In the most recent edition of SABR’s Baseball Research Journal, a section is dedicated to Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a federal judge and the first commissioner of baseball. In the BRJ, the argument centers on whether Landis can be blamed for the segregation of baseball (a PDF is here), as many credit his reluctance to upset the American public as a main reason that baseball didn’t integrate sooner. Norman L. Macht, author of a biography on Connie Mack, makes the case that baseball, because of Landis, was ahead of the curve in integration.
Macht argues that Landis was not willing to break the ‘Gentleman’s Agreement,’ an agreement between team owners to keep blacks out of baseball, (started in part by Cap Anson, HoF class of 1939) but a quick glance at Landis’ career as commissioner shows that he was willing to break a lot more rules – including those of the American legal system. Landis, a noted jurist who served on the Federal Court of Northern Illinois as Teddy Roosevelt’s appointee, abused his power more than any other commissioner in baseball history, as his rulings consistently came into conflict with the founding principles of American law. Kenesaw Landis did not serve as commissioner judiciously – he was a witch hunter with power over the American Game.
The most well known example of Landis evading the legal system was during the Black Sox scandal of 1919. The scandal tarnished baseball’s reputation and Landis was brought in as commissioner because of it. Though a grand jury, convened in the fall of 1920, found Joe Jackson and Eddie Cicotte innocent, Landis still banned them from baseball, saying, “Regardless of the verdict of juries, baseball is entirely competent to protect itself against crooks, both inside and outside the game.” While Jackson was probably involved (and Cicotte confessed to it), they were let of the hook after their signed confessions were lost, and they subsequently recanted their testimonies.
A similar story occurred with New York Giants’ first baseman Benny Kauff. Kauff was known as “Ty Cobb of the Feds,” as he had topped the leaderboards in the Federal League (a third party challenger to the National and American Leagues that had a brief existence in the 1910’s). Though Landis wasn’t commissioner during the power struggle between the Federal League and the two established divisons, he did hear the court case in which the Federal League challenged the monopoly of the American and National League. Landis, a supporter of the status quo during his time on the bench, refused to hear the case for 11 months, which led to a settlement out of court. Therefore, it will come as no surprise that Landis banned Kauff from baseball even after he was acquitted of charges of car theft. Landis was quoted as saying, “That acquittal was one of the worst miscarriages of justice that ever came under my observation.”
Another example of Landis serving as judge and jury is during the oft-forgotten betting scandal involving Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker, who were inducted in the first two classes of the Hall (1937 and 1938, respectively). When Dutch Leonard (the lefty who posted a 0.96 ERA in 1914, not the righty knuckleballer who pitched a decade later), who had a career-long beef with Cobb, wrote to American League President Ban Johnson in 1926 about a betting scandal, Landis took over. According to Leonard, in 1919, Speaker’s Indians had already clinched second place, and a deal was made to enable the Tigers to win third in the last game of the year. Speaker, Leonard, and Smoky Joe Wood split $600 between them, as Cobb was late on making the bets. Johnson bought the letters (Leonard included letters from Cobb and Wood that mentioned throwing games) for $20,000 and suspended Cobb and Speaker until a decision could be made after the year. Though Cobb and Speaker were far from class acts, (Cobb was a virulent racist, and bragged about being a murderer; Speaker was in the Klu Klux Klan) banning them from baseball would be an enormous problem, as three major stars banned in seven years could have doomed the game. Luckily for baseball, the one man panel of Judge Landis found them innocent, evidence and all.
Let’s not leave out Judge Landis’ involvement with the Baseball Hall of Fame. While banning Jackson, and keeping Speaker and Cobb around was hypocritical, Landis also tried to silence those with proof that Abner Doubleday was not the inventor of baseball. Landis knew that the Hall of Fame was too good of an opportunity to be turned down (it was a huge publicity boost for baseball), so fudging the details probably didn’t lose him any sleep. When Alexander Cartwright’s grandson came to Landis with evidence that his grandfather wrote down the first rules of baseball (which would make the Doubleday story, and Cooperstown, a myth), Landis made sure that Cartwright was given a plaque in the Hall, quashing any conflict for the time being.
Looked at through the prism of these three baseball anecdotes, one part of Macht’s argument can be scrapped: the idea that Landis had no power is doubtful. Landis ruled with an iron fist, and he would certainly have no problem telling the baseball owners that they have to acquire black players. The second part of Macht’s theory, that society wasn’t ready for integration, is disregarding a major fact: the values of baseball and America are intertwined. I think that if Landis were to integrate the game, many Americans (who look to baseball as an arbiter of social decisions) would have altered their views, at least somewhat, in favor of integration. While this may see unfathomable, it should be – no other American insitution has the kind of job that baseball does: provide entertainment, but also act as a moral compass for Americans.
This is the real reason why the Hall of Fame is important – who gets in and who doesn’t is just as important as why they get in (or don’t). Not convinced? Think of Pete Rose. If Judge Landis hadn’t overstepped his bounds and started banning players left and right, with facts often coming in conflict with his decions, then Bart Giamatti, who would be without precedent, would have slapped Rose with a suspension, he would learn his lesson, and his plaque would be on the wall, right next to Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker: his true counterparts.
