Ban Johnson

The Western League

Johnson was born in Norwalk, Ohio, and attended Marietta College to study law, though he left without a degree. He later became a sports editor for a Cincinnati newspaper, where he met Charles Comiskey, the Cincinnati Reds manager. At Comiskey’s and Reds owner John T. Brush’s suggestion, Johnson was chosen as president of the Western League, a minor league in trouble, during a 1894 reorganization.

He blamed the National League for its rough atmosphere that kept families and women away, so he made baseball more inviting for them. Johnson backed his umpires completely and punished players or managers who disrespected them, fining or suspending anyone using foul language. The Western League soon gained a reputation as the strongest minor league and the best-run league in baseball.

Formation of the American League

Johnson had bigger ambitions than the Western League: he wanted a second major league. Comiskey, who had left the Reds and bought the Sioux City club, moving it to St. Paul in 1894, helped him. When the National League cut four teams after 1899—Baltimore, Cleveland, Louisville, and Washington—Johnson seized the chance. He shifted the Grand Rapids franchise to Cleveland, which later became the Indians.

Comiskey moved his St. Paul team to Chicago, eventually the White Sox, with the National League’s approval, which saw it as a way to block a revival of the American Association. For 1900, the Western League was renamed the American League but stayed a minor league. That season was a clear success, earning Johnson a ten-year contract extension. In October 1900, he pulled the American League out of the National Agreement.

On January 28, 1901, he announced the league would operate as a major league, placing teams in Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington. The Buffalo Bisons had been told as late as January 29 that they were in the league, but Johnson abruptly dropped them and gave the franchise to Boston. It later came out that he had been secretly negotiating with Boston people for months and had money in the Boston club. He also held a large stake in the Washington franchise until 1903.

A baseball power

In 1901, the National League capped player pay at $2,400 annually. Ban Johnson, Charles Comiskey, and other American League owners lured unhappy players from the National League with better offers, and more than 100 switched leagues. Over two seasons, the American League drew bigger crowds, forcing the National League to negotiate. A new National Agreement made the American League an official major league and created a three-person National Commission with both league presidents and Cincinnati owner Garry Herrmann.

Though Herrmann was the commission’s figurehead, Johnson quickly took control. Johnson disliked dissent and blocked people he opposed from buying into the league. When Harry Frazee purchased the Boston Red Sox in 1917, Johnson tried to push him out because Frazee wasn’t Johnson’s chosen candidate. Johnson also owned stakes in the Cleveland and Washington clubs.

Downfall

The dispute with Frazee contributed to Johnson's downfall. The league split into two factions: the Red Sox, White Sox, and New York Yankees (the Insurrectos) against the other five clubs (the Loyal Five: Indians, Athletics, Browns, Tigers, and Senators). Comiskey became a bitter enemy of Johnson, and their friendship had strained considerably. Johnson's authority eroded when the Red Sox traded Carl Mays to the Yankees despite Johnson's order to suspend Mays after he had left the club.

The Yankees obtained a court injunction allowing Mays to play, as Johnson's investment in the Cleveland Indians had compromised his impartiality. The Black Sox Scandal was the final blow. Johnson ignored Comiskey's claims that his White Sox might have been involved with gamblers. After the scandal broke in 1920, the White Sox, Red Sox, and Yankees threatened to leave the American League and join a new 12-team National League that would include a new Detroit team unrelated to the Tigers, owned by Johnson loyalist Frank Navin.

Navin did not want another war and persuaded the other five clubs to agree to appoint a new National Commission of non-baseball men. Federal District Court Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was appointed as chairman but accepted only as sole Commissioner of Baseball with unlimited power. The owners, reeling from the scandal's damage, agreed to Landis's demands.

Did You Know?

• Johnson was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937 as one of its charter members.
• The athletic fieldhouse at Marietta College is named in his honor.
• The Jayhawk Collegiate League's Liberal Bee Jays are named in Johnson's honor.