June 1, 2009.

"He was a prissy, fussy little man with an enormous ego and a pasha's power.  But he did have a certain integrity, and accomplished what he was mandated to do, clean up the game."  -J.G.. Floto (reviewing a Landis biography)

In 1944, one month after Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis’s death, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in a special election.  For over twenty years Landis ruled all of baseball for better and worse.  Landis deserves high grades for restoring the public trust in the game following the Black Sox scandal, and for keeping it during an era that saw gangsters attempting to courrupt many sports.

It's no coincidence that Jackie Robinson was signed to a professional baseball contract shortly after Judge Landis’s death.  Branch Rickey felt that there would be no chance to break the color line with Landis still at Baseball's helm.  Landis’ failure to do anything to integrate baseball is the negative that all baseball historians note in speaking of Landis. Happy Chandler, who replaced Landis as Commissioner stated that:

Some might attempt to mitigate the level of Landis' racism proffering that he simply reflected the prejudice of his day, and that the baseball owners had the same feelings on integration as Landis.  In fact, the measure of the complicity of the owners and Commissioner Landis is seen in the fact that Landis never officially blocked any attempts to integrate the game because no owner sought to integrate during the Landis term.

It is beyond the scope of this blog to deal with all of the controversies of the Landis era. Our interest in Landis is that his legal background ultimately placed him in a position of power running baseball.  As professional sports become more and more complex we have seen owners choosing commissioners with legal backgrounds to run their sports.  This trend in football, basketball, baseball, and hockey gathered a momentum in the 1960s which continues today.  Baseball would see attorneys such as Bowie Kuhn, and Faye Vincent.  Paul Tagliabue ruled for many years in the NFL.  David Stern has guided the NBA for decades now, and Gary Bettman has headed up the NHL since 1993.  But it was Landis who was in the vanguard.

Hey Cubs fans- you're worth $900,000,000, right?