Kenesaw Mountain Landis
Federal judge and first commissioner of baseball.
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From 1905 until 1922, Kenesaw Mountain Landis held the position of a United States federal judge, and from 1920 until his death in 1944, he was the first person to serve as baseball's commissioner; he was an American jurist.[1] The Black Sox Scandal, where eight Chicago White Sox members were banned from organized baseball by Landis for plotting to throw the 1919 World Series, is what he is most known for resolving.[1] Public faith in baseball was generally restored due to Landis's strict control over the sport during his nearly twenty-five years as commissioner.[1]
Life and work
He was named after the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in Georgia, where his father had been wounded fighting in the U.S. Army.[2] Landis left school at 15 and worked as a news delivery boy, at a general store, and as an errand boy for a railroad before becoming a court reporter.[3][4] Landis later earned a law degree from Union Law School in 1891 and began practicing in Chicago.[5] Landis served as the first commissioner of organized baseball from 1921 until his death in 1944.[6]
Abraham Hoch Landis, a physician, and Mary Kumler Landis had their sixth child, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, on November 20, 1866, in Millville, Ohio.[2] Landis gained admission to the Indiana bar after demonstrating he was 21 years old and possessed good moral character.[5]
What the cited sources add
The Biographical Directory of Federal Judges records that Landis served as private secretary to Secretary of State Walter Gresham from 1893 to 1895.[6] The same source notes that Landis was in private practice in Chicago from 1891 to 1893 and again from 1895 to 1905.[6] The Kennesaw Mountain Landis papers, spanning 1892 to 1945, contain correspondence, scrapbooks, and judicial opinions relating to his careers as a lawyer, judge, and baseball commissioner.[6]
References
- Wikipedia, "Kenesaw Mountain Landis" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Owens, "Buck Weaver's family pushes to get 'Black Sox' player reinstated", Chicago Tribune (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Kenesaw Mountain Landis" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Pietrusza, p. 1–3 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Kenesaw Mountain Landis" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Landis, p. 47; Landis, p. 47 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Kenesaw Mountain Landis" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Spink, p. 17–19; Pietrusza, p. 1–3; Pietrusza, p. 1–3; Spink, p. 17–19 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Kenesaw Mountain Landis" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Vile, p. 451; Pietrusza, p. 1–3; Landis, p. 47 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "Landis, Kenesaw Mountain", Biographical Directory of Federal Judges. facts only, no text reused. fjc.gov
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Kenesaw Mountain Landis (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Kenesaw Mountain Landis (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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