Landis, Kenesaw Mountain
Baseball
b. Nov. 20, 1866, Millville, OH
d. Nov. 25, 1944
As a federal district judge, Landis demonstrated his feeling for baseball in 1914, when an antitrust suit filed by the upstart Federal League against organized baseball came before him. Landis was known as being tough on antitrust violations, but he remarked during the trial that "any blows at the thing called baseball would be regarded by this court as a blow to a national institution." The Federal League folded in 1915, before Landis had made a ruling in the case.
In 1920, eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of having taken bribes to throw the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. The major league owners decided to replace the three-man National Commission with a single, powerful commissioner. They chose Landis, giving him authority to investigate any act detrimental to the interests of baseball and to impose any punishment he considered necessary on players, teams, or officers of teams.
One of Landis's first acts was to ban the eight "Black Sox" permanently from baseball, although one of them wasn't even tried and the other seven were acquitted. He also banned a number of other players for various reasons, among them Benny Kauff of the New York Giants, who was indicted for car theft. Kauff, too, was acquitted, but Landis refused to lift his ban.
The extent of Landis's power was demonstrated in 1922, when he suspended Babe Ruth and two other players for going on a barnstorming tour after having played in the World Series. Although team owners begged him to reduce the six-week suspension because Ruth drew so many fans, Landis let his original decision stand.
Landis could be as tough on owners as he was on players. A fierce opponent of gambling, he ordered two part owners of the Giants, Horace Stoneham and John McGraw, to divest themselves of their interest in a Havana race track and casino. In 1943, William Cox, owner of the Philadelphia Phillies, admitted betting on his own team. Landis made him sell the team and then banned him permanently from baseball.
While his dictatorial tactics did help rid baseball of the gambling specter, Landis wasn't successful in his other major crusade, against farm systems. While he spoke out against the practice and was occasionally able to free a player for a technical rules violation, he was unable to use his powers to get rid of farm systems.