and Gresham hired Landis as his personal secretary. Gresham had a long career as a political appointee in the latter part of the 19th century; though he lost his only two offers for elective office, he served in three Cabinet positions and was twice a dark horse candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. Although Gresham was a Republican, he had supported Cleveland (a Democrat) in the 1892 election because of his intense dislike for the Republican nominee, President Benjamin Harrison.[12] Kenesaw Landis had appeared before Judge Gresham in court. According to Landis biographer J. G. Taylor Spink, Gresham thought Landis \"had something on the ball\" and believed that Landis\'s shorthand skills would be of use.[13]
In Washington, Landis worked hard to protect Gresham\'s interests in the State Department, making friends with many members of the press. He was less popular among many of the Department\'s senior career officials, who saw him as brash. When word leaked concerning President Cleveland\'s Hawaiian policy, the President was convinced Landis was the source of the information and demanded his dismissal. Gresham defended Landis, stating that Cleveland would have to fire both of them, and the President relented, later finding out that he was mistaken in accusing Landis.[14] President Cleveland grew to like Landis, and when Gresham died in 1895, offered Landis the post of United States Ambassador to Venezuela. Landis declined the diplomatic post, preferring to return to Chicago to begin a law practice[15] and to marry Winifred Reed, daughter of the Ottawa, Illinois postmaster. The two married July 25, 1895; they had two surviving children, a boy, Reed, and a girl, Susanne—a third child, Winifred, died almost immediately after being born.[16]
Landis built a corporate law practice in Chicago; with the practice doing well, he deeply involved himself in Republican Party politics.[17] He built a close association with his friend Lowden and served as his campaign manager for governor of Illinois in 1904. Lowden was defeated, but would later serve two terms in the office and be a major contender for the 1920 Republican presidential nomination.[18] A seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois was vacant; President Theodore Roosevelt offered it to Lowden, who declined it and recommended Landis. Other recommendations from Illinois politicians followed, and Roosevelt nominated Landis for the seat.[19] According to Spink, President Roosevelt wanted \"a tough judge and a man sympathetic with his viewpoint in that important court\"; Lowden and Landis were, like Roosevelt, on the progressive left of the Republican Party.[20] On March 18, 1905, Roosevelt transmitted the nomination to the Senate, which confirmed Landis the same afternoon, without any committee hearing;[21] he received his commission the same day.[22]
Judge (1905–1922)
Part of William B. Van Ingen\'s mural The Divine Law, which was on display in Landis\'s courtroom while he was a federal judgeLandis\'s courtroom, room 627 in the Chicago Federal Building, was ornate and featured two murals: one of King John conceding Magna Carta, the other of Moses about to smash the tablets of the Ten Commandments. The mahogany and marble chamber was, according to Landis biographer David Pietrusza, \"just the spot for Landis\'s sense of the theatrical. In it he would hold court for nearly the next decade and a half.\"[23] According to Spink, \"It wasn\'t long before Chicago writers discovered they had a \'character\' on the bench.\"[20] A. L. Sloan of the Chicago Herald-American, a friend of Landis, recalled:
The Judge was always headline news. He was a great showman, theatrical in appearance, with his sharp jaw and shock of white hair, and people always crowded into his courtroom, knowing there would be something going on. There were few dull moments.[24]
If Judge Landis was suspicious of an attorney\'s line of questioning, he would wrinkle his nose, and once told a witness, \"Now let\'s stop fooling around and tell exactly what did happen, without reciting your life\'s history.\"[25] When an elderly defendant told him that he would not be able to live to complete a five-year sentence, Landis scowled at him and asked, \"Well, you can try, can\'t you?\"[26] When a young man stood before him for sentencing after admitting to stealing jewels from a parcel, the defendant\'s wife stood near him, infant daughter in her arms, and Landis mused what to do about the situation. After a dramatic pause, Landis ordered the young man to take his wife and daughter and go home with them, expressing his unwillingness to have the girl be the daughter of a convict. According to sportswriter Ed Fitzgerald in SPORT magazine, \"[w]omen wept unashamed and the entire courtroom burst into spontaneous, prolonged applause.\"[27]
Landis had been a lawyer with a corporate practice; upon his elevation to the bench, corporate litigants expected him to favor them.[23] According to a 1907 magazine article about Landis, \"Corporations smiled pleasantly at the thought of a corporation lawyer being on the bench. They smile no more.\"[28] In an early case, Landis fined the Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company the maximum $4,000 for illegally importing workers, even though his wife\'s brother-in-law served on the corporate board. In another decision, Landis struck down a challenge to the Interstate Commerce Commission\'s (ICC) jurisdiction over rebating, a practice banned by the Elkins Act of 1903 in which railroads and favored customers agreed that the customers would pay less than the posted tariff, which by law was to be the same for all shippers. Landis\'s decision allowed the ICC to take action against railroads which gave rebates.[29]
Standard Oil (1905–1909)
Landis\'s summoning of John D. Rockefeller to his courtroom created a media frenzy. Here Rockefeller testifies before Landis, July 6, 1907.By the first decade of the 20th century, a number of business entities had formed trusts, which dominated their industries. Trusts often sought to purchase or otherwise neutralize their competitors, allowing the conglomerates to raise prices to high levels. In 1890, Congress had passed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, but it was not until the Theodore Roosevelt administration (1901–1909) that serious efforts were made to break up or control the trusts. The dominant force in the oil industry was Standard Oil, controlled by John D. Rockefeller. Modern-day ExxonMobil, Atlantic Richfield, Chevron, Sohio, Amoco and Continental Oil all trace their ancestry to various parts of Standard Oil.[30]
In March 1906, Commissioner of Corporations James Rudolph Garfield submitted a report to President Roosevelt, alleging large-scale rebating in Standard Oil shipments. Federal prosecutors in several states and territories sought indictments against components of the Standard Oil Trust. On June 28, 1906, Standard Oil of Indiana was indicted on 6,428 counts of violation of the Elkins Act for accepting rebates on shipments on the Chicago & Alton Railroad. The case was assigned to Landis.[29]
Trial on the 1,903 counts that survived pretrial motions began on March 4, 1907.[29] The fact that rebates had been given was not contested; what was at issue was whether Standard Oil knew the railroad\'s posted rates, and if it had a duty to enquire if it did not.[31] Landis charged the jury that it \"was the duty of the defendant diligently in good faith to get from the Chicago & Alton ... the lawful rate\".[32] The jury found Standard Oil guilty on all 1,903 counts.[33]Cartoon showing Landis delivering his sentence against Standard Oil, a fine of $29,240,000, to John D. Rockefeller, who was actually in Cleveland at the timeThe maximum fine that Landis could impose was $29,240,000. To aid the judge in determining the sentence, Landis issued a subpoena for Rockefeller to testify as to Standard Oil\'s assets. The tycoon had often evaded subpoenas, not having testified in court since 1888.[34] Deputy United States Marshals visited Rockefeller\'s several homes, as well as the estates of his friends, in the hope of finding him. After several days, Rockefeller was found at his lawyer\'s estate in northwestern Massachusetts and was served with the subpoena.[35] The tycoon duly came to Landis\'s Chicago courtroom, making his way through a mob anxious to see the proceedings. Rockefeller\'s actual testimony, proffered after the judge made him wait through several cases and witnesses, proved to be anticlimactic, as he professed almost no knowledge of Standard Oil\'s corporate structure or assets.[36]
On August 3, 1907, Landis pronounced sentence. He fined Standard Oil the maximum penalty, $29,240,000, the largest fine imposed on a corporation to that date. The corporation quickly appealed; in the meantime, Landis was lionized as a hero. According to Pietrusza, \"much of the nation could hardly believe a federal judge had finally cracked down on a trust—and cracked down hard \".[37] President Roosevelt, when he heard the sentence, reportedly stated, \"That\'s bully.\"[38] Rockefeller was playing golf in Cleveland when he was brought a telegram containing the news. Rockefeller calmly informed his golfing partners of the amount, and proceeded to shoot a personal record score, later stating, \"Judge Landis will be dead a long time before this fine is paid.\"[39] He proved correct; the verdict and sentence were reversed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on July 22, 1908.[40] In January 1909, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case, and in a new trial before another judge (Landis recused himself), Standard Oil was acquitted.[41]
Federal League and Baby Iraene cases (1909–1917)
Judge Landis at a baseball game in Chicago in 1920A lifelong baseball fan, Landis often slipped away from the courthouse for a White Sox or Cubs game.[42] In 1914, the two existing major leagues were challenged by a new league, the Federal League. In 1915, the upstart league brought suit against the existing leagues and owners under the Sherman Act and the case was assigned to Landis. Baseball owners feared that the reserve clause, which forced players to sign new contracts only with their former team, and the 10-day clause, which allowed teams (but not players) to terminate player contracts on ten days notice, would be struck down by Landis.[43]
Landis held hearings in late January 1915, and newspapers expected a quick decision, certainly before spring training began in March. During the hearings, Landis admonished the parties, \"Both sides must understand that any blows at the thing called baseball would be regarded by this court as a blow to a national institution\". When the National League\'s chief counsel, future Senator George Wharton Pepper referred to the activities of baseball players on the field as \"labor\", Landis interrupted him: \"As a result of 30 years of observation, I am shocked because you call playing baseball \'labor.\' \"[44] Landis reserved judgment, and the parties waited for his ruling. Spring training passed, as did the entire regular season and the World Series. In December 1915, still with no word from Landis, the parties reached a settlement, and the Federal League disbanded.[45] Landis made no public statement as to the reasons for his failure to rule, though he told close friends that he had been certain the parties would reach a settlement sooner or later. Most observers thought that Landis waited because he did not want to rule against the two established leagues and their contracts.[46]
In 1916, Landis presided over the \"Ryan Baby\" or \"Baby Iraene\" case. The recent widow of a prominent Chicago banker, Anna Dollie Ledgerwood Matters, had brought a baby girl home from a visit to Canada and claimed that the child was her late husband\'s posthumous heir.[26] Matters had left an estate of $250,000.[47] However, a shop girl from Ontario, Margaret Ryan, claimed the baby was hers, and brought a writ of habeas corpus in Landis\'s court.[26][48] Ryan stated that she had given birth to the girl in an Ottawa hospital, but had been told her baby had died.[47] In the era before blood and DNA testing, Landis relied on witness testimony and awarded the child to Ryan.[26] The case brought comparisons between Landis and King Solomon, who had judged a similar case.[48] Landis was reversed by the Supreme Court, which held he had no jurisdiction in the matter. A Canadian court later awarded the child to Ryan.[47]
Although Landis was an autocrat in the courtroom, he was less so at home. In a 1916 interview, he stated,
Every member of this family does exactly what he or she wants to do. Each one is his or her supreme court. Everything for the common good of the family is decided according to the wishes of the whole family. Each one knows what is right and each one can do whatever he thinks is best. It is purely democratic.[49]
Wartime cases (1917–1919)
In the 1917 government film The Immigrant, which was filmed in part in Landis\'s courtroom, he portrays the judge as actor Warren Cook \"appears\" before him.In early 1917, Landis considered leaving the bench and returning to private practice—though he greatly enjoyed being a judge, the salary of $7,500 was considerably lower than what he could make as an attorney. The entry of the United States into World War I in April ended Landis\'s determination to resign; a firm supporter of the war effort, he felt he could best serve the country by remaining on the bench.[50] Despite this decision and his age, fifty, Landis wrote to Secretary of War Newton D. Baker, asking him to take him into the service and send him to France, where the war was raging. Baker urged Landis to make speeches in support of the war instead, which he did.[51] The judge\'s son, Reed, had already served briefly in the Illinois National Guard; during the war he became a pilot, and eventually an ace.[45][52]
Landis\'s disdain for draft dodgers and other opponents of the war was evident in July 1917, when he presided over the trials of some 120 men, mostly foreign-born Socialists, who had resisted the draft and rioted in Rockford, Illinois. According to Pietrusza, Landis \"was frequently brutal in his remarks\" to the defendants, interrogating them on their beliefs and actions. Landis tried the case in Rockford, and found all guilty, sentencing all but three to a year and a day in jail, the maximum sentence. The prisoners were ordered to register for the draft after serving their sentences—except 37, whom he ordered deported.[53]
On September 5, 1917, federal officers raided the national headquarters, in Chicago, of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, sometimes \"Wobblies\"), as well as 48 of the union\'s halls across the nation. The union had opposed the war and urged members and others to refuse conscription into the armed forces. On September 28, 166 IWW leaders, including union head Big Bill Haywood were indicted in the Northern District of Illinois; their cases were assigned to Landis. Some 40 of the indicted men could not be found; a few others had charges dismissed against them. Ultimately, Landis presided over a trial against 113 defendants, the largest federal criminal trial to that point.[54]
The trial began on April 1, 1918. Landis quickly dismissed charges against a dozen defendants. Jury selection occupied a month.[55] Journalist John Reed attended the trial, and wrote of his impressions of Landis:
Small on the huge bench sits a wasted man with untidy white hair, an emaciated face in which two burning eyes are set like jewels, parchment-like skin split by a crack for a mouth; the face of Andrew Jackson three years dead ... Upon this man has devolved the historic role of trying the Social Revolution. He is doing it like a gentleman. In many ways a most unusual trial. When the judge enters the court-room after recess, no one rises—he himself has abolished the pompous formality. He sits without robes, in an ordinary business suit, and often leaves the bench to come down and perch on the step of the jury box. By his personal orders, spittoons are placed by the prisoners\' seats ... and as for the prisoners themselves, they are permitted to take off their coats, move around, read newspapers. It takes some human understanding for a Judge to fly in the face of judicial ritual as much as that.[56]
Haywood biographer Melvyn Dubofsky wrote that Landis \"exercised judicial objectivity and restraint for five long months\".[57] Baseball historian Harold Seymour stated that \"[o]n the whole, Landis conducted the trial with restraint, despite his reputation as a foe of all radical groups.\"[58] Landis dismissed charges against an elderly defendant who was in obvious pain as he testified, and allowed the release of a number of prisoners on bail or on their own recognizances.[59]The Judge, his son Reed and his wife Winifred, 1919On August 17, 1918, following the closing argument for the prosecution (the defendants waived argument), Landis instructed the jury. The lead defense counsel objected to the wording of the jury charge several times, but Haywood believed it to have been fair. After 65 minutes, the jury returned with guilty verdicts for all of the remaining accused, much to their shock; they had believed that Landis\'s charge pointed towards their acquittal. When the defendants returned to court on August 29, Landis listened with patience to the defendants\' final pleas.[60] For the sentencing, according to Richard Cahan in his history of Chicago\'s district court, \"mild-mannered Landis returned a changed man\".[61] Although two defendants received only ten days in jail, all others received at least a year and a day, and Haywood and fourteen others received twenty years.[62] A number of defendants, including Haywood, obtained bail during the appeal; even before Haywood\'s appeals were exhausted, he jumped bail and took ship for the Soviet Union. The labor leader hung a portrait of Landis in his Moscow apartment, and when Haywood died in 1928, he was interred near John Reed (who had died of illness in Moscow after the Bolshevik Revolution) in the Kremlin Wall—they remain the only Americans so honored. President Calvin Coolidge commuted the sentences of the remaining incarcerated defendants in 1923,[63] much to the disgust of Landis, who issued an angry statement.[64] After leaving his judgeship, Landis referred to the defendants in the Haywood case as \"scum\", \"filth\", and \"slimy rats\".[65]
Landis hoped that the Kaiser, Wilhelm II would be captured and tried in his court; he wanted to indict the Kaiser for the murder of a Chicagoan who lost his life on the RMS Lusitania in 1915. The State Department notified Landis that extradition treaties did not permit the rendition of the Kaiser, who fled into exile in the Netherlands as the war concluded. Nevertheless, in a speech, Landis demanded that Kaiser Wilhelm, his six sons, and 5,000 German military leaders \"be lined up against a wall and shot down in justice to the world and to Germany\".[66]
Even with the armistice in November 1918, the war-related trials continued. The Socialist Party of America, like the IWW, had opposed the war, and had also been raided by federal authorities. Seven Socialist Party leaders, including Victor Berger, who was elected to Congress in November 1918, were indicted for alleged anti-war activities.[65] The defendants were charged under the Espionage Act of 1917, which made it illegal \"to utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous or abusive language\" about the armed forces, the flag, the Constitution, or democracy.[67] The defendants, who were mostly of German birth or descent, moved for a change of venue away from Landis\'s courtroom, alleging that Landis had stated on November 1, 1918, that \"[i]f anybody has said anything about the Germans that is worse than I have said, I would like to hear it so I could use it myself.\"[68] Landis, however, examined the transcript of the trial in which the statement was supposedly made, failed to find it, declared the affidavit in support of the motion \"perjurious\", and denied the motion.[69] While the jury was being selected, Berger was indicted on additional espionage charges for supposedly violating the law during an earlier, unsuccessful political campaign.[69] At the conclusion of the case, Landis took an hour to dramatically charge the jury, emphasizing the secretive nature of conspiracies and pointing at the jury box as he noted, \"the country was then at war\".[70] At one point, Landis leapt out of his seat, twirled his chair around, then sat on its arm. Later in his charge, he lay prone upon the bench.[70] The jury took less than a day to convict Congressman-elect Berger and his four remaining codefendants.[71] Landis sentenced each defendant to twenty years in federal prison.[72] Landis denied the defendants bail pending appeal, but they quickly obtained it from an appellate court judge.[73] The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals declined to rule on the case itself, sending it on to the Supreme Court, which on January 31, 1921, overturned the convictions and sentences by a 6–3 vote, holding that Landis should have stepped aside once he was satisfied that the affidavit was legally sufficient, leaving it for another judge to decide whether it was actually true.[74] Landis refused to comment on the Supreme Court\'s decision, which ordered a new trial. In 1922, the charges against the defendants were dropped by the government.[75]
Building trades award, controversy, and resignation (1920–1922)
Public notice published in April 1923 urging a labor boycott of the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs, and opposing the Landis building trades awardSee also: American Plan (union negotiations)The postwar period saw considerable deflation; the shortage of labor and materials during the war had led to much higher wages and prices, and in the postwar economic readjustment, wages were cut heavily. In Chicago, employers in the building trades attempted a 20% wage cut; when this was rejected by the unions, a lockout followed.[76][77] Both sides agreed to submit the matter to a neutral arbitrator, and settled on Landis, who agreed to take the case in June 1921. By this time, Landis was Commissioner of Baseball, and still a federal judge. In September, Landis issued his report, cutting wages by an average of 12.5%. To improve productivity, he also struck restrictions on machinery which saved labor, established a standardized overtime rate, and resolved jurisdictional conflicts between unions. The labor organizations were not completely satisfied, but Landis\'s reforms were adopted in many places across the country and were credited with reviving the building industry.[76]
Criticism of Landis having both the judicial and baseball positions began almost as soon as his baseball appointment was announced in November 1920. On February 2, 1921, lame duck Congressman Benjamin F. Welty (Democrat-Ohio) offered a resolution calling for Landis\'s impeachment. On February 11, Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer opined that there was no legal impediment to Landis holding both jobs.[78] On February 14, the House Judiciary Committee voted 24–1 to investigate Landis.[79] Reed Landis later stated, \"[n]one of the other congressmen wanted Father impeached but they did want him to come down and defend himself because they knew what a show it would be.\"[80]Crooks feared Judge Landis, at least according to Chicago Daily News cartoonist John T. McCutcheon, 1920.Although Welty\'s departure from office on March 4, 1921, began a lull in criticism of Landis, in April, the judge made a controversial decision in the case of Francis J. Carey, a 19-year-old bank teller, who had pleaded guilty to embezzling $96,500. Carey, the sole support of his widowed mother and unmarried sisters, gained Landis\'s sympathy. He accused the bank of underpaying Carey, and sent the youth home with his mother. Two members of the Senate objected to Landis\'s actions, and the New York Post compared Carey with Les Misérables\'s Jean Valjean, noting \"[b]etween a loaf of bread [Valjean was incarcerated for stealing one] and $96,500 there is a difference.\"[81] A bill barring outside employment by federal judges had been introduced by Landis\'s foes, but had expired with the end of the congressional session in March; his opponents tried again in July, and the bill failed in the Senate on a tie vote. On September 1, 1921, the American Bar Association, a trade group of lawyers, passed a resolution of censure against Landis.[82]
By the end of 1921, the controversy was dying down, and Landis felt that he could resign without looking pressured. On February 18, 1922, he announced his resignation as judge effective March 1, stating, \"There are not enough hours in the day for all these activities\". In his final case, he fined two theatre owners for evading the federal amusement tax. One owner had refused to make restitution before sentencing; he was fined $5,000. The owner who had tried to make his shortfall good was fined one cent.[83]
Baseball Commissioner (1920–1944)AppointmentBlack Sox scandalMain article: Black Sox scandalBy 1919, the influence of gamblers on baseball had been a problem for several years. Historian Paul Gardner wrote,
Baseball had for some time been living uneasily in the knowledge that bribes were being offered by gamblers, and that some players were accepting them. The players knew it was going on, and the owners knew it was going on. But more important, the players knew that the owners knew—and they knew the owners were doing nothing about it for fear of a scandal that might damage organized baseball. Under such conditions it quite obviously did not pay to be honest.[84]The eight \"Chicago Black Sox\"The 1919 World Series between the Chicago White Sox and Cincinnati Reds was much anticipated, as the nation attempted to return to normalcy in the postwar period. Baseball had seen a surge of popularity during the 1919 season, which set several attendance records. The powerful White Sox, with their superstar batter \"Shoeless Joe\" Jackson and star pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Claude \"Lefty\" Williams, were believed likely to defeat the less-well-regarded Reds. To the surprise of many, the Reds defeated the White Sox, five games to three (during 1919–21, the World Series was a best-of-nine affair).[85]
Rumors that the series was fixed began to circulate after gambling odds against the Reds winning dropped sharply before the series began, and gained more credibility after the White Sox lost four of the first five games. Cincinnati lost the next two games, and speculation began that the Reds were losing on purpose to extend the series and increase gate revenues. However, Cincinnati won Game Eight, 10–5, to end the series, as Williams lost his third game (Cicotte lost the other two).[86] After the series, according to Gene Carney, who wrote a book about the scandal, \"there was more than the usual complaining from those who had bet big on the Sox and lost\".[87]
The issue of the 1919 Series came to the public eye again in September 1920, when, after allegations that a game between the Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies on August 31 had been fixed, a grand jury was empaneled in state court in Chicago to investigate baseball gambling. Additional news came from Philadelphia, where gambler Billy Maharg stated that he had worked with former boxer Abe Attell and New York gambler Arnold Rothstein to get the White Sox to throw the 1919 Series. Cicotte and Jackson were called before the grand jury, where they gave statements incriminating themselves and six teammates: Williams, first baseman Chick Gandil, shortstop Swede Risberg, third baseman Buck Weaver, center fielder Happy Felsch and reserve infielder Fred McMullin. Williams and Felsch were also called before the grand jury and incriminated themselves and their teammates.[88] Through late September, the 1920 American League season had been one of the most exciting on record, with the White Sox, Cleveland Indians and New York Yankees dueling for the league lead. By September 28, the Yankees were close to elimination, but the White Sox and Indians were within percentage points of each other. On that day, however, the eight players, seven of whom were still on the White Sox, were indicted. They were immediately suspended by White Sox owner Charles Comiskey.[89] The Indians were able to pull ahead and win the pennant, taking the American League championship by two games over Chicago.[90]
Search for a commissioner
Landis, surrounded by baseball owners and officials, signs an agreement to be Commissioner of Baseball, November 12, 1920.Baseball had been governed by a three-man National Commission, consisting of American League President Ban Johnson, National League President John Heydler and Cincinnati Reds owner Garry Herrmann. In January 1920, Herrmann left office at the request of other club owners, leaving the Commission effectively deadlocked between Johnson and Heydler. A number of club owners, disliking one or both league presidents, preferred a single commissioner to rule over the game, but were willing to see the National Commission continue if Herrmann was replaced by someone who would provide strong leadership. Landis\'s name was mentioned in the press for this role, and the influential baseball newspaper The Sporting News sought his appointment.[91]
Another proposal, known as the \"Lasker Plan\" after Albert Lasker, a shareholder in the Chicago Cubs who had proposed it, was for a three-man commission to govern the game, drawn from outside baseball. On September 30, 1920, with the Black Sox scandal exposed, National League President Heydler began to advocate for the Lasker Plan, and by the following day, four major league teams had supported him. Among the names discussed in the press for membership on the new commission were Landis, former Secretary of the Treasury William Gibbs McAdoo, former President William Howard Taft, and General John J. Pershing.[92]
The start of the 1920 World Series on October 5 distracted the public from baseball\'s woes for a time, but discussions continued behind the scenes. By mid-October, 11 of the 16 team owners (all eight from the National League and the owners of the American League Yankees, White Sox and Boston Red Sox) were demanding the end of the National Commission and the appointment of a three-man commission whose members would have no financial interest in baseball.[93] Heydler stated his views on baseball\'s requirements:
We want a man as chairman who will rule with an iron hand ... Baseball has lacked a hand like that for years. It needs it now worse than ever. Therefore, it is our object to appoint a big man to lead the new commission.[94]
On November 8, the owners of the eight National League and three American League teams which supported the Lasker Plan met and unanimously selected Landis as head of the proposed commission. The American League clubs that supported the plan threatened to move to the National League, away from Johnson, who opposed it. Johnson had hoped that the minor leagues would support his position; when they did not, he and the \"Loyal Five\" teams agreed to the Lasker Plan.[95] In the discussions among the owners that followed, they decided that Landis would be the only commissioner–no associate members would be elected.[96] On November 12, the team owners came to Landis\'s courtroom to approach him. Landis was trying a bribery case; when he heard noise in the back of the courtroom from the owners, he gaveled them to silence.[97] He made them wait 45 minutes while he completed his docket, then met with them in his chambers.[98][99]
The judge heard out the owners; after expressing initial reluctance, he took the job for seven years at a salary of $50,000, on condition he could remain on the federal bench. During Landis\'s time serving as both judge and commissioner, he allowed a $7,500 reduction in his commissioner salary, to reflect his pay as judge. The appointment of Landis was met with acclaim in the press.[97] A tentative agreement was signed by the parties a month later—an agreement which itemized Landis\'s powers over baseball, and which was drafted by the judge.[100] The owners were still reeling from the perception that baseball was crooked, and accepted the agreement virtually without dissent.[101] Under the terms of the contract, Landis could not be dismissed by the team owners, have his pay reduced, or even be criticized by them in public.[8] He also had nearly unlimited authority over every person employed in the major or minor leagues, from owners to batboys, including the ability to ban people from the leagues for life. The owners waived any recourse to the courts to contest Landis\'s will. Humorist Will Rogers stated, \"[D]on\'t kid yourself that that old judicial bird isn\'t going to make those baseball birds walk the chalkline\".[102] Player and manager Leo Durocher later stated, \"The legend has been spread that the owners hired the Judge off the federal bench. Don\'t you believe it. They got him right out of Dickens.\"[8]
Establishing controlBanning the Black Sox
A 1921 cartoon shows Landis unimpressed by the acquittals in the \"Black Sox\" trial.On January 30, 1921, Landis, speaking at an Illinois church, warned:
Now that I am in baseball, just watch the game I play. If I catch any crook in baseball, the rest of his life is going to be a pretty hot one. I\'ll go to any means and to anything possible to see that he gets a real penalty for his offense.[103]
The criminal case against the Black Sox defendants suffered unexpected setbacks, with evidence vanishing, including some of the incriminating statements made to the grand jury.[104] The prosecution was forced to dismiss the original indictments, and bring new charges against seven of the ballplayers (McMullin was not charged again). Frustrated by the delays, Landis placed all eight on an \"ineligible list\", banning them from major and minor league baseball. Comiskey supported Landis by giving the seven who remained under contract to the White Sox their unconditional release. Public sentiment was heavily against the ballplayers, and when Jackson, Williams, Felsch, and Weaver played in a semi-pro game, The Sporting News mocked the 3,000 attendees, \"Just Like Nuts Go to See a Murderer\".[105]
The criminal trial of the Black Sox indictees began in early July 1921. Despite what Robert C. Cottrell, in his book on the scandal, terms \"the mysterious loss of evidence\", the prosecution was determined to pursue the case, demanding five-year prison terms for the ballplayers for defrauding the public by throwing the series. On August 2, 1921, the jury returned not guilty verdicts against all defendants, leading to happy pandemonium in the courtroom, joined by the courtroom bailiffs, with even the trial judge, Hugo Friend, looking visibly pleased.[106] The players and jury retired to an Italian restaurant and partied well into the night.[107]
The jubilation proved short-lived. On August 3, Landis issued a statement:
Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player that throws a ball game; no player that undertakes or promises to throw a ball game; no player that sits in a conference with a bunch of crooked players and gamblers where the ways and means of throwing ball games are planned and discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball. Of course, I don\'t know that any of these men will apply for reinstatement, but if they do, the above are at least a few of the rules that will be enforced. Just keep in mind that, regardless of the verdict of juries, baseball is competent to protect itself against crooks, both inside and outside the game.[108]
According to ESPN columnist Rob Neyer, \"with that single decision, Landis might have done more for the sport than anyone else, ever. Certainly, Landis never did anything more important.\"[109] According to Carney, \"The public amputation of the eight Sox was seen as the only acceptable cure.\"[110] Over the years of Landis\'s commissionership, a number of the players applied for reinstatement to the game, notably Jackson and Weaver. Jackson, raised in rural South Carolina and with limited education, was said to have been drawn unwillingly into the conspiracy, while Weaver, though admitting his presence at the meetings, stated that he took no money. Both men stated that their play on the field, and their batting percentages during the series (.375 for Jackson, .324 for Weaver) indicated that they did not help to throw the series. None was ever reinstated, with Landis telling a group of Weaver supporters that his presence at the meetings with the gamblers was sufficient to bar him.[111] Even today, long after the deaths of all three men, efforts are periodically made to reinstate Jackson (which would make him eligible for election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame) and Weaver (deemed by some the least culpable of the eight). In the 1990s, a petition drive to reinstate Jackson drew 60,000 signatures. He has been treated sympathetically in movies such as Eight Men Out and Field of Dreams, and Hall of Famers Ted Williams and Bob Feller expressed their support for Jackson\'s induction into the Hall. Landis\'s expulsion of the eight men remains in force.[112]
Cracking down on gambling
Commissioner Landis opens the 1921 baseball season.Landis felt that the Black Sox scandal had been initiated by people involved in horse racing, and stated that \"by God, as long as I have anything to do with this game, they\'ll never get another hold on it.\"[113] In 1921, his first season as commissioner, New York Giants owner Charles Stoneham and manager John McGraw purchased Oriental Park Racetrack in Havana, Cuba. Landis gave Stoneham and McGraw an ultimatum—they could not be involved in both baseball and horse racing. They quickly put the track back on the market.[114]
Even before the Black Sox scandal had been resolved, Landis acted to clean up other gambling cases. Eugene Paulette, a first baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies, had been with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1919, and had met with gamblers. It is uncertain if any games were fixed, but Paulette had written a letter naming two other Cardinals who might be open to throwing games. The letter had fallen into the hands of Phillies President William F. Baker, who had taken no action until Landis\'s appointment, then turned the letter over to him. Paulette met with Landis once, denying any wrongdoing, then refused further meetings. Landis placed him on the ineligible list in March 1921.[115] In November 1921, Landis banned former St. Louis Browns player Joe Gedeon, who had been released by the Browns after admitting to sitting in on meetings with gamblers who were trying to raise the money to bribe the Black Sox. When a minor league official asked if he was eligible, Landis settled the matter by placing Gedeon on the ineligible list.[116]
Two other player gambling affairs marked Landis\'s early years as commissioner. In 1922, Giants pitcher Phil Douglas, embittered at McGraw for disciplining him for heavy drinking, wrote a letter to Cardinals outfielder Leslie Mann, suggesting that he would take a bribe to ensure the Giants did not win the pennant.[117] Although Mann had been a friend, the outfielder neither smoked nor drank and had long been associated with the YMCA movement; according to baseball historian Lee Allen, Douglas might as well have sent the letter to Landis himself. Mann immediately turned over the letter to his manager, Branch Rickey, who ordered Mann to contact Landis at once. The Giants placed Douglas on the ineligible list, an action backed by Landis after meeting with the pitcher.[118] On September 27, 1924, Giants outfielder Jimmy O\'Connell offered Phillies shortstop Heinie Sand $500 if Sand didn\'t \"bear down too hard against us today\".[119] Sand was initially inclined to let the matter pass, but recalling the fate of Weaver and other Black Sox players, told his manager, Art Fletcher. Fletcher met with Heydler, who contacted Landis. O\'Connell did not deny the bribe attempt, and was placed on the ineligible list.[120]
In total, Landis banned eighteen players from the game.[121] Landis biographer Pietrusza details the effect of Landis\'s stand against gambling:
Before 1920 if one player approached another player to throw a contest, there was a very good chance he would not be informed upon. Now, there was an excellent chance he would be turned in. No honest player wanted to meet the same fate as Buck Weaver ... Without the forofferding example of Buck Weaver to haunt them, it is unlikely Mann and Sand would have snitched on their fellow players. After Landis\' unforgiving treatment of the popular and basically honest Weaver they dared not to. And once prospectively crooked players knew that honest players would no longer shield them, the scandals stopped.[122]
Ruth-Meusel barnstorming incident
Landis pictured with Babe Ruth (left) and Bob Meusel after turning down their requests for early reinstatement, Yankees spring training camp, New Orleans, March 1922At the time of Landis\'s appointment as commissioner, it was common for professional baseball players to supplement their pay by participating in postseason \"barnstorming\" tours, playing on teams which would visit smaller cities and towns to play games for which admission would be charged. Since 1911, however, players on the two World Series teams had been barred from barnstorming.[123] The rule had been leniently enforced—in 1916, several members of the champion Red Sox, including pitcher George Herman \"Babe\" Ruth had barnstormed and had been fined a token $100 each by the National Commission.[123]
Ruth, who after the 1919 season had been sold to the Yankees, and who by then had mostly abandoned his pitching role for the outfield, was the focus of considerable fan interest as he broke batting records in 1920 and 1921, some by huge margins. Ruth\'s major league record 29 home runs with the Red Sox in 1919 fell to his own efforts in 1920, when he hit 54. He then proceeded to hit 59 in 1921, leading the Yankees to their first pennant. Eight major league teams failed to hit as many home runs in 1921 as Ruth hit by himself. The Yankees lost the 1921 World Series to the Giants (Ruth was injured and missed several games) and after the series, the outfielder proposed to capitalize on fan interest by leading a team of barnstormers, including Yankees teammate Bob Meusel, in violation of the rule.[124] According to Cottrell,
[T]he two men clashed who helped the national pastime overcome the Black Sox scandal, one through his seemingly iron will, the other thanks to his magical bat. Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis and Babe Ruth battled over the right of a ballplayer from a pennant-winning squad to barnstorm in the off-season. Also involved was the commissioner\'s continued determination to display, as he had through his banishment of the Black Sox, that he had established the boundaries for organized baseball. These boundaries, Landis intended to demonstrate, applied even to the sport\'s most popular and greatest star. Significant too, only Babe Ruth now contended with Commissioner Landis for the title of baseball\'s most important figure.[125]
Ruth had asked Yankees general manager Ed Barrow for permission to barnstorm. Barrow had no objection but warned Ruth he must obtain Landis\'s consent.[126] Landis biographer Spink, who was at the time the editor of The Sporting News, stated, \"I can say that Ruth knew exactly what he was doing when he defied Landis in October, 1921. He was willing to back his own popularity and well-known drawing powers against the Judge.\"[127] Ruth, to the commissioner\'s irritation, did not contact Landis until October 15, one day before the first exhibition. When the two spoke by telephone, Landis ordered Ruth to attend a meeting with him; Ruth refused, stating that he had to leave for Buffalo for the first game. Landis angrily refused consent for Ruth to barnstorm, and after slamming down the receiver, is recorded as saying, \"Who the hell does that big ape think he is? That blankety-blank! If he goes on that trip it will be one of the sorriest things he has ever done.\"[128] By one account, Yankees co-owner Colonel Tillinghast Huston attempted to dissuade Ruth as he departed, only to be told by the ballplayer, \"Aw, tell the old guy to jump in a lake.\"[129]
The tour also featured fellow Yankees Bob Meusel and Bill Piercy (who had been called up late in the season and was ineligible for the World Series) as well as Tom Sheehan, who had been sent to the minor leagues before the end of the season. Two other Yankees, Carl Mays and Wally Schang, had been scheduled to join the tour, but given Landis\'s position, according to Spink, \"wisely decided to pass it up\".[130] Spink describes the tour as \"a fiasco.\"[130] On Landis\'s orders, it was barred from all major and minor league ballparks. In addition, it was plagued by poor weather, and was called off in late October. In early December, Landis suspended Ruth, Piercy, and Meusel until May 20, 1922.[130] Yankee management was relieved; they had feared Landis would suspend Ruth for the season or even longer. Both the Yankees and Ruth repeatedly asked Landis for the players\' early reinstatement, which was refused, and when Landis visited the Yankees during spring training in New Orleans, he lectured Ruth for two hours on obeying authority. \"He sure can talk\", noted Ruth.[131]
When Ruth returned on May 20, he batted 0-for-4, and was booed by the crowd at the Polo Grounds. According to Pietrusza, \"Always a politician, there was one boss Landis did fear: public opinion. He had no guarantee at the start of the Ruth controversy that the public and press would back him as he assumed unprecedented powers over baseball. Now, he knew they would.\"[132]
Policies as commissionerMajor-minor league relations; development of the farm system
Landis throws out the first pitch, 1924.At the start of Landis\'s commissionership, the minor league teams were for the most part autonomous of the major leagues; in fact the minor leagues independently chose to accept Landis\'s rule.[133] To ensure players did not become mired in the minor leagues without a chance to earn their way out, major league teams were able to draft players who played two consecutive years with the same minor league team.[134] Several minor leagues were not subject to the draft; Landis fought for the inclusion of these leagues, feeling that the non-draft leagues could prevent players from advancing as they became more skilled. By 1924, he had succeeded, as the International League, the final holdout, accepted the draft.[135]
By the mid-1920s, major league clubs were beginning to develop \"farm systems\", that is, minor league teams owned or controlled by them, at which they could develop young prospects without the risk of the players being acquired by major league rivals. The pioneer in this development was Branch Rickey, who then ran the St. Louis Cardinals.[133] As the 1921 National Agreement among the major and minor leagues which implemented Landis\'s hiring lifted a ban on major league teams owning minor league ones, Landis was limited in his avenues of attack on Rickey\'s schemes. Developing talent at little cost thanks to Rickey, the Cardinals dominated the National League, winning nine league titles in the years from 1926 to 1946.[136]
Soon after Landis\'s appointment, he surprised the major league owners by requiring that they disclose their minor league interests. Landis fought against the practice of \"covering up\", using transfers between two teams controlled by the same major league team to make players ineligible for the draft. His first formal act as commissioner was to declare infielder Phil Todt a free agent, dissolving his contract with the St. Louis Browns (at the time run by Rickey, who soon thereafter moved across town to run the Cardinals); in 1928, he ruled future Hall of Famer Chuck Klein a free agent as he held the Cardinals had tried to cover Klein up by having him play in a league where they owned two affiliates.[133] The following year, he freed Detroit Tigers prospect and future Hall of Famer Rick Ferrell, who attracted a significant signing bonus from the Browns.[137] In 1936, Landis found that teenage pitching prospect Bob Feller\'s signing by minor league club Fargo-Moorhead had been a charade; the young pitcher was for all intents and purposes property of the Cleveland Indians. However, Feller indicated that he wanted to play for Cleveland and Landis issued a ruling which required the Indians to pay damages to minor league clubs, but allowed them to retain Feller, who went on to a Hall of Fame career with the Indians.[138]
Landis\'s attempts to crack down on \"covering up\" provoked the only time he was ever sued by one of his owners. After the 1930 season, minor leaguer Fred Bennett, convinced he was being covered up by the Browns, petitioned Landis for his release. Landis ruled that the Browns could either keep Bennett on their roster for the entire 1931 season, trade him, or release him. Instead, Browns owner Phil Ball brought suit against Landis in his old court in Chicago.[139] Federal Judge Walter Lindley ruled for Landis, noting that the agreements and rules were intended to \"endow the Commissioner with all the attributes of a benevolent but absolute despot and all the disciplinary powers of the proverbial pater familias\".[134] Ball intended to appeal, but after a meeting between team owners and Landis in which the commissioner reminded owners of their agreement not to sue, decided to drop the case.[139]
Landis had hoped that the large Cardinal farm system would become economically unfeasible; when it proved successful for the Cardinals, he had tolerated it for several years and was in a poor position to abolish it. In 1938, however, finding that the Cardinals effectively controlled multiple teams in the same league (a practice disliked by Landis), he freed 70 players from their farm system. As few of the players were likely prospects for the major leagues, Landis\'s actions generated headlines, but had little effect on the Cardinals organization, and the development of the modern farm system, whereby each major league club has several minor league teams which it uses to develop talent, proceeded apace.[140] Rob Neyer describes Landis\'s effort as \"a noble effort in a good cause, but it was also doomed to fail.\"[109]
Baseball color lineOne of the most controversial aspects of Landis\'s commissionership is the question of race. From 1884, black ballplayers were informally banned from organized baseball. No black ballplayer played in organized baseball during Landis\'s commissionership; Rickey (then running the Brooklyn Dodgers) broke the color line by signing Jackie Robinson to play for the minor league Montreal Royals in 1946, after Landis\'s death. Robinson became the first African-American in the major leagues since the 19th century, playing with the Dodgers beginning in 1947.[141]
According to contemporary newspaper columns, at the time of his appointment as commissioner, Landis was considered a liberal on race questions; two Chicago African-American newspapers defended him against the 1921 efforts to impeach him from his judgeship.[142] However, a number of baseball authors have ascribed racism to Landis, who they say actively perpetuated baseball\'s color line.[143] James Bankes, in The Pittsburgh Crawfords, tracing the history of that Negro league team, states that Landis, whom the author suggests was a Southerner (Landis was born in Ohio and raised in Indiana),[importance?] made \"little effort to disguise his racial prejudice during 25 years in office\" and \"remained a steadfast foe of integration\".[144] Negro league historian John Holway incorrectly termed Landis \"the hard-bitten Carolinian [sic] Kennesaw [sic] Mountain Landis\".[145] In a 2000 article in Smithsonian magazine, writer Bruce Watson states that Landis \"upheld baseball\'s unwritten ban on black players and did nothing to push owners toward integration\".[8] A number of authors say that Landis banned major league play against black teams for fear the white teams would lose, though they ascribe various dates for this action, and the Dodgers are known to have played black teams in and around their Havana spring training base as late as 1942.[146]
Landis\'s documented actions on race are inconsistent. In 1938, Yankee Jake Powell was interviewed by a radio station, and when asked what he did in the offseason, made comments that were interpreted as meaning he worked as a police officer and beat up African Americans. Landis suspended Powell for ten days.[147] In June 1942, the Negro league Kansas City Monarchs played several games against the white \"Dizzy Dean All-Stars\" at major league ballparks, attracting large crowds. After three games, all won by the Monarchs, Landis ordered a fourth canceled, on the ground that the games were outdrawing major league contests.[148] On one occasion, Landis intervened in Negro league affairs, though he had no jurisdiction to do so. The Crawfords lost a game to a white semi-pro team when their star catcher, Josh Gibson dropped a pop fly, and Gibson was accused of throwing the game at the behest of gamblers. Landis summoned the black catcher to his office, interviewed him, and announced that Gibson was cleared of wrongdoing.[149]
In July 1942, Dodger manager Leo Durocher charged that there was a \"grapevine understanding\" keeping blacks out of baseball.[148] He was summoned to Landis\'s Chicago office, and after emerging from a meeting with the commissioner, alleged that he had been misquoted.[148] Landis then addressed the press, and stated,
Negroes are not barred from organized baseball by the commissioner and never have been in the 21 years I have served. There is no rule in organized baseball prohibiting their participation and never has been to my knowledge. If Durocher, or if any other manager, or all of them, want to sign one, or twenty-five Negro players, it is all right with me. That is the business of the managers and the club owners. The business of the commissioner is to interpret the rules of baseball, and to enforce them.[150]
In his 1961 memoir, Veeck as in Wreck, longtime baseball executive and owner Bill Veeck told of his plan, in 1942, to buy the Phillies and stock the team with Negro league stars. Veeck wrote that he told Landis, who reacted with shock, and soon moved to block the purchase. In his book, Veeck placed some of the blame on National League President Ford Frick, but later reserved blame exclusively for Landis, whom he accused of racism, stating in a subsequent interview, \"[a]fter all, a man who is named Kenesaw Mountain was not born and raised in the state of Maine.\"[151] However, when Veeck was asked for proof of his allegations against Landis, he stated, \"I have no proof of that. I can only surmise.\"[151] According to baseball historian David Jordan, \"Veeck, nothing if not a storyteller, seems to have added these embellishments, sticking in some guys in black hats, simply to juice up his tale.\"[151]
In November 1943, Landis agreed after some persuasion that black sportswriter Sam Lacy should make a case for integration of organized baseball before the owners\' annual meeting. Instead of Lacy attending the meeting, actor Paul Robeson did. Robeson, though a noted black actor and advocate of civil rights, was a controversial figure for his affiliation with the Communist Party. The owners heard Robeson out, but at Landis\'s suggestion, did not ask him any questions or begin any discussion with him.[152]
Neyer noted that \"Landis has been blamed for delaying the integration of the major leagues, but the truth is that the owners didn\'t want black players in the majors any more than Landis did. And it\'s not likely that, even if Landis hadn\'t died in 1944, he could have prevented Branch Rickey from bringing Jackie Robinson to the National League in 1947.\"[109] The Baseball Writers\' Association of America after Landis\'s death in 1944 renamed its Most Valuable Player Awards after Landis,[153] but removed his name in 2020 with a vote of 89 percent of voting members in favor. The president of the association said Landis had \"notably failed to integrate the game during his tenure\".[154]
C.C. Johnson Spink, son of Landis biographer J.G. Taylor Spink and his successor as editor of The Sporting News, noted in the introduction to the reissue of his father\'s biography of Landis,
K.M. Landis was quite human and not infallible. If, for example, he did drag his feet at erasing baseball\'s color line, he was grievously wrong, but then so were many others of his post-Civil War generation.[155]
World Series and All-Star Game; other innovations
Landis with New York Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert (standing), 1923Landis took full jurisdiction over the World Series, as a contest between representatives of the two major leagues.[156] Landis was blamed when the umpires called a game on account of darkness with the score tied during the 1922 World Series, even though there was still light. Landis decided that such decisions in future would be made by himself, moved forward the starting time of World Series games in future years, and announced that proceeds from the tied game would be donated to charity.[157] In the 1932 World Series, Landis ordered that tickets for Game One at Yankee Stadium only be sold as part of strips, forcing fans to purchase tickets for all Yankee home games during that Series. Bad weather and the poor economy resulted in a half-filled stadium, and Landis allowed individual game sales for Game Two.[158] During the 1933 World Series, he instituted a rule that only he could throw a player out of a World Series game, a rule which followed the ejection of Washington Senator Heinie Manush by umpire Charley Moran.[159] The following year, with the visiting Cardinals ahead of the Detroit Tigers, 9–0 in Game Seven, he removed Cardinal Joe Medwick from the game for his own safety when Medwick, the left fielder, was pelted with fruit by Tiger fans after Medwick had been involved in a fight with one of the Tigers. Spink notes that Landis would most likely not have done so were the game within reach of the Tigers.[160] In the 1938 World Series, umpire Moran was hit by a wild throw and suffered facial injuries. He was able to continue, but the incident caused Landis to order that World Series games and All-Star Games be played with six umpires.[161]Landis at the 1937 All-Star Game, Griffith Stadium, Washington, D.C.The All-Star Game began in 1933; Landis had been a strong supporter of the proposal for such a contest, and after the first game remarked, \"That\'s a grand show, and it should be continued.\"[159] He never missed an All-Star Game in his lifetime; his final public appearance was at the 1944 All-Star Game in Pittsburgh.[159]
In 1928, National League ball clubs proposed an innovation whereby each team\'s pitcher, usually the weakest hitter in the lineup, would not bat, but be replaced for the purposes of batting and base-running by a tenth player. There were expectations that at the interleague meetings that year, the National League teams would vote for it, and the American League teams against it, leaving Landis to cast the deciding vote. The proposal was withdrawn, and Landis did not disclose how he would have voted on this early version of the \"designated hitter\" rule.[162][importance?]
Landis disliked the innovation of \"night baseball\", played in the evening with the aid of artificial light, and sought to discourage it. Despite this, he attended the first successful minor league night game, in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1930.[163] When major league night baseball began in the late 1930s, Landis got the owners to restrict the number of such games. During World War II, many restrictions on night baseball were reduced, with the Washington Senators permitted to play all their home games (except those on Sundays and holidays) at night.[164]
World War II, death, and legacy
Roosevelt\'s letter to Landis, January 15, 1942With the entry of the United States into World War II in late 1941, Landis wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, inquiring as to the wartime status of baseball. The President urged Landis to keep baseball open, foreseeing that even those fully engaged in war work would benefit from such inexpensive diversions.[165] Many major leaguers enlisted or were drafted; even so Landis repeatedly stated, \"We\'ll play as long as we can put nine men on the field.\" Although many of the teams practiced at their normal spring training sites in 1942, beginning the following year they were required to train near their home cities or in the Northeast.[166] Landis was as virulently opposed to the Axis Powers as he had been towards the Kaiser, writing that peace would not be possible until \"about fifteen thousand little Hitler, Himmlers and Hirohitos\" were killed.[167]
Landis retained a firm hold on baseball despite his advancing years and, in 1943, banned Phillies owner William D. Cox from baseball for betting on his own team. In 1927, Landis\'s stance regarding gambling had been codified in the rules of baseball: \"Any player, umpire, or club or league official or employee who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor had a duty to perform shall be declared permanently ineligible.\"[168] Cox was required to sell his stake in the Phillies.[168]Landis\'s grave at Oak Woods CemeteryIn early October 1944, Landis checked into St. Luke\'s Hospital in Chicago, where his wife Winifred had been hospitalized, with a severe cold. While in the hospital, he had a heart attack, causing him to miss the World Series for the first time in his commissionership. He remained fully alert, and as usual signed the World Series share checks to players. His contract was due to expire in January 1946; on November 17, 1944, baseball\'s owners voted him another seven-year term. However, he died on November 25. His longtime assistant, Leslie O\'Connor, wept as he read the announcement for the press.[169] Landis is buried at Oak Woods Cemetery in Chicago.
Two weeks after his death, Landis was voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame by a special committee vote.[169] American League President Will Harridge said of Landis, \"He was a wonderful man. His great qualities and downright simplicity impressed themselves deeply on all who knew him.\"[170] Pietrusza suggests that the legend on Landis\'s Hall of Fame plaque is his true legacy: \"His integrity and leadership established baseball in the esteem, respect, and affection of the American people.\"[171] Pietrusza notes that Landis was hired by the baseball owners to clean up the sport, and \"no one could deny Kenesaw Mountain Landis had accomplished what he had been hired to do\".[171] According to his first biographer, Spink:
[Landis] may have been arbitrary, self-willed and even unfair, but he \'called \'em as he saw \'em\' and he turned over to his successor and the future a game cleansed of the nasty spots which followed World War I. Kenesaw Mountain Landis put the fear of God into weak characters who might otherwise have been inclined to violate their trust. And for that, I, as a lifelong lover of baseball, am eternally grateful.[153]
The Black Sox Scandal was a Major League Baseball game-fixing scandal in which eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of losing the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds on purpose in exchange for money from a gambling syndicate led by organized crime figure Arnold Rothstein. In response, the National Baseball Commission was dissolved and Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was appointed to be the first Commissioner of Baseball, given absolute control over the sport to restore its integrity.
Despite acquittals in a public trial in 1921, Commissioner Landis permanently banned all eight players from professional baseball. The Baseball Hall of Fame eventually defined the punishment as banishment from consideration for the Hall. Despite requests for reinstatement in the decades that followed (particularly in the case of Shoeless Joe Jackson), the ban remains in force.[1]
BackgroundTension in the clubhouse and Charles Comiskey
1919 Chicago White Sox team photoIn 1919, Charles Comiskey, the owner of the Chicago White Sox and a prominent Major League Baseball (MLB) player from 1882 to 1894, was widely resented by his players for his miserliness. As a player, Comiskey had taken part in the Players\' League labor rebellion in 1890 and long had a reputation for underpaying his players, even though they were one of the top teams in the league and had already won the 1917 World Series.
Because of baseball\'s reserve clause, any player who refused to accept a contract was prohibited from playing baseball on any other professional team under the auspices of \"Organized Baseball.\" Players could only change teams with permission from their current team, and without a union, the players had no bargaining power. Comiskey was probably no worse than most owners of the time; in fact, the White Sox had the largest team payroll in 1919. In the era of the reserve clause, gamblers could find players on many teams looking for extra cash—and they did.[2][3]
The White Sox clubhouse was divided into two factions. One group resented the more straitlaced players (later called the \"Clean Sox\"), a group that included players like second baseman Eddie Collins, a graduate of Columbia College of Columbia University; catcher Ray Schalk, and pitchers Red Faber and Dickie Kerr. By contemporary accounts, the two factions rarely spoke to each other on or off the field, and the only thing they had in common was a resentment of Comiskey.[4]
The conspiracy
Chick Gandil, the mastermind of the scandalOn September 18, 1919, White Sox player Chick Gandil met with Joe \"Sport\" Sullivan, a Boston bookmaker, at the Hotel Buckminster near Fenway Park. The two men discussed plans to throw their upcoming series with the Cincinnati Reds for $80,000.[5] Two days later, a meeting of White Sox players—including those committed to going ahead and those just ready to listen—took place in Gandil\'s room at the Ansonia Hotel in New York City. Buck Weaver, the team\'s third baseman, was the only player to attend the meetings who did not receive money; nevertheless, he was later banned along with the others for knowing about the fix but not reporting it.
Although he hardly played in the series, utility infielder Fred McMullin got word of the fix and threatened to report the others unless he was in on the payoff. As a small coincidence, McMullin was a former teammate of the retired player William \"Sleepy Bill\" Burns, who had a minor role in the fix. Both had played for the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League (PCL), and Burns had previously pitched for the White Sox in 1909 and 1910.[6][7][8] Star outfielder Shoeless Joe Jackson was mentioned as a participant but did not attend the meetings, and his involvement remains disputed.
The scheme got an unexpected boost when the straitlaced Faber could not pitch due to getting sick with the flu. Years later, Schalk said the fix would not have happened if Faber had been available. According to Schalk, since Faber was the ace of the staff, he would almost certainly have got starts that went instead to two of the alleged conspirators, pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Lefty Williams.[9]
Conduct of the World SeriesMain article: 1919 World SeriesOn October 1, the day of Game One, there were rumors amongst gamblers that the World Series was fixed, and a sudden influx of money being bet on Cincinnati caused the odds against them to fall rapidly. These rumors also reached the press box where several correspondents, including Hugh Fullerton of the Chicago Herald and Examiner and ex-player and manager Christy Mathewson, resolved to compare notes on any plays and players that they felt were questionable. However, most fans and observers were taking the series at face value. On October 2, the Philadelphia Bulletin published a poem which would quickly prove to be ironic:
Still, it really doesn\'t matter,After all, who wins the flag.Good clean sport is what we\'re after,And we aim to make our bragTo each near or distant nationWhereon shines the sporting sunThat of all our games gymnasticBase ball is the cleanest one!
After throwing a strike with his first pitch of the Series, Cicotte\'s second pitch struck Cincinnati leadoff hitter Morrie Rath in the back, delivering a pre-arranged signal confirming the players\' willingness to go through with the fix.[9] In the fourth inning, Cicotte made a lousy throw to Swede Risberg at second base. Sportswriters found the unsuccessful double play to be suspicious.[10]
Williams lost three games, a Series record. Kerr, a rookie who was not part of the fix, won both of his starts. But the gamblers were now reneging on their promised progress payments (to be paid after each game lost), claiming that all the money was let out on bets and was in the hands of the bookmakers. After Game Five, angry about the non-payment of promised money, the players involved in the fix attempted to doublecross the gamblers and won Games 6 and 7 of the best-of-nine Series. Before Game Eight, threats of violence were made on the gamblers\' behalf against players and family members.[11] Williams started Game Eight but gave up four straight one-out hits for three runs before manager Kid Gleason relieved him. The White Sox lost Game Eight (and the series) on October 9, 1919.[12] Besides Weaver, the players involved in the scandal received $5,000 each (equivalent to $88,000 in 2023) or more, with Gandil taking $35,000 (equivalent to $615,000 in 2023).
FalloutGrand jury (1920)Rumors of the fix dogged the White Sox throughout the 1920 season as they battled the Cleveland Indians for the American League pennant, and stories of corruption touched players on other clubs as well. At last, in September 1920, a grand jury was convened to investigate; Cicotte confessed to his participation in the scheme to the grand jury on September 28.[13]
On the eve of their final season series, the White Sox were in a virtual tie for first place with the Indians. The Sox would need to win all three of their remaining games and then hope for Cleveland to stumble, as the Indians had more games left to play than the Sox. Despite the season being on the line, Comiskey suspended the seven White Sox still in the majors (Gandil had not returned to the team in 1920 and was playing semi-pro ball). He later said he had no choice but to suspend them, even though this action likely cost the Sox any chance of winning a second pennant. The Sox lost two of the three games in the final series against the St. Louis Browns and finished in second place, two games behind the Indians, who went on to win the 1920 World Series.
The grand jury issued its decision on October 22, 1920, and eight players and five gamblers were implicated. The indictments included nine counts of conspiracy to defraud.[14] The ten players not implicated in the gambling scandal, as well as manager Kid Gleason, were each given $1,500 bonus checks (equivalent to $22,800 in 2023) by Comiskey in the fall of 1920, the amount equaling the difference between the winners\' and losers\' share for participation in the 1919 Series.[15]
Trial (1921)
Infielders Swede Risberg (left) and Buck Weaver during their 1921 trialThe trial commenced in Chicago on June 27, 1921, but was delayed by Judge Hugo Friend because two defendants, Ben Franklin and Carl Zork, claimed to be ill.[16] Right fielder Shano Collins was named as the wronged party in the indictments, accusing his corrupt teammates of having cost him $1,784 as a result of the scandal.[17] Before the trial, key evidence went missing from the Cook County courthouse, including the signed confessions of Cicotte and Jackson, who subsequently recanted their confessions. Some years later, the missing confessions reappeared in the possession of Comiskey\'s lawyer.[18]
On July 1, the prosecution announced that Burns, who was under indictment for his part in the scandal, had turned state\'s evidence and would testify.[19] During jury selection on July 11, several members of the current White Sox team, including Gleason, visited the courthouse, chatting and shaking hands with the indicted ex-players; at one point they even tickled Weaver, who was known to be quite ticklish.[20] Jury selection took several days, but on July 15 twelve jurors were finally empaneled in the case.[21]
Trial testimony began on July 18, when prosecutor Charles Gorman outlined the evidence he planned to present against the defendants:
The spectators added to the bleacher appearance of the courtroom, for most of them sweltered in shirtsleeves, and collars were few. Scores of small boys jammed their way into the seats, and as Mr. Gorman told of the alleged sell-out, they repeatedly looked at each other in awe, remarking under their breaths: \'What do you think of that?\' or \'Well, I\'ll be darned.\'[22]
Comiskey was then called to the stand, and became so agitated with questions being posed by the defense that he rose from the witness chair and shook his fist at the defendants\' counsel, Ben Short.[22]
The most explosive testimony began the following day, July 19, when Burns admitted that members of the White Sox had intentionally fixed the 1919 World Series; Burns mentioned the involvement of organized crime figure Arnold Rothstein, among others, and testified that Cicotte had threatened to throw the ball clear out of the park if needed to lose a game.[23] After additional testimony and evidence, on July 28 the defense rested and the case went to the jury.[24] The jury deliberated for less than three hours before returning verdicts of not guilty on all charges for all of the accused players.[14]
Landis appointed Commissioner, bans all eight players (1921)
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Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis signs the agreement to become Commissioner of Baseball, November 12, 1920.Long before the scandal broke, many of baseball\'s owners had nursed longstanding grievances with the way the game was then governed by the National Baseball Commission.[25] The Black Sox scandal and the damage it caused to the game\'s reputation gave owners the resolve to make significant changes to the governance of the sport.[25] Their original plan was to appoint the widely respected federal judge and noted baseball fan Kenesaw Mountain Landis to head a reformed three-member Commission comprising men unconnected to baseball.[25] However, Landis made it clear to the owners that he would only accept an appointment as the game\'s sole Commissioner, and even then only on the condition that he be granted essentially unchecked power over the sport. Desperate to clean up the game\'s image, the owners agreed to his terms and vested him with virtually unlimited authority over everyone in the major and minor leagues.[25] It was controversial at the time for the MLB to move toward a single Commissioner with sole governance on behalf of the owners.
Upon taking office before the 1921 season, one of Landis\' first acts as commissioner was to use his new powers to place the eight accused players on an \"ineligible list\", a decision that effectively left them suspended indefinitely from all of \"organized\" professional baseball (although not from semi-pro barnstorming teams). Following their acquittals, Landis quickly quashed any prospect that he might reinstate the implicated players. On August 3, 1921, the day after the acquittals, Landis issued his own verdict:
Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player who throws a ball game, no player who undertakes or promises to throw a ball game, no player who sits in confidence with a bunch of crooked ballplayers and gamblers, where the ways and means of throwing a game are discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball.[26]
Making use of a precedent that had previously seen Babe Borton, Harl Maggert, Gene Dale and Bill Rumler banned from the PCL for fixing games, Landis made it clear that all eight accused players would remain on the \"ineligible list\", banning them from organized baseball.[27] The Commissioner took the position that while the players had been acquitted in court, there was no dispute they had broken the rules of baseball, and none of them could ever be allowed back in the game if it were to regain the public\'s trust. Comiskey supported Landis by giving the seven who remained under contract to the White Sox their unconditional release.
Following the Commissioner\'s statement, it was universally understood that all eight implicated players would be banned from the MLB for life. Two other players believed to be involved were also banned. One of them was Hal Chase, who had been effectively blackballed from the majors in 1919 for a long history of throwing games and had spent 1920 in the minors. Though it has never been confirmed, Chase was rumored to have been a go-between for Gandil and the gamblers. Regardless of this, it was understood that Landis\' announcement not only formalized his 1919 blacklisting from the majors but barred him from the minors as well.
Landis, relying upon his years of experience as a federal judge and attorney, used this decision (the \"case\") as the founding precedent (of the reorganized majors) for the Commissioner of Baseball to be the highest and final authority over baseball as an organized, professional sport in the United States. He established the precedent that the league invested the Commissioner with plenary power and the responsibility to determine the fitness or suitability of anyone, anything, or any circumstance, to be associated with professional baseball, past, present and future.
Banned playersMain article: List of people banned from Major League BaseballLandis banned eight members of the 1919 White Sox team for their involvement in the fix:
Arnold \"Chick\" Gandil, first baseman. The ringleader of the players who were in on the fix. He did not play in the majors in 1920; he played semi-pro ball instead. In a 1956 Sports Illustrated article, Gandil expressed remorse for the scheme. Still, he wrote that the players had actually abandoned the scheme when it became apparent that they would be watched closely. According to Gandil, the players\' numerous errors resulted from fear of being watched. However, he conceded that the players deserved to be banned just for talking to the gamblers.[28][29]Eddie Cicotte, pitcher. Admitted involvement in the fix.[13]Oscar \"Happy\" Felsch, center fielder.\"Shoeless\" Joe Jackson, the star outfielder and one of the best hitters in the game, confessed in sworn grand jury testimony to having accepted $5,000 in cash from the gamblers. It was also Jackson\'s sworn testimony that he never met or spoke to any of the gamblers and was only told about the fix through conversations with other Sox players. The other participants informed Jackson that he would receive $20,000 cash divided into equal payments after each loss. Jackson testified that he played to win in the entire Series and did nothing on the field to throw any of the games in any way. His roommate, pitcher Lefty Williams, brought $5,000 in cash to their hotel room after losing Game Four and threw it down as they were packing to travel back to Cincinnati; this was the only money that Jackson received at any time.[30] Jackson later recanted his confession and professed his innocence to no effect until he died in 1951. The extent of his collaboration with the scheme is hotly debated.[9]Fred McMullin, utility infielder. McMullin would not have been included in the fix had he not overheard the other players\' conversations. His role as team scout may have had more impact on the fix since he saw minimal playing time in the series.Charles \"Swede\" Risberg, shortstop. Risberg was Gandil\'s assistant and the \"muscle\" of the playing group. He went 2-for-25 at the plate and committed four errors in the series.George \"Buck\" Weaver, third baseman. Weaver attended the initial meetings, and while he did not go in on the fix, he knew about it. In an interview in 1956, Gandil said that it was Weaver\'s idea to get the money upfront from the gamblers.[14] Landis banished Weaver on this basis, stating, \"Men associating with crooks and gamblers could expect no leniency.\" On January 13, 1922, Weaver unsuccessfully applied for reinstatement. Like Jackson, he continued to profess his innocence to successive baseball commissioners to no effect.Claude \"Lefty\" Williams, pitcher. Went 0–3 with a 6.63 ERA for the series. Only one other pitcher in baseball history, reliever George Frazier of the 1981 New York Yankees, has ever lost three games in one World Series. The third game Williams lost was Game Eight – baseball\'s decision to revert to a best-of-seven Series in 1922 significantly reduced the opportunity for a pitcher to obtain three decisions in a Series.Also banned was Joe Gedeon, second baseman for the St. Louis Browns. A friend of Risberg, Gedeon learned about the fix from Risberg and placed bets on Cincinnati. He informed Comiskey of the fix after the Series to gain a reward. Instead, Landis banned him for life along with the eight White Sox, and Gedeon died in 1941.[31]
The indefinite suspensions imposed by Landis in connection to the scandal were the most suspensions of any duration to be simultaneously imposed until 2013, when thirteen players were suspended for between 50 and 211 games in connection with the doping Biogenesis scandal.
Joe Jackson
Shoeless Joe JacksonThe extent of Jackson\'s part in the scheme remains controversial. He had a Series-leading .375 batting average—including the Series\' only home run—threw out five baserunners and handled thirty chances in the outfield with no errors. In general, players perform worse in games their team loses, and Jackson batted worse in the five games that the White Sox lost, with a batting average of .286 in losing games. This was still an above-average batting average (the National and American Leagues hit a combined .263 in the 1919 season).[32] Jackson hit .351 for the season, fourth-best in the major leagues (his .356 career batting average is the third-best in history, surpassed only by his contemporaries Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby).[33] Three of his six RBIs came in the losses, including the aforementioned home run, and a double in Game Eight when the Reds had a significant lead and the series was all but over. Still, in that game, a long foul ball was caught at the fence with runners on second and third, depriving Jackson of a chance to drive in the runners.
One play in particular has been subjected to scrutiny. In the fifth inning of Game Four, with a Cincinnati player on second, Jackson fielded a single hit to left field and threw home, which was cut off by Cicotte. Gandil, another leader of the fix, later admitted to yelling at Cicotte to intercept the throw. The run scored, and the Sox lost 2–0.[34] Cicotte, whose guilt is undisputed, made two errors in that fifth inning alone.
Years later, all the implicated players said that Jackson was never present at their meetings with the gamblers. Williams, Jackson\'s roommate, later said they only mentioned Jackson in hopes of giving them more credibility with the gamblers.[9]
AftermathAfter being banned, Risberg and several other members of the Black Sox tried to organize a three-state barnstorming tour. However, they were forced to cancel those plans after Landis let it be known that anyone who played with or against them would also be banned from baseball for life. They then announced plans to play a regular exhibition game every Sunday in Chicago, but the Chicago City Council threatened to cancel the license of any ballpark that hosted them.[9]
With seven of their best players permanently sidelined, the White Sox crashed into seventh place in 1921 and would not be a factor in a pennant race again until 1936, five years after Comiskey\'s death. They would not win another American League championship until 1959 (a then-record forty-year gap) nor another World Series until 2005, prompting some to comment about a Curse of the Black Sox.
NameAlthough many believe the Black Sox name to be related to the dark and corrupt nature of the conspiracy, the term \"Black Sox\" may already have existed before the fix. There is a story that the name \"Black Sox\" derived from Comiskey\'s refusal to pay for the players\' uniforms to be laundered, instead insisting that the players themselves pay for the cleaning. As the story goes, the players refused, and subsequent games saw the White Sox play in progressively filthier uniforms as dirt, sweat, and grime collected on the white, woolen uniforms until they took on a much darker shade. Comiskey then had the uniforms washed and deducted the laundry bill from the players\' salaries.[35] On the other hand, Eliot Asinof in his book Eight Men Out makes no such connection, mentioning the filthy uniforms early on but referring to the term \"Black Sox\" only in connection with the scandal.
Popular cultureLiteratureEliot Asinof\'s book Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series is the best-known description of the scandal.[citation needed]Brendan Boyd\'s novel Blue Ruin: A Novel of the 1919 World Series offers a first-person narrative of the event from the perspective of Sport Sullivan, a Boston gambler involved in fixing the series.In F. Scott Fitzgerald\'s novel The Great Gatsby, a minor character named Meyer Wolfsheim was said to have helped in the Black Sox scandal, though this is purely fictional. In explanatory notes accompanying the novel\'s 75th-anniversary edition, editor Matthew Bruccoli describes the character as being based on Arnold Rothstein.In Dan Gutman\'s novel Shoeless Joe & Me (2002), the protagonist, Joe, goes back in time to try to prevent Shoeless Joe from being banned for life.W. P. Kinsella\'s novel Shoeless Joe is the story of an Iowa farmer who builds a baseball field in his cornfield after hearing a mysterious voice. Later, Shoeless Joe Jackson and other members of the Black Sox come to play on his field. The novel was adapted into the 1989 hit film Field of Dreams. Jackson plays a central role in inspiring protagonist Ray Kinsella to reconcile with his past.Bernard Malamud\'s 1952 novel The Natural and its 1984 filmed dramatization of the same name were inspired significantly by the events of the scandal.Harry Stein\'s novel Hoopla, alternately co-narrated by Buck Weaver and Luther Pond, a fictitious New York Daily News columnist, attempts to view the Black Sox Scandal from Weaver\'s perspective.Dan Elish\'s book The Black Sox Scandal of 1919 gives a general overview.The Black Sox Scandal: The History And Legacy Of America\'s Most Notorious Sports Controversy by Charles River Editors talks about the events surrounding the scandal and describes the people involved.\"Go! Go! Go! Forty Years Ago\" Nelson Algren, Chicago Sun-Times, 1959\"Ballet for Opening Day: The Swede Was a Hard Guy\" Algren, Nelson. The Southern Review, Baton Rouge. Spring 1942: p. 873.\"The Last Carousel\" © Nelson Algren, 1973, Seven Stories Press, New York 1997 (both Algren stories are included in this collection)FilmIn the film The Godfather Part II (1974), the fictional gangster Hyman Roth alludes to the scandal when he says, \"I\'ve loved baseball ever since Arnold Rothstein fixed the World Series in 1919\".Director John Sayles\' Eight Men Out, a 1988 film based on Asinof\'s book, is a dramatization of the scandal, focusing largely on Buck Weaver (played by John Cusack) as the one banned player who did not take any money. Also starring in the film were Charlie Sheen (Hap Felsch), Michael Rooker (Chick Gandil), David Strathairn (Eddie Cicotte), John Mahoney (Kid Gleason), Christopher Lloyd (\"Sleepy\" Bill Burns), Clifton James (Charles Comiskey) and D. B. Sweeney (Shoeless Joe Jackson). Sayles himself portrayed sports writer Ring Lardner.The 1989 film Field of Dreams, based upon the novel by W. P. Kinsella, discussed the scandal and featured two of the players involved, Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta), who played a large part in the film, and Eddie Cicotte (Steve Eastin). Field of Dreams starred Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan and James Earl Jones.The 2013 film The Great Gatsby, based on the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, speaks of the man who fixed the 1919 World Series.TelevisionIn the first season of Boardwalk Empire and the second season, the scandal is a significant subplot involving Arnold Rothstein, Lucky Luciano and their associates.In the fifth season of Mad Men, Roger Sterling tries Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) for the first time and hallucinates that he is at the infamous game.In the second season of Frankie Drake Mysteries, morality officer Mary Shaw mentions the scandal while helping Frankie investigate the murder of a player with circumstances related to gambling.The story of the scandal was narrated by Katie Nolan in the sixth season of Drunk History with the reenactment starring Jake Johnson, Steve Berg, and Eric Edelstein.In episode 10, Rookie of the Year (Screen Directors Playhouse), Ward Bond plays a fictional character based on Shoeless Joe Jackson, one of the ball players banned for life from Major League Baseball because he participated in the 1919 World Series scandal.MusicMurray Head\'s 1975 album Say It Ain\'t So takes its name after an apocryphal question put to Shoeless Joe Jackson during the court case.On Jonathan Coulton\'s album Smoking Monkey, his song \"Kenesaw Mountain Landis\" greatly fictionalizes the commissioner\'s quest to ban Jackson from baseball in the style of a tall tale.Theatre1919: A Baseball Opera, is a musical by Composer/lyricist Rusty Magee and Rob Barron, which premiered in June 1981 at Yale Repertory Theatre.[36]The Fix is an opera by composer Joel Puckett with libretto by Eric Simonson, which premiered March 16, 2019 at the Ordway Center for the
Kenesaw Mountain Landis (born Nov. 20, 1866, Millville, Ohio, U.S.—died Nov. 25, 1944, Chicago, Ill.) was an American federal judge who, as the first commissioner of organized professional baseball, was noted for his uncompromising measures against persons guilty of dishonesty or other conduct he regarded as damaging to the sport.
He was named for a mountain near Atlanta, Ga., where his father, a Union soldier, was wounded during the Civil War. Landis attended the University of Cincinnati and in 1891 graduated from the Union College of Law, Chicago. He practiced law in Chicago until March 1905, when Pres. Theodore Roosevelt appointed him U.S. district judge for the northern district of Illinois. Two years later, Landis won nationwide fame by fining the Standard Oil Company more than $29 million for granting unlawful freight rebates. (The decision was reversed on appeal.) During World War I he presided at sedition trials of Socialist and labour leaders.
Aramis Ramirez no.16 of the Chicago Cubs watches the ball leave the ballpark against the Cincinnati Reds. Major League Baseball (MLB).Britannica QuizBaseballKenesaw Mountain Landis, 1928.Kenesaw Mountain Landis, 1928.Kenesaw Mountain Landis, 1931.Kenesaw Mountain Landis, 1931.In 1915 the Federal League, a “third major league” operating outside the structure of organized professional baseball, brought suit against the American and National leagues. The case came before Landis, who neither granted nor denied the injunction that was requested but withheld his decision until the Federal League had disbanded on terms satisfactory to all three leagues. Following the Black Sox baseball scandal (in which eight Chicago White Sox players were accused of accepting bribes to lose the 1919 World Series), Landis was proposed for the office of commissioner. Replacing the three-man National Baseball Commission, which had failed to deal adequately with the Black Sox problem, Landis took office in January 1920.
Kenesaw Mountain Landis.Kenesaw Mountain Landis.Although disliked and even feared for his autocratic methods and patriarchal sternness, the commissioner held office until his death, and none of his decisions ever was reversed. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1944.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.Black Sox ScandalTable of ContentsIntroductionReferences & Edit HistoryQuick Facts & Related TopicsImagesChicago White Sox team, 1919QuizzesFrank Costello testifying before the U.S. Senate investigating committee headed by Estes Kefauver, 1951.American Mobsters QuizRead Nextgolf. Competitive and cheating golfer wears golf gloves on golf club greens and prepares golf ball for lucky hole in one. Unsportsmanlike, sports, cheater7 Unsportsmanlike SportsmenBlack and white photo of people in courtroom, hands raised, pledgingOrder in the Court: 10 “Trials of the Century”Baseball laying in the grass. Homepage blog 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society, sports and games athletics10 Greatest Baseball Players of All TimeDiscoverSeveral red apples with cut apple in the foreground.Can Apple Seeds Kill You?Secret Service Agent Listens To EarpieceSecret Service Code Names of 11 U.S. PresidentsOrange basketball on black background and with low key lighting. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and societyThe 10 Greatest Basketball Players of All TimeClose up of praying mantis walking on stone ground against a blurred background in Japan6 Animals That Eat Their MatesClose up of books. Stack of books, pile of books, literature, reading. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society12 Novels Considered the “Greatest Book Ever Written”Community service - volunteers picking up garbage in a park during a spring cleanup. EnvironmentalismA Timeline of Environmental HistoryQueen Elizabeth II addresses at opening of Parliament. (Date unknown on photo, but may be 1958, the first time the opening of Parliament was filmed.)All 119 References in “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” ExplainedHomePolitics, Law & GovernmentLaw, Crime & PunishmentBlack Sox ScandalAmerican history Written and fact-checked byArticle HistoryChicago White Sox team, 1919Chicago White Sox team, 1919See all mediaDate: 1919Key People: Charles Comiskey Shoeless Joe Jackson Kenesaw Mountain LandisBlack Sox Scandal, American baseball scandal centring on the charge that eight members of the Chicago White Sox had been bribed to lose the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. The accused players were pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Claude (“Lefty”) Williams, first baseman Arnold (“Chick”) Gandil, shortstop Charles (“Swede”) Risberg, third baseman George (“Buck”) Weaver, outfielders Joe (“Shoeless Joe”) Jackson and Oscar (“Happy”) Felsch, and utility infielder Fred McMullin. Court records suggest that the eight players received $70,000 to $100,000 for losing five games to three.
Suspicions of a conspiracy were aired immediately after the World Series ended, principally by Hugh Fullerton and other sportswriters, but controversy over the allegations had died down by the beginning of the 1920 season. Then, in September, a grand jury was called to investigate various allegations of gamblers invading baseball. On September 28, 1920, after Cicotte, Williams, Jackson, and Felsch admitted to the grand jury that they had thrown the 1919 series in return for a bribe, Charles Comiskey, owner of the White Sox, suspended seven of the players. (Gandil was already on suspension in a salary dispute.) The indicted players stood trial in the summer of 1921 but on August 2 were acquitted on insufficient evidence—largely because key evidence, including the original confessions of the players, had disappeared from the grand jury files. (They probably were stolen.) On August 3 the new baseball commissioner, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, banned the eight players from the game for life.
Frank Costello testifying before the U.S. Senate investigating committee headed by Estes Kefauver, 1951.Britannica QuizAmerican Mobsters QuizFew of the alleged gamblers testified at the trial, and none were themselves ever brought to trial for the White Sox bribery, though the notorious New York racketeer Arnold Rothstein was mentioned in hearings as the probable banker of the bribery scheme.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.Baseball Hall of FameTable of ContentsIntroductionReferences & Edit HistoryQuick Facts & Related TopicsImages & VideosThe Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, New York.Explore Cooperstown and its famous National Baseball Hall of Fame and MuseumPlaque Gallery in the Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, New York.Hank Greenberg\'s game-used glove in the Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, New York.QuizzesCricket bat and ball. cricket sport of cricket.Homepage blog 2011, arts and entertainment, history and society, sports and games athleticsSports QuizClose-up of Baseball on black background. Baseball Homepage blog 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society, sports and games athleticsBatter UpAramis Ramirez no.16 of the Chicago Cubs watches the ball leave the ballpark against the Cincinnati Reds. Major League Baseball (MLB).BaseballSerena Williams poses with the Daphne Akhurst Trophy after winning the Women\'s Singles final against Venus Williams of the United States on day 13 of the 2017 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on January 28, 2017 in Melbourne, Australia. (tennis, sports)Great Moments in Sports QuizRelated QuestionsWhy was Jackie Robinson so important?What was Jackie Robinson’s early life like?What were Jackie Robinson’s achievements?Read NextBaseball laying in the grass. Homepage blog 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society, sports and games athletics10 Greatest Baseball Players of All TimeClose up of a hand placing a ballot in a ballot box. Election vote voter votingHave Any U.S. Presidents Decided Not to Run For a Second Term?Washington, D.C. locator map.What State Is Washington, D.C. In?The United States Supreme Court building, Washington, D.C.14 Questions About Government in the United States AnsweredAn old worn baseball and wood batWho Really Invented Baseball?DiscoverFlags of the countries of the world (flagpoles).How Many Countries Are There in the World?Queen Elizabeth II addresses at opening of Parliament. (Date unknown on photo, but may be 1958, the first time the opening of Parliament was filmed.)All 119 References in “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” ExplainedSecret Service Agent Listens To EarpieceSecret Service Code Names of 11 U.S. PresidentsVietnam War. U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson awards the Distinguished Service Cross to First Lieutenant Marty A. Hammer, during a visit to military personnel, Cam Ranh Bay, South Vietnam, October 26, 1966. President JohnsonVietnam War TimelineOrange basketball on black background and with low key lighting. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and societyThe 10 Greatest Basketball Players of All TimeCheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) standing on rock, side view, Masai Mara National Reserve, KenyaThe Fastest Animals on EarthSeveral red apples with cut apple in the foreground.Can Apple Seeds Kill You?HomeSports & RecreationBaseballBaseball Hall of Famemuseum, Cooperstown, New York, United States Also known as: National Baseball Hall of Fame and MuseumWritten and fact-checked byLast Updated: Mar 10, 2024 • Article HistoryThe Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, New York.Baseball Hall of FameSee all mediaIn full: National Baseball Hall of Fame and MuseumAreas Of Involvement: baseballRelated People: Ford FrickRecent NewsApr. 16, 2024, 6:17 PM ET (AP)Whitey Herzog, Hall of Fame manager who led St. Louis Cardinals to 3 pennants, dies at 92Explore Cooperstown and its famous National Baseball Hall of Fame and MuseumExplore Cooperstown and its famous National Baseball Hall of Fame and MuseumA discussion of Cooperstown, New York, and its famed baseball museum, from the documentary Home Base: The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.See all videos for this articleBaseball Hall of Fame, museum and honorary society, Cooperstown, New York, U.S. The origins of the hall can be traced to 1935, when plans were first put forward for the 1939 celebration of the supposed centennial of baseball (it was then believed that the American army officer Abner Doubleday had developed the game at Cooperstown in 1839, a story that was later discredited). The first vote for players to be admitted into the hall was held in 1936, the date sometimes given for the hall’s establishment. Dedication ceremonies took place in June 1939.
Selections to the Hall of Fame are made annually by two groups: the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA) and the Baseball Hall of Fame Committee on Baseball Veterans. For the period 1971–77 a special committee inducted nine players from the Negro leagues into the Hall of Fame.
Cricket bat and ball. cricket sport of cricket.Homepage blog 2011, arts and entertainment, history and society, sports and games athleticsBritannica QuizSports QuizPlaque Gallery in the Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, New York.Plaque Gallery in the Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, New York.Players are selected by members of the BBWAA who have been active for 10 years and by a few honorary members of the BBWAA. Approximately 450 writers participate each year. To be eligible for selection, the prospective player must have been active in the major leagues at some time during a period beginning 20 years before and ending 5 years prior to election. (When, however, Roberto Clemente was killed in an airplane crash in late 1972, the 5-year waiting period was waived so that he could be immediately inducted in 1973. Later in 1973 the election rules were changed to permit selection of a player six months after his death.) Further rules stipulate that a player must have played at least 10 years in the major leagues and is required to receive 75 percent of the votes to be elected. There is no set number of players elected each year. No write-in votes are permitted, and the ballot is formed of those players who received a vote on a minimum of 5 percent of the ballots cast in the preceding election or those who are eligible for the first time and are nominated by any two of the six members of the BBWAA Screening Committee.
In 1953 the Baseball Hall of Fame Committee on Baseball Veterans was established. It holds elections each year to select players, managers, umpires, and executives no longer eligible for selection by the BBWAA.
Hank Greenberg\'s game-used glove in the Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, New York.Hank Greenberg\'s game-used glove in the Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, New York.Memorabilia of all eras of the game and an extensive baseball library are also housed in the hall and museum.
baseballTable of ContentsIntroductionA national pastimeHistoryAnalyzing baseballPlay of the gameBaseball and the artsWorld Series resultsJapan Series resultsCaribbean Series championsReferences & Edit HistoryRelated TopicsImages, Videos & InteractivesAn international game1946 World SeriesAbner DoubledayJackie RobinsonBabe RuthSatchel PaigeWhich city has the most sports titles?early baseball gameCharles ComiskeyEarly baseball merchandiseFor Students
baseball summaryQuizzesCricket bat and ball. cricket sport of cricket.Homepage blog 2011, arts and entertainment, history and society, sports and games athleticsSports QuizClose-up of Baseball on black background. Baseball Homepage blog 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society, sports and games athleticsBatter UpAssorted sports balls including a basketball, football, soccer ball, tennis ball, baseball and others.American Sports NicknamesAramis Ramirez no.16 of the Chicago Cubs watches the ball leave the ballpark against the Cincinnati Reds. Major League Baseball (MLB).BaseballRich Harden no. 40 of the Chicago Cubs pitches against the Milwaukee Brewers. July 31, 2008 at Miller Park, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Cubs defeated the Brewers 11-4. Major League Baseball (MLB).Sports Firsts Through the Ages QuizRead NextRich Harden no. 40 of the Chicago Cubs pitches against the Milwaukee Brewers. July 31, 2008 at Miller Park, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Cubs defeated the Brewers 11-4. Major League Baseball (MLB).Why Does “K” Stand for a Strikeout in Baseball?An old worn baseball and wood batWho Really Invented Baseball?Baseball laying in the grass. Homepage blog 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society, sports and games athletics10 Greatest Baseball Players of All TimeTug-of-war at the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md., 2005.7 Canceled or Reintroduced Olympic SportsCar with a pickle design in the Zagreb Red Bull Soapbox Race, Zagreb, Croatia, September 14, 2019. (games, races, sports)10 Unusual SportsDiscoverFlags of the countries of the world (flagpoles).How Many Countries Are There in the World?Vietnam War. U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson awards the Distinguished Service Cross to First Lieutenant Marty A. Hammer, during a visit to military personnel, Cam Ranh Bay, South Vietnam, October 26, 1966. President JohnsonVietnam War TimelineClose up of books. Stack of books, pile of books, literature, reading. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society12 Novels Considered the “Greatest Book Ever Written”Orange basketball on black background and with low key lighting. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and societyThe 10 Greatest Basketball Players of All TimeShadow of a man holding large knife in his hand inside of some dark, spooky buiding7 of History\'s Most Notorious Serial KillersThe Battle of New Orleans, by E. Percy Moran, c. 1910. Andrew Jackson, War of 1812.26 Decade-Defining Events in U.S. HistoryCheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) standing on rock, side view, Masai Mara National Reserve, KenyaThe Fastest Animals on EarthHomeSports & RecreationBaseballbaseballsport Written by,,See AllFact-checked byLast Updated: Apr 26, 2024 • Article History1946 World Series1946 World SeriesSee all mediaKey People: Andrés Galarraga Omar Vizquel José Ramírez Roberto Alomar Aaron JudgeRelated Topics: history of baseball Baseball Positions and Roles no-hitter spring training earned run averageRecent NewsApr. 11, 2024, 7:42 PM ET (AP)Shohei Ohtani\'s ex-interpreter charged with stealing $16M from baseball star in sports betting caseBaseball, game played with a bat, a ball, and gloves between two teams of nine players each on a field with four white bases laid out in a diamond (i.e., a square oriented so that its diagonal line is vertical). Teams alternate positions as batters (offense) and fielders (defense), exchanging places when three members of the batting team are “put out.” As batters, players try to hit the ball out of the reach of the fielding team and make a complete circuit around the bases for a “run.” The team that scores the most runs in nine innings (times at bat) wins the game.
A national pastime1946 World Series1946 World SeriesEnos Slaughter of the St. Louis Cardinals sliding home to score the winning run in game seven of the 1946 World Series; Roy Partee, catcher for the Boston Red Sox, lunges for the throw from the infield.The United States is credited with developing several popular sports, including some (such as baseball, gridiron football, and basketball) that have large fan bases and, to varying degrees, have been adopted internationally. But baseball, despite the spread of the game throughout the globe and the growing influence of Asian and Latin American leagues and players, is the sport that Americans still recognize as their “national pastime.” The game has long been woven into the fabric of American life and identity. “It’s our game,” exclaimed the poet Walt Whitman more than a century ago, “that’s the chief fact in connection with it: America’s game.” He went on to explain that baseball
Has the snap, go, fling of the American atmosphere—it belongs as much to our institutions, fits into them as significantly, as our constitutions, laws: is just as important in the sum total of our historic life. It is the place where memory gathers.
Perhaps Whitman exaggerated baseball’s importance to and its congruency with life in the United States, but few would argue the contrary, that baseball has been merely a simple or an occasional diversion.
Aramis Ramirez no.16 of the Chicago Cubs watches the ball leave the ballpark against the Cincinnati Reds. Major League Baseball (MLB).Britannica QuizBaseballAbner DoubledayAbner DoubledayIt was nationalistic sentiment that helped to make baseball “America’s game.” In the quest to obtain greater cultural autonomy, Americans yearned for a sport they could claim as exclusively their own. Just as the English had cricket and the Germans their turnvereins (gymnastic clubs), a sporting newspaper declared as early as 1857 that Americans should have a “game that could be termed a ‘Native American Sport.’ ” A powerful confirmation of baseball as the sport to fill that need came in 1907 when a special commission appointed by A.G. Spalding, a sporting goods magnate who had formerly been a star pitcher and an executive with a baseball team, reported that baseball owed absolutely nothing to England and the children’s game of rounders. Instead, the commission claimed that, to the best of its knowledge (a knowledge based on flimsy research and self-serving logic), baseball had been invented by Abner Doubleday at Cooperstown, New York, in 1839. This origin myth was perpetuated for decades.
In a country comprising a multiplicity of ethnic and religious groups, one without a monarchy, an aristocracy, or a long and mythic past, the experience of playing, watching, and talking about baseball games became one of the nation’s great common denominators. It provided, in the perceptive words of British novelist Virginia Woolf, “a centre, a meeting place for the divers activities of a people whom a vast continent isolates [and] whom no tradition controls.” No matter where one lived, the “hit-and-run,” the “double play,” and the “sacrifice bunt” were carried out the same way. The unifying power of baseball in the United States was evident in the Depression-ravaged 1930s, when a group of Cooperstown’s businessmen along with officials from the major leagues established the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. The Hall of Fame became a quasi-religious shrine for many Americans, and, since its founding, millions of fans have made “pilgrimages” to Cooperstown, where they have observed the “relics”—old bats, balls, and uniforms—of bygone heroes.Special 30% offer for students! Finish the semester strong with Britannica.Baseball also reshaped the nation’s calendar. With the rise of industrialization, the standardized clock time of the office or factory robbed people of the earlier experience of time in its rich associations with the daylight hours, the natural rhythms of the seasons, and the traditional church calendar. Yet, for Americans, the opening of the baseball training season signaled the arrival of spring, regular-season play meant summer, and the World Series marked the arrival of fall. In the winter, baseball fans participated in “hot stove leagues,” reminiscing about past games and greats and speculating about what the next season had to offer.
The World Series, inaugurated in 1903 and pitting the champions of the American and National Leagues in a postseason play-off, quickly took its place alongside the Fourth of July and Christmas as one of the most popular annual rites. The series was, said Everybody’s Magazine in 1911, “the very quintessence and consummation of the Most Perfect Thing in America.” Each fall it absorbed the entire nation.
Baseball terms and phrases, such as “He threw me a curve,” “Her presentation covered all the bases,” and “He’s really out in left field,” soon became part of the national vocabulary, so entrenched is baseball in the ordinary conversation of Americans. During the administration of President George H.W. Bush, a baseball player during his years at Yale University, the foreign press struggled to translate the president’s routine use of baseball metaphors. As early as the 1850s, baseball images began to appear in periodicals, and, in the 20th century, popular illustrator Norman Rockwell often used baseball as the subject for his The Saturday Evening Post covers. “Casey at the Bat” and “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” remain among the best-known poems and songs, respectively, among Americans. Novelists and filmmakers frequently have turned to baseball motifs. After the mid-20th century, at the very time baseball at the grassroots level had begun a perceptible descent, baseball fiction proliferated. American colleges and universities even began to offer courses on baseball literature, and baseball films likewise proliferated. In 1994 the Public Broadcasting System released Ken Burns’s nostalgic Baseball, arguably the most monumental historical television documentary ever made.
While baseball possessed enormous integrative powers, the game’s history also has been interwoven with and reflective of major social and cultural cleavages. Until the first decades of the 20th century, middle-class Evangelical Protestants viewed the sport with profound suspicion. They associated baseball, or at least the professional version of the game, with ne’er-do-wells, immigrants, the working class, drinking, gambling, and general rowdiness. Conversely, these very qualities provided a foothold for the upward ascent of ethnic groups from the nation’s ghettos. Usually encountering less discrimination in baseball (as well as in other venues of commercial entertainment) than they did in the more “respectable” occupations, in the 19th century Irish and German Americans were so conspicuous in professional baseball that some observers wondered if they had a special capacity for playing the game.
Jackie RobinsonJackie RobinsonBaseball star Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers stealing home as Boston Braves catcher Bill Salkeld is thrown off-balance by the pitcher\'s throw to the plate during a baseball game at Ebbets Field, Brooklyn, August 22, 1948.For a brief time in the 1880s, before racial segregation became the norm in the United States, Black players competed with whites in professional baseball. After that period, however, Blacks had to carve out a separate world of baseball. Dozens of Black teams faced local semiprofessional teams while barnstorming throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Despite playing a high quality of baseball, the players frequently engaged in various forms of clowning that perpetuated prevailing stereotypes of Blacks to appeal to spectators. From the 1920s until the ’50s, separate Black professional leagues—the Negro leagues—existed as well, but in 1947 Jackie Robinson crossed the long-standing colour bar in major league baseball. Because baseball was the national game, its racial integration was of enormous symbolic importance in the United States; indeed, it preceded the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision ending racial segregation in the schools (in 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka) and helped to usher in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s. Moreover, in the 1980s and ’90s a huge influx of Hispanics into professional baseball reflected the country’s changing ethnic composition.
Baseball likewise contributed to the shaping of American conceptions of gender roles. Although women were playing baseball as early as the 1860s, their involvement in the sport was confined for the most part to the role of spectator. To counter the game’s reputation for rowdiness, baseball promoters took pains to encourage women to attend. “The presence of an assemblage of ladies purifies the moral atmosphere of a baseball gathering,” reported the Baseball Chronicle, “repressing as it does, all the out-burst of intemperate language which the excitement of a contest so frequently induces.” When women played on barnstorming teams in the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, the press routinely referred to them as “Amazons,” “freaks,” or “frauds.” In 1943, during World War II, when it was feared that professional baseball might be forced to close down, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League made its debut. After having provided more than 600 women an opportunity to play baseball and to entertain several million fans, the league folded in 1954.
But, even if unable to heal conflicts arising from fundamental social divisions, baseball exhibited an extraordinary capacity for fostering ties. In the 1850s, young artisans and clerks, frequently displaced in the city and finding their way of life changing rapidly in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, conceived of themselves as members of what was known as the “base ball fraternity.” Like the volunteer fire departments and militia units of the day, they donned special uniforms, developed their own rituals, and, in playing baseball, shared powerful common experiences. Playing and watching baseball contests also strengthened occupational, ethnic, and racial identities. Butchers, typesetters, draymen, bricklayers, and even clergymen organized baseball clubs. So did Irish Americans, German Americans, and African Americans.
Professional baseball nourished and deepened urban identities. “If we are ahead of the big city [New York] in nothing else,” crowed the Brooklyn Eagle as early as 1862, “we can beat her in baseball.” Fans invested their emotions in their professional representative nines. “A deep gloom settled over the city,” reported a Chicago newspaper in 1875 after the local White Stockings had been defeated by the St. Louis (Missouri) Brown Stockings. “Friends refused to recognize friends, lovers became estranged, and business was suspended.” Even in the late 20th century, in an age more given to cynicism, the successes and failures of professional teams continued to evoke strong feelings among local residents. For example, during the 1990s, after having experienced urban decay and demoralization in the previous two decades, Cleveland experienced a great civic revival fueled in part by the success of the Indians baseball team.
Babe RuthBabe RuthWhen he joined the New York Yankees in 1920, Babe Ruth embarked on a home-run hitting campaign that would transform baseball and establish a record that would stand for nearly four decades.Satchel PaigeSatchel PaigeSatchel Paige, 1942.The significance of specific baseball teams and individual players extended beyond the localities that they represented. The New York Yankees, who in the first half of the 20th century were the quintessential representatives of the big city, of the East, of urban America with its sophistication, and of ethnic and religious heterogeneity, became synonymous with supernal success, while the St. Louis Cardinals emerged as the quintessential champions of the Midwest, of small towns and the farms, of rural America with its simplicity, rusticity, and old-stock Protestant homogeneity. In the 1920s Babe Ruth became the diamond’s colossal demigod. To those toiling on assembly lines or sitting at their desks in corporate bureaucracies, Ruth embodied America’s continuing faith in upward social mobility. His mighty home runs furnished vivid proof that men remained masters of their own destinies and that they could still rise from mean, vulgar beginnings to fame and fortune. For African Americans, Black stars such as Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson furnished equally compelling models of individual inspiration and success.
Baseball parks became important local civic monuments and repositories of collective memories. The first parks had been jerry-built, flimsy wooden structures, but between 1909 and 1923 some 15 major league clubs constructed new, more permanent parks of steel and concrete. These edifices were akin to the great public buildings, skyscrapers, and railway terminals of the day; local residents proudly pointed to them as evidence of their city’s size and its achievements.
Seeing them as retreats from the noise, dirt, and squalor of the industrial city, the owners gave the first parks pastoral names—Ebbets Field, Sportsman’s Park, and the Polo Grounds—but, with the construction of symmetrical, multisports facilities in the 1960s and ’70s, urban and futuristic names such as Astrodome and Kingdome predominated. In a new park-building era in the 1990s, designers sought to recapture the ambience of earlier times by designing “retro parks,” a term that was something of an oxymoron in that, while the new parks offered the fan the intimacy of the old-time parks, they simultaneously provided modern conveniences such as escalators, climate-controlled lounges, high-tech audiovisual systems, Disneyesque play areas for children, and space for numerous retail outlets. The increasing corporate influence on the game was reflected in park names such as Network Associates Stadium and Bank One Ballpark.
After about the mid-20th century, baseball’s claim to being America’s game rested on more precarious foundations than in the past. The sport faced potent competition, not only from other professional sports (especially gridiron football) but even more from a massive conversion of Americans from public to private, at-home diversions. Attendance as a percentage of population fell at all levels of baseball, the minor leagues became a shell of their former selves, and hundreds of semipro and amateur teams folded. In the 1990s, player strikes, free agency, disparities in competition, and the rising cost of attending games added to the woes of major league baseball. Yet, baseball continued to exhibit a remarkable resiliency; attendance at professional games improved, and attendance at minor league games was close to World War II records by the end of the century. As the 21st century opened, baseball still faced serious problems, but the sport was gaining in popularity around the world, and a strong case could still be made for baseball holding a special place in the hearts and minds of the American people.Benjamin G. RaderHistoryOriginThe term base-ball can be dated to 1744, in John Newbery’s children’s book A Little Pretty Pocket-Book. The book has a brief poem and an illustration depicting a game called base-ball. Interestingly, the bases in the illustration are marked by posts instead of the bags and flat home plate now so familiar in the game. The book was extremely popular in England and was reprinted in North America in 1762 (New York) and 1787 (Massachusetts).
Many other early references to bat-and-ball games involving bases are known: a 1749 British newspaper that refers to Frederick Louis, prince of Wales, playing “Bass-Ball” in Surrey, England; “playing at base” at the American army camp at Valley Forge in 1778; the forofferding of students to “play with balls and sticks” on the common of Princeton College in 1787; a note in the memoirs of Thurlow Weed, an upstate New York newspaper editor and politician, of a baseball club organized about 1825; a newspaper report that the Rochester (New York) Baseball Club had about 50 members at practice in the 1820s; and a reminiscence of the elder Oliver Wendell Holmes concerning his Harvard days in the late 1820s, stating that he played a good deal of ball at college.
The Boy’s Own Book (1828), a frequently reprinted book on English sports played by boys of the time, included in its second edition a chapter on the game of rounders. As described there, rounders had many resemblances to the modern game of baseball: it was played on a diamond-shaped infield with a base at each corner, the fourth being that at which the batter originally stood and to which he had to advance to score a run. When a batter hit a pitched ball through or over the infield, he could run. A ball hit elsewhere was foul, and he could not run. Three missed strikes at the ball meant the batter was out. A batted ball caught on the fly put the batter out. One notable difference from baseball was that, in rounders, when a ball hit on the ground was fielded, the fielder put the runner out by hitting him with the thrown ball; the same was true with a runner caught off base. Illustrations show flat stones used as bases and a second catcher behind the first, perhaps to catch foul balls. The descent of baseball from rounders seems indisputably clear-cut. The first American account of rounders was in The Book of Sports (1834) by Robin Carver, who credits The Boy’s Own Book as his source but calls the game base, or goal, ball.
Early yearsIn 1845, according to baseball legend, Alexander J. Cartwright, an amateur player in New York City, organized the New York Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, which formulated a set of rules for baseball, many of which still remain. The rules were much like those for rounders, but with a significant change in that the runner was put out not by being hit with the thrown ball but by being tagged with it. This change no doubt led to the substitution of a harder ball, which made possible a larger-scale game.
early baseball gameearly baseball gameAn early baseball game at the Elysian Fields, Hoboken, New Jersey, 1859; engraving from Harper\'s magazine.The adoption of these rules by the Knickerbockers and other amateur club teams in the New York City area led to an increased popularity of the game. The old game with the soft ball continued to be popular in and around Boston; a Philadelphia club that had played the old game since 1833 did not adopt the Knickerbocker or New York version of the game until 1860. Until the American Civil War (1861–65), the two versions of the game were called the Massachusetts game (using the soft ball) and the New York game (using the hard ball). During the Civil War, soldiers from New York and New Jersey taught their game to others, and after the war the New York game became predominant.
In 1854 a revision of the rules prescribed the weight and size of the ball, along with the dimensions of the infield, specifications that have not been significantly altered since that time. The National Association of Base Ball Players was organized in 1857, comprising clubs from New York City and vicinity. In 1859 Washington, D.C., organized a club, and in the next year clubs were formed in Lowell, Massachusetts; Allegheny, Pennsylvania; and Hartford, Connecticut. The game continued to spread after the Civil War—to Maine, Kentucky, and Oregon. Baseball was on its way to becoming the national pastime. It was widely played outside the cities, but the big-city clubs were the dominant force. In 1865 a convention was called to confirm the rules and the amateur status of baseball and brought together 91 amateur teams from such cities as St. Louis; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Louisville, Kentucky; Washington, D.C.; Boston; and Philadelphia.
Professional baseballTwo important developments in the history of baseball occurred in the post-Civil War period: the spread of the sport to Latin America and Asia (discussed later) and the professionalization of the sport in the United States. The early baseball clubs such as the New York Knickerbockers were clubs in the true sense of the word: members paid dues, the emphasis was on fraternity and socializing, and baseball games were played largely among members. But the growth of baseball’s popularity soon attracted commercial interest. In 1862 William Cammeyer of Brooklyn constructed an enclosed baseball field with stands and charged admission to games. Following the Civil War, this practice quickly spread, and clubs soon learned that games with rival clubs and tournaments drew larger crowds and brought prestige to the winners. The interclub games attracted the interest and influence of gamblers. With a new emphasis on external competition, clubs felt pressure to field quality teams. Players began to specialize in playing a single position, and field time was given over to a club’s top players so they could practice. Professionalism began to appear about 1865–66 as some teams hired skilled players on a per game basis. Players either were paid for playing or were compensated with jobs that required little or no actual work. Amateurs resented these practices and the gambling and bribery that often accompanied them, but the larger public was enthralled by the intense competition and the rivalries that developed. The first publicly announced all-professional team, the Cincinnati (Ohio) Red Stockings, was organized in 1869; it toured that year, playing from New York City to San Francisco and winning some 56 games and tying 1. The team’s success, especially against the hallowed clubs of New York, resulted in national notoriety and proved the superior skill of professional players. The desire of many other cities and teams to win such acclaim guaranteed the professionalization of the game, though many players remained nominally in the amateur National Association of Base Ball Players until the amateurs withdrew in 1871. Thereafter professional teams largely controlled the development of the sport.
The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players was formed in 1871. The founding teams were the Philadelphia Athletics; the Chicago White Stockings (who would also play as the Chicago Colts and the Chicago Orphans before becoming the Cubs—the American League Chicago White Sox were not formed until 1900); the Brooklyn (New York) Eckfords; the Cleveland (Ohio) Forest Citys; the Forest Citys of Rockford, Illinois; the Haymakers of Troy, New York; the Kekiongas of Fort Wayne, Indiana; the Olympics of Washington, D.C.; and the Mutuals of New York City. The league disbanded in 1876 with the founding of the rival National League of Professional Baseball Clubs. The change from a players’ association to one of clubs was particularly significant. The teams making up the new league represented Philadelphia, Hartford (Connecticut), Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Louisville (Kentucky), St. Louis, and New York City. When William Hulbert, president of the league (1877–82), expelled four players for dishonesty, the reputation of baseball as an institution was significantly enhanced.
League formationIn 1881 the American Association was formed with teams from cities that were not members of the National League and teams that had been expelled from the league (such as Cincinnati, which was disciplined in 1880 for playing games on Sunday and allowing liquor on the grounds). In 1890, after the National League tried to limit salaries (a $2,000 maximum for pitchers), the players formed the Players’ League, but it quickly failed. The American Association unsuccessfully challenged the National League and late in 1891 merged with it in a 12-team league that constituted a monopoly, an arrangement that prevailed through 1899. By 1900 the National League had shrunk to eight teams—Boston (the team that would eventually become the Braves), Brooklyn (soon to be the Dodgers), Chicago (soon to be the Cubs), Cincinnati (the Reds, who had returned to the league in 1890), New York City (the Giants), Philadelphia (the Phillies), Pittsburgh (the Pirates), and St. Louis (the Cardinals)—and it remained so constituted until 1953, when the Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Charles ComiskeyCharles ComiskeyThe Western League, organized in 1893, had Midwestern members. When in 1900 Charles Comiskey moved his St. Paul (Minnesota) team to Chicago as the White Sox and the Grand Rapids (Michigan) team was shifted to Cleveland as the Indians, the National League agreed to the moves. However, when permission was asked to put teams in Baltimore (Maryland) and Washington, D.C., the National League balked, and the “baseball war” was on. The Western League, renamed the American League and officially elevated to major league status in 1901, transferred teams from Indianapolis (Indiana), Kansas City (Missouri), Minneapolis, and Buffalo (New York) to Baltimore (the first of two American League teams to be called the Baltimore Orioles), Washington, D.C. (the Senators), Philadelphia (the Athletics), and Boston (the Red Stockings). American League teams also were established in Detroit, Michigan (the Tigers), and Milwaukee (the first of two teams to be named the Milwaukee Brewers), the latter club moving to St. Louis as the Browns in 1902. When the Baltimore club moved to New York City in 1903 to become the Highlanders (after 1912, the Yankees), the league took the form it was to keep until 1954, when the St. Louis Browns became the Baltimore Orioles.
Early baseball merchandiseEarly baseball merchandiseChicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox cigarette baseball cards from the American Tobacco Company, 1909–11.John McGrawJohn McGrawJohn McGraw, 1910.Connie MackConnie MackDuring the “war,” the American League wooed away many of the National League’s star players. In 1903 the leagues agreed to prohibit single ownership of two clubs in the same city and the shifting of franchises from one city to another by either league without permission of the other. They also established rules for transferring players from one league to the other and for moving minor league players into the major leagues. The peace of 1903 resulted in the first World Series, which, after a hiatus in 1904 (the New York Giants refused to play, believing the opposition unworthy), was held each year thereafter (with the exception of 1994, when a work stoppage led to the cancellation of the World Series), the winner being the team to win four games out of seven (five out of nine from 1919 to 1921). In the period following the “war,” the two leagues enjoyed a long period of growth. The “inside game” dominated the next two decades, until hitter-friendly rules were instituted in 1920, ushering in the “live-ball era” (the period of inside-game dominance was also known as the “dead-ball era”). The inside game was a style of play that emphasized pitching, speed, and batsmanship. Bunting was very common, and doubles and triples were more heralded than home runs (which during this era were almost exclusively of the inside-the-park variety). Two managers were credited as the masters of the inside game and brought success to their respective teams: John J. McGraw, manager of the National League New York Giants (1902–32), and Connie Mack, manager of the American League Philadelphia Athletics (1901–50).
Survival and growthKenesaw Mountain LandisKenesaw Mountain LandisKenesaw Mountain Landis, c. 1907.Baseball suffered a major scandal—subsequently called the Black Sox scandal—when eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of accepting bribes from known gamblers to “throw” the 1919 World Series. Although Charles Comiskey, owner of the White Sox, suspended the players for the 1921 season, they were found not guilty because of insufficient evidence. Presuming a need to restore baseball’s honour, however, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned the eight accused players from baseball for life after he was named baseball’s first commissioner, supplanting the three-man National Commission that had been created in 1903.
Aramis Ramirez no.16 of the Chicago Cubs watches the ball leave the ballpark against the Cincinnati Reds. Major League Baseball (MLB).Britannica QuizBaseballDuring the 1920s, generally known as a golden age of sports in the United States, the premier hero was Babe Ruth. A New York Yankee outfielder affectionately known as the “Sultan of Swat,” Ruth was a large man with an even larger personality, and his reinvention of the home run (the sort that traveled over the outfield wall) into a mythic feat enthralled the nation. His performance not only assured the success of his team but spurred a tactical change in baseball. The inside game, with its bunts and sacrifices, gave way to the era of free swinging at the plate. The resulting explosion of offense brought fans to the ballparks in droves. Even the Great Depression of the 1930s did little to abate the rise in popularity and financial success of the game except at the minor league and Negro league levels. The commercial growth of the game was aided by several recent innovations. The first All-Star Game, an exhibition game pitting the best players in the National League against the best of the American League, was played at Comiskey Park in Chicago in 1933. During the 1920s club owners also cautiously embraced radio broadcasting of games. The first major league game broadcast took place in Pittsburgh in 1921, but during that decade only the Chicago Cubs allowed broadcasts of all their games. Many owners feared radio would dissuade fans from attending the games in person, especially during the Great Depression. However, the opposite proved to be true; radio created new fans and brought more of them to the ballpark. Night baseball, which had already been used by barnstorming and minor league teams, began in the major leagues at Cincinnati in 1935. Initially caution and tradition slowed the interest in night baseball, but the obvious commercial benefits of playing when fans were not at work eventually won out. Delayed by World War II, night baseball became almost universal by the 1960s, with all teams but the Cubs scheduling about half of their home games at night. (The Cubs acceded to night baseball at home only in 1988.) The first nighttime World Series game was played in 1971.
From 1942 until the end of World War II, baseball operated under the “green light” order of Commissioner Landis, approved by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Soon after the Pearl Harbor attack, Landis asked Roosevelt if he felt that baseball should “close down for the duration of the war.” Roosevelt, a lifelong baseball fan, replied in a letter dated January 15, 1942, that he felt baseball was valuable to the nation and should continue throughout the war. Once Landis received this letter giving baseball the go-ahead, organized baseball threw itself behind the American war effort, billing itself as “the national nerve tonic” for workers in wartime factories. Attendance at baseball games was still off slightly. Further, many players went into the armed services—most notably Ted Williams, the last man in organized baseball to have a season batting average of more than .400 (.406 in 1941)—and the quality of play suffered somewhat.
The postwar periodRoy Campanella and Jack LohrkeRoy Campanella and Jack LohrkeRoy Campanella of the Brooklyn Dodgers tagging out Jack Lohrke of the New York Giants, 1950.The years following the conclusion of World War II were marked by rising attendance, the growth of the minor leagues, and in 1947 the racial integration of the game (for more on the integration of baseball, see Blacks in baseball, below). This period also was marked by new efforts by players to obtain better pay and conditions of employment. A portent of things to come was the formation in 1946 of the American Baseball Guild. Although the guild failed in appeals to national and state labour relations boards, its very existence led to reforms before the 1947 season: a minimum major league salary of $5,000, no salary cuts during a season for a major league player moved to the minors, weekly spring-training expense money of $25, a 25 percent limit on annual salary cuts, and establishment of a players’ pension fund.
What were the highlights of the 1955 Major League Baseball All-Star Game?What were the highlights of the 1955 Major League Baseball All-Star Game?Newsreel footage of highlights of the 1955 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.See all videos for this articleLandis’s successor as commissioner, Albert B. (“Happy”) Chandler (1945–51), assured the soundness of the pension fund in 1950 by signing a six-year contract for broadcasting World Series and All-Star games; the television portion alone amounted to $1 million a year, with a large proportion earmarked for the pension fund. Radio and television rights for regular-season games remained with each club. Later commissioners included Ford C. Frick (1951–65), William D. Eckert (1965–69), Bowie Kuhn (1969–84), Peter Ueberroth (1984–89), A. Bartlett Giamatti (1989), Fay Vincent (1989–92), and Allan H. (“Bud”) Selig.
Movement and expansionWhat were the highlights of game 3 in the 1959 World Series?What were the highlights of game 3 in the 1959 World Series?Learn about the highlights of game 3 in the 1959 World Series by watching this newsreel footage. The Los Angeles Dodgers bested the Chicago White Sox 3−1 in the contest, the first World Series game to be played on the U.S. West Coast.See all videos for this articleThe postwar boom was short-lived, however. America was going through tremendous changes. Millions were moving out of the cities and to the suburbs, and population centres in the South and West were growing. Americans had more time and money to enjoy themselves, which they did through vacationing and outdoor recreation. Moreover, the rapid growth of television preoccupied the country. Baseball was slow to adapt. Major league clubs were located only as far west as St. Louis and no farther south than Washington, D.C. Many of the ballparks had fallen into disrepair, were outdated, and were inconvenient for surburbanites driving in for a game. Despite exciting play on the field, attendance began to wane. The added revenue from radio and television broadcast rights could not offset the losses at the gate. The 1950s saw the first franchise changes since 1903. In 1953 the Braves, always overshadowed in New England by the Red Sox, moved from Boston to Milwaukee (in 1966 the franchise moved again, to Atlanta, Georgia), where they were offered a new stadium. The next year the St. Louis Browns, themselves overshadowed by the Cardinals, moved to Baltimore and became the Orioles. In 1955 the Philadelphia Athletics franchise was moved to Kansas City, Missouri (and in 1968 to Oakland, California). The impact of these moves was slight compared with the move of the Dodgers and Giants from New York City to California (the Dodgers to Los Angeles and the Giants to San Francisco) in 1958. Frustrated in his attempts to win city support for a new stadium, Dodger owner Walter O’Malley jumped at an offer to relocate the team to Los Angeles, which was then the third largest city in the country. O’Malley persuaded the Giants to move to San Francisco in order to maintain their rivalry and ease the travel burden on National League teams.
Despite the betrayal felt by fans in Brooklyn and Manhattan, the moves were a successful business decision for the clubs. The decade of franchise movement was followed by several rounds of expansion that lasted into the 1990s. Expansion began in 1961 when the Washington (D.C.) Senators were moved to Minneapolis–St. Paul and renamed the Twins, and a new franchise was granted to Washington (also named the Senators); however, it lasted only until 1971, when it was transferred to Dallas–Fort Worth and renamed the Texas Rangers. Another American League franchise was awarded to Los Angeles (later moved to Anaheim as the California Angels, now known as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim) in 1961, and in 1962 the National League also expanded to 10 teams with new franchises in New York City (the Mets) and Houston, Texas (the Colt .45s; after 1964, the Astros). The 154-game season had been expanded in the American League to 162 in 1961; the National League followed suit in 1962.
Along with this first round of expansion came an era of superb pitching that dominated the league for a generation. The earned run averages for pitchers during this era averaged 3.30, and the major league batting average fell as low as .238 in 1968. Several changes in the game were believed to account for the resurgence of pitching; the strike zone was expanded in 1963; managers explored more strategic uses of the relief pitchers; and new glove technology improved defensive play. At the same time, a new generation of large multipurpose stadiums came into use. These stadiums typically used artificial turf that was harder and faster than natural grass. As a result, new emphasis was placed on speed in the field and on the base paths. Fearing that the dominance of pitching was hurting fan interest in the game, the major league tried to improve hitting by lowering the mound and narrowing the strike zone in 1969. In hopes of further increasing offensive play, the American League introduced the designated hitter in 1973. The changes did increase offensive output, but pitching still dominated through much of the 1970s.
In 1969 new franchises were awarded to Montreal (the Expos, the first major league franchise outside the United States) and San Diego, California (the Padres), bringing the National League to 12 teams. In the American League in 1969, new franchises in Kansas City, Missouri (the Royals), and Seattle, Washington (the Pilots), brought that league to 12 teams, and both leagues were divided into Eastern and Western divisions.
Play-offs between division winners determined the league pennant winners, who then played in the World Series, which was extended into late October. California, which had had no major league baseball prior to 1958, had five teams by 1969. Of the new franchises, only Seattle failed outright and was moved to Milwaukee, where it became the Brewers (moved to the National League in a 1998 reorganization). A franchise was again granted to Seattle (the Mariners) and to Toronto (the Blue Jays), bringing the number of American League teams to 14 in 1977. In 1993 the National League also was brought to 14 with the addition of teams in Denver (the Colorado Rockies) and Miami (the Florida Marlins). In 1998 the Arizona Diamondbacks (located in Phoenix) joined the National League, and the Tampa Bay (Florida) Devil Rays (now known as the Tampa Bay Rays) began play in the American League.
In 1994 both leagues were reconfigured into East, Central, and West divisions. The play-off format was changed to include an additional round and a Wild Card (the team with the best record among the non-division-winning teams in each league). The play-offs were again expanded in 2012, when a second Wild Card was added to each league. ***Under the revised system, the two Wild Card teams play a one-game play-off, with the winner advancing to the best-of-five-games division series.
An explosion of offense occurred in the mid-1980s and after. In particular, home runs increased dramatically, reaching record-breaking numbers from 1985 to 1987 and again in the late 1990s. The reasons for the change from dominant pitching to hitting were not entirely clear. Many claimed the ball had been engineered to fly farther; others claimed that continual expansion had diluted the quality of pitching. The improved off-season conditioning (that now often included weight lifting) made players stronger and quicker with their bats. The 1990s also saw another generation of new ballparks, many of which featured small dimensions that were more to the liking of power hitters.
During the later half of the 20th century, expansion was perceived by baseball executives as both a source of added revenue for clubs (large entry fees were charged to new franchises) as well as a means of generating new interest in the game. In 2001, however, concerns over economically underperforming clubs prompted owners to announce plans to eliminate two teams (widely believed to be the Minnesota Twins and the since-relocated Montreal Expos). The plan was put on hold after the player’s union pursued legal action to prevent the move, and a 2002 Minnesota court order that forced the Twins to play out the lease at their home stadium effectively ended the talk of contraction for the foreseeable future.
The minor leaguesThe minor leagues formed an association in 1901 to deal with the problems resulting from the lack of agreement on contract ownership, salaries, territoriality, and other issues. The current structure was created when the major leagues reached their agreement in 1903, and the minor leagues became a training ground for prospective major league players and a refuge for older players.
Branch RickeyBranch RickeyIn 1919 Branch Rickey, then manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, devised what came to be known as the “farm system”; as the price of established players increased, the Cardinals began “growing” their own, signing hundreds of high-school boys. Other major league clubs followed suit, developing their own farm clubs that were tied into the minors. In 1949 the minor leagues were tremendously popular: 448 teams in the United States, Canada, Cuba, and Mexico played in 59 leagues with an aggregate attendance of some 39 million, about twice that of the 16 major league clubs. The minor leagues at that time were divided into six classifications, graded according to the level of playing skills: AAA (triple A), AA (double A), A (single A), B, C, and D.
Attendance eroded soon thereafter when the major leagues began broadcasting and televising their games into minor league attendance areas. By the early 1980s, after the American and National leagues had annexed 10 choice minor league territories, the number of minor league teams had been greatly reduced, and only 17 leagues remained. Attendance had dropped, and the minor league clubs generally looked to the major league parent clubs for heavy subsidization. The purpose of the minor leagues had evolved from mainly providing local entertainment to developing major league talent.
This situation improved in the early 1990s. As ticket prices for major league games escalated, attendance at less expensive minor league games rose apace. Further, development of new stadiums and renovation of existing facilities created more interest in minor league baseball. By 2009 attendance at minor league games had reached more than 41.6 million. The minors had 16 leagues with 174 teams falling into one of five classifications—AAA, AA, A (full season), A (short season), and Rookie. The minor league franchises successfully concentrated on drawing families to their parks with both games and promotional entertainment.
An old worn baseball and wood batMore From BritannicaWho Really Invented Baseball?Labour issuesFrom the beginning of organized professional baseball, the owners had controlled the game, players, managers, and umpires. The players had begun to organize as early as 1885, when a group of New York Giants formed the National Brotherhood of Base Ball Players, a benevolent and protective association. Under the leadership of John Montgomery Ward, who had a law degree and was a player for the Giants, the Brotherhood grew rapidly as a secret organization. It went public in 1886 to challenge the adoption of a $2,000 salary ceiling by the National League. Rebuffed in attempts to negotiate with league owners, the Brotherhood in 1890 formed the short-lived Players League.
During the National League–American League war of 1900–03, the Protective Association of Professional Baseball Players got National League players to switch to the other league, but with the peace treaty the association died. In 1912 came the Baseball Players’ Fraternity, which included most professional players. It was organized after the suspension of Ty Cobb for punching a fan. Later a threatened strike was settled the day before it was to begin.
Rise of the playersAfter a 1953 Supreme Court decision reaffirmed a 1922 decision stating that baseball was not a business that was subject to antitrust rules, baseball felt assured that its legal and economic foundation was firm. This foundation is primarily based on the Reserve Rule, or Reserve Clause, an agreement among major league teams, dating from 1879, whereby the rights of each team to the services of its players are observed by other teams; i.e., a team could designate a certain number of players who were not to be offered jobs by other teams. The original number of 5 such players was increased to 11 in 1883 and ultimately included a whole team roster.
The recourse the court failed to provide was in substance achieved by the Major League Baseball Players Association—founded in 1953 but largely ineffectual until 1966, when it hired as executive director Marvin Miller, a former labour-union official who also had been active in government in labour-management relations. A skillful negotiator, he secured players’ rights and benefits contractually and established grievance procedures with recourse to impartial arbitration. In 1968 the minimum salary was doubled to $10,000, and first-class travel and meal allowances were established in 1970. A threatened players’ boycott of spring training was averted in 1969 by a compromise assuring a $20,000 median salary.
In 1970 a new suit was brought in federal court contesting the Reserve Clause. The suit was supported by the players’ association, which hired as counsel Arthur Goldberg, a former U.S. Supreme Court justice. The plaintiff was Curt Flood, star outfielder of the St. Louis Cardinals, and the defendants were the commissioner, the two major league presidents, and the major league clubs. Flood claimed that, in trading him to the Philadelphia Phillies without his knowledge or approval, the Cardinals had violated the antitrust laws. He refused to report to the Phillies and sat out the season. The court found against Flood, who appealed, and in 1972 the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed the 1922 and 1953 decisions exempting baseball from the antitrust laws, but it called on Congress to correct through legislation any inequities. Meanwhile, Flood had signed for the 1971 season with Washington on the understanding that he would not be sold or traded without his permission. He quit in midseason, however.
In 1972 baseball had its first general strike, lasting 13 days and causing the cancellation of 86 regular-season games and delaying the divisional play-offs and World Series by 10 days. The players asked for and ultimately got an addition to the pension fund. Another players’ strike was averted in 1973, when an agreement was reached that provided compulsory impartial arbitration of salary negotiations and established a rule that allowed a player with 10 years of service in the major leagues and the last 5 years with the same club to refuse to be traded without his consent.
These were unprecedented victories for the players, but their greatest triumph came prior to the 1976 season. Pitchers Andy Messersmith of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Dave McNally of the Montreal Expos played the entire 1975 season without signing a contract; their contracts had expired but were automatically renewed by their clubs. Miller had been waiting for such a test case. The players’ union filed a grievance on behalf of McNally and Messersmith, contending that a player’s contract could not be renewed in perpetuity, a custom first established in 1879. Arbitrator Peter Seitz found for the players. This decision substantively demolished the Reserve Rule.
Stunned, the owners appealed but without success. Negotiations followed, however, and the union agreed to a modification of the Reserve Rule: players with six or more years of major league service could become free agents when their contracts expired and would be eligible to make their own deals. The ruling allowed eligible players who refused to sign their 1976 contracts to choose free agency in 1977.
Twenty-four players took immediate advantage of this new opportunity and went on the open market. Frantic offerding by the clubs followed. Bill Campbell, a relief pitcher with the Minnesota Twins, was the first free agent to make a new connection. He signed a four-year, $1 million contract with the Boston Red Sox, which annually paid him more than 10 times his 1976 salary. The free agency procedure was the principal issue when the players struck for 50 days at the height of the 1981 season (June 12–July 31), forcing the cancellation of 714 games. Once again the players won. In the settlement it was agreed that clubs losing players to free agency would not receive direct compensation from the free agents’ new teams. The union contended that such compensation would impede movement, forcing the signing club, in effect, to pay twice: a huge sum to the player and further compensation to the player’s former employer. Under certain conditions relating to the quality of the player, however, the team that lost the free agent could draft a player from among those assigned to a compensation pool by their teams, and it could select an amateur draft choice from the signing team.
After another brief shutdown (August 6–7, 1985) centring on salary arbitration, the owners agreed to increase the minimum salary from $40,000 to $60,000, but the number of major league seasons a player had to serve before qualifying for arbitration was raised from two to three. Fan interest continued to rise, and major league attendance records were broken six times in the 1985–91 seasons. The major source of revenue, however, was television. The combined revenue from network television in 1984 was $90 million; one network purchased the rights to televise games in the 1990–93 seasons for $1.1 bil
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