Kenesaw Mountain Landis

Kenesaw Mountain Landis (20 November, 1866 – 25 November, 1944) was an American jurist who served as a federal judge from 1905 to 1922, and subsequently as the first commissioner of Major League Baseball. Born in Millville, Ohio to Abraham Hoch Landis and Mary (Kumler) Landis, he died in Chicago, Illinois. His name comes from a variant spelling of Kennesaw Mountain in Georgia, the site of a battle his father, a physician, fought in on the Union side during the American Civil War. Two of his brothers served in the United States Congress.

Related Topics:
20 November - 1866 - 25 November - 1944 - American - Federal judge - 1905 - 1922 - Commissioner - Major League Baseball - Millville, Ohio - Chicago, Illinois - Kennesaw Mountain - Georgia - American Civil War

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After being appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt to the bench of the Northern District of Illinois in 1905, Landis dealt with several cases of historical significance during his career as a US federal judge. In 1907, he presided over a Standard Oil antitrust trial fining them $29 million for accepting rail freight rebates, although the verdict was later set aside. In 1918, he held the trial of a number of union leaders of the Industrial Workers of the World for violating the Espionage Act.

Related Topics:
Theodore Roosevelt - Northern District - Illinois - 1905 - 1907 - Standard Oil - Antitrust - 1918 - Industrial Workers of the World - Espionage Act

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While serving as a federal judge, Landis was selected in 1920 to become the first Commissioner of Major League Baseball, serving from 1920 until his death in 1944. The position was created to restore public confidence in the integrity of baseball following the 1919 Black Sox scandal, which was only the worst of a number of incidents that had made the honesty of the game questionable. He achieved this by permanently banishing eight players from the sport for their involvement, including superstar Shoeless Joe Jackson, and by dealing harshly with others proven to have thrown individual games or consorted with gamblers.

Related Topics:
1920 - Baseball - 1944 - 1919 - Black Sox scandal - Shoeless Joe Jackson

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The owners had hoped he would then settle into a comfortable retirement as the titluar head of baseball. Instead, Landis established a fiercely independent Commissioner's Office that would go on to make both players and owners generally miserable with decisions that were, generally, in the best interests of the game. He worked to clean up the hooliganism that was tarnishing the reputation of players in the 1920s, and inserted his office into negotiations with players where he deemed appropriate to end a few of the labor practices of owners like Charles Comiskey that had contributed to the players' discontent.

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His detractors claim he perpetuated the color line and prolonged the segregation of organized baseball. He tried to curb the growth of minor league farm systems by innovators such as Branch Rickey, in the name of protecting the lower levels of profestional ball (the farm systems ultimately proved to be the salvation of minor league ball). Yet he also prevented the formation of a powerful third major league when he turned away a challenge by Pants Rowland and his Pacific Coast League in the 1940s.

Related Topics:
Color line - Minor league - Branch Rickey - Pants Rowland - Pacific Coast League

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Whether his decisions were praised or criticized, he was satisfied with being respected and feared. Dubbed 'the baseball tyrant' by journalists of the day, his rule was absolute. In the context of ensuring the integrity of the game itself, baseball historians generally regard him as the right man at the right time when appointed, and as a man who perhaps held office too long.

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He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1944, in a special election held one month after his death.

Related Topics:
Baseball Hall of Fame - 1944

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Despite his standard argument against integration, that the ballplayers from the Negro Leagues and elsewhere were "not good enough" to be major leaguers, the signing of the first black ballplayer, Jackie Robinson, came less than a year after Landis's death. It came on the watch of the new, progressive Commissioner A. B. "Happy" Chandler I and was engineered by one of Landis's old nemeses, Branch Rickey.

Related Topics:
Negro Leagues - Jackie Robinson - A. B. "Happy" Chandler I

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Major League Baseball's Most Valuable Player Award is officially known as the Kenesaw Mountain Landis Award in his honor.

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Landis's body is interred in the Oak Woods Cemetery, Chicago.

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