I got a text last night from my good friend Ryan. It said something like "I have a question for you. I told Brady [his younger brother] you would know it. Who was the first commissioner of baseball?"
I hemmed and hawed at work, thinking. I wasn't going to cheat and look it up. I ended up imaging the commissioner from the farthest back in time I could remember, and went with it.
I responded with "Landis..."
His response, hours later, was "Yep. Surprised the hell out of Brady."
Yup. Kennesaw Mountain "Ain't gonna be no black folks in our game" Landis.
Maybe he wasn't the originator of the "gentleman's agreement", the euphemism for the "no black folk" rule, but under his stewardship, the status quo was upheld and no black folks were allowed into the "major leagues".
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