Kenesaw Mountain Landis

Kenesaw Mountain Landis (1866-1944), American jurist and baseball official, who became baseball's first commissioner in 1920. He was born in Millville, Ohio. He practiced law in Chicago from 1891 until 1905, when he was appointed United States district judge for the northern district of Illinois by President Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909). In 1907 he found the Standard Oil Company of Indiana guilty of illegal rebating and imposed a fine of more than $29 million. The judgment was later reversed by a higher court, but the trial attracted national attention. In 1920, when it was discovered that several players of the Chicago White Sox, an American League baseball team, had accepted bribes from gamblers and deliberately lost the 1919 World Series, baseball club owners appointed Landis commissioner for the major and minor leagues. As baseball's first commissioner, Landis was granted absolute powers to govern every phase of the game and eliminate all dishonest and unfair practices. He served in this office until his death, and his rigid supervision and impartial judgments renewed public esteem for baseball. Landis was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1944.