Leadership is a multifaceted concept, and its effectiveness often depends on context and circumstances. This year, serving as Chair of our Collegial Governance system at the college, I’ve gained a deeper understanding of this. Sometimes, the most impactful leadership involves stepping back and allowing a robust system to function effectively on its own. However, this isn’t a universal approach, and a good leader discerns when to intervene and when to let things run their course.
This hands-off approach starkly contrasts with the leadership style of Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, baseball’s inaugural Commissioner and a fitting inductee into the Pioneer/Executive wing of the Hall of Miller and Eric. Landis assumed his role in the aftermath of the infamous Black Sox scandal of 1919, where eight Chicago White Sox players were accused of conspiring to fix the World Series. His mandate was clear: restore public trust in baseball and ensure the game’s integrity. He responded with an iron fist, employing a leadership style that was absolute and unwavering.
Consider these powerful statements from Landis:
“Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player who throws a ballgame, no player that undertakes or promises to throw a ballgame, no player that sits in conference with a bunch of crooked players and gamblers where the ways and means of throwing a game are discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball.”
Landis’s stance was unequivocally firm. Despite the Black Sox players being acquitted in a court of law, Commissioner Landis acted as judge, jury, and executioner in the realm of baseball. They remain permanently banned from the sport.
“Negroes are not barred from organized baseball by the commissioner and never have been during the twenty-one years I have served.”
Without delving into the complexities of historical accuracy or ethical considerations in this statement, it highlights Landis’s propensity to take decisive responsibility where he saw fit, and deflect it when he didn’t, at least according to his own perspective.
Kenesaw Landis
A leader like Landis, with his autocratic style, would likely face significant challenges in today’s Major League Baseball, in a collegial governance role, or indeed, in most contemporary organizations. The modern leadership landscape often favors collaboration, consensus-building, and a more democratic approach. However, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was arguably the ideal figure to take the helm as baseball’s first Commissioner. He was the right pioneer executive at the crucial moment when the sport desperately needed saving from the shadow of corruption and gambling.
It is this decisive, pioneering spirit that makes Kenesaw Mountain Landis a perfect choice for the second induction into the Pioneer/Executive wing of the Hall of Miller and Eric. Next week, we will introduce the third inductee, further celebrating those transformative figures who have shaped the world of baseball.
Miller
