The Commissioners of Baseball: From Landis to Manfred

By 4Baseball Staff · November 5, 2026 · 12 min read

Ten men have held the office of baseball commissioner since 1920. This guide covers each one, the powers the job has and has lost, and the events from the Black Sox to the pitch clock that defined every tenure.

Major League Baseball has had ten commissioners since the office was created in 1920, and the job they held changed more than the people who held it. The first, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, was a federal judge hired to restore trust after the 1919 World Series fixing scandal and given authority that no later commissioner has been able to use in the same way. The tenth, Rob Manfred, took office in 2015 and works for owners who hire him, set his priorities and can decline to keep him. Between them lies a long argument about who runs baseball and in whose interest.

That argument is the thread through the whole story. Owners wanted a commissioner strong enough to be believed by the public and weak enough not to interfere with their business. Players wanted someone who would not simply be the owners' agent, and then built a union that made the question less urgent. Fans wanted the games to be honest. Each commissioner tried to balance those pressures, and several lost their jobs when the balance failed.

This article takes the commissioners in order, with the signature events of each term. Dates and offices are matters of public record. Where a detail is disputed among historians, the text says so and does not pick a side.

Before the commissioner: the National Commission

From 1903 until 1920 baseball was governed by the National Commission, a three-man body made up of the presidents of the American League and the National League and a chairman chosen by them. It handled disputes between the leagues and enforced the agreement that ended the war between them. It worked as long as the leagues agreed on how to share power, and it faltered when they did not.

The 1919 World Series, in which eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of taking money from gamblers to lose to Cincinnati, exposed the weakness of that structure. The scandal became public in 1920, and the owners concluded that a commission of insiders could not restore confidence. They decided to hire an outsider with a reputation for integrity. That decision created the office.

Kenesaw Mountain Landis (1920-1944)

Landis was a federal judge in Chicago when the owners hired him. He was known for handling a major antitrust case involving the Federal League by taking his time, a delay that helped end the dispute without a ruling. He accepted the job on condition that the owners give him broad authority over the game, and the Major League Agreement gave the commissioner power to act in the best interests of baseball. The owners also agreed not to challenge his decisions in court.

His most famous act came in 1921. A Chicago jury acquitted the White Sox players charged in the 1919 scandal, and Landis banned all eight from organized baseball for life anyway. The statement he issued said that the acquittal did not change what had happened in the sport. The decision set a standard for baseball discipline that has been cited ever since, including in later cases involving gambling.

Landis served for 24 years, until his death on November 25, 1944. He used his power over the minor-league and farm-system arrangements to free dozens of players from clubs that tried to hold them in the minors, which weakened the control of clubs with large farm systems. He also presided over an era in which the color line stayed in place. Historians continue to debate how much he enforced it and how much he allowed it to stand, but Black players did not appear in the American and National Leagues until 1947, three years after his death.

Albert "Happy" Chandler (1945-1951)

Chandler was a former governor and senator from Kentucky, chosen by the owners in 1945 in a period when many expected him to be a figurehead. He turned out not to be. In 1947 Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers and became the first Black player in the modern major leagues, and Chandler did not block it. He is remembered for staying out of the way of integration at a moment when the commissioner's office could have stopped it.

He was also a disciplinarian. In 1947 he suspended Brooklyn manager Leo Durocher for the entire season after a series of incidents, an action that showed the commissioner's power over conduct was still real. He banned players who jumped to the Mexican League in 1946, a ruling that was challenged in court and lifted in 1949. The owners voted in 1950 not to renew his contract, and he resigned in 1951, having made enough enemies among them to be replaced.

Ford Frick (1951-1965)

Frick had been a sportswriter and the president of the National League before the owners chose him. He was less combative than his two predecessors, and his tenure coincided with some of the biggest geographic changes the game had seen. The Dodgers and Giants left New York for California in the late 1950s, a story told in when the Dodgers and Giants left New York, and the first expansion in decades followed in 1961 and 1962. The American League added the Los Angeles Angels and a new Washington Senators team in 1961, and the National League added the New York Mets and the Houston Colt .45s in 1962. The expansion is part of the larger story told in baseball's expansion timeline.

Frick's best-known ruling came in 1961, when Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle both chased Babe Ruth's single-season home run record of 60 in the first year of the 162-game schedule in the American League. Frick announced that if the record were broken after the 154th game it should be recorded with a distinction. The word "asterisk" was a press invention and not part of an official record, but the episode became an enduring part of the Maris story. Decades later the record books listed Maris's 61 without any distinction.

William Eckert (1965-1968)

Eckert was a retired Air Force lieutenant general whom the owners picked in 1965 as a compromise, and he was nicknamed the "Unknown Soldier" because few fans had heard of him. His tenure covered a period of sharp change that he was not well equipped to manage. In 1966 the players hired Marvin Miller to run their union, and in 1968 baseball signed its first collective bargaining agreement. The 1968 season became known as the Year of the Pitcher, and the sport responded by lowering the mound and shrinking the strike zone for 1969.

The owners dismissed Eckert in December 1968, shortly after that season, one of the clearest examples of the owners using their power to hire and fire the commissioner. His tenure is often described as the low point of the office, though some of that judgment reflects the fact that he served at a time when the sport's institutions were under strain.

Bowie Kuhn (1969-1984)

Kuhn was a lawyer who had represented the National League owners, and he served for 15 years. His term saw the most extensive legal and labor conflict in the history of the office. In 1970 outfielder Curt Flood refused a trade and sued baseball over the reserve clause, and in 1972 the Supreme Court ruled in Flood v. Kuhn that the sport's antitrust exemption stood. The case was a loss for the player, but it highlighted how restrictive the system was.

The players struck in 1972 for the first time, and again in 1981, when the work stoppage lasted 50 days. In 1975 arbitrator Peter Seitz ruled that pitchers Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally were free agents, which broke the reserve system, a development explained in how free agency works and where it came from. Kuhn also used his authority to void Charlie Finley's 1976 sale of star players to other clubs, a decision upheld in court as an exercise of the commissioner's power to act in the best interests of baseball.

He disciplined players too. In 1979 he barred Willie Mays and in 1983 Mickey Mantle from working for baseball because both had taken jobs with casinos, a policy that was reversed in 1985. During his term, the first World Series night game took place in 1971, a sign of the sport's move to prime time. The owners voted in 1983 not to renew his contract, and his term ended in 1984. For one of the managers hired during his time, see the profile of Frank Robinson, who became the first Black manager in the major leagues in 1975.

Peter Ueberroth (1984-1989)

Ueberroth had organized the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and the owners hired him to run baseball as a business. He took office on October 1, 1984, after being chosen earlier that year. A two-day players strike in August 1985 was settled quickly, and he lifted the bans on Mays and Mantle. He also moved against drug use, handing down suspensions to a group of players in 1986.

His tenure is most associated with the collusion of the 1980s. After 1985 the clubs largely stopped signing free agents from other teams, and arbitrators ruled in 1987, 1988 and 1990 that the owners had acted together to hold down salaries. The story is told in full in the collusion years of the 1980s. Ueberroth has said he did not direct collusion, but the damages were large and the episode damaged labor relations for years. He left in 1989 when his term ended.

A. Bartlett Giamatti (1989)

Giamatti, a scholar of Renaissance literature and a former president of Yale, became National League president in 1986 and commissioner on April 1, 1989. He held the office for five months. His tenure is remembered for a single decision. An investigation led by attorney John Dowd concluded that Cincinnati manager Pete Rose had bet on baseball, including on his own team, and on August 24, 1989, Rose accepted a permanent place on baseball's ineligible list. Rose did not admit to betting on baseball at the time and made an acknowledgment years later.

Giamatti died of a heart attack on September 1, 1989, eight days after the ruling, at the age of 51. He had written about baseball as an intellectual subject for years, and the combination of that reputation and his early death has given his short tenure an outsized place in the sport's memory. Rule 21 of the official rules, which prohibits betting on games, was the basis of the case and still hangs in clubhouses.

Fay Vincent (1989-1992)

Vincent had been Giamatti's deputy and took over on his death. His tenure included the 1989 World Series, which was interrupted by the Loma Prieta earthquake in the Bay Area on October 17, and a lockout of spring training in 1990 that delayed the opening of camps. He banned Yankees owner George Steinbrenner from day-to-day operations of his club in 1990 for dealings with a gambler, a ruling later lifted. The owners approved expansion in 1991 for two National League clubs that began play in 1993.

His downfall came in 1992 over a plan to realign the National League divisions. He ordered a change that owners opposed, and they claimed his use of the best-interests clause went too far. In September 1992 they passed a vote of no confidence, 18 to 9, and he resigned. The episode showed that the owners were prepared to remove a commissioner whose powers collided with their interests, and it began a period in which the post was held by one of their own.

Bud Selig (1992-2015)

Selig, the owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, served as acting commissioner from 1992 and was named commissioner in 1998. His first major event was the player strike that began August 12, 1994, and canceled the rest of the season and the World Series, the first time the Series was not played since 1904. It ended in the spring of 1995 after a federal judge, Sonia Sotomayor, granted an injunction against the owners. Fans were slow to return, and the sport worked to recover them through the late 1990s. The 1998 home run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa is credited with helping that recovery.

His term reshaped the structure of the game. Baseball moved to three divisions in each league with a wild card in 1995, began regular-season interleague play in 1997, added Arizona and Tampa Bay in 1998, abolished the separate league presidents after the 1999 season, and added a second wild card in 2012. The Montreal Expos moved to Washington in 2005. A threatened strike in 2002 ended with an agreement reached hours before the deadline, and the 2002 All-Star Game ended in a tie, which led to a rule awarding home-field advantage in the World Series to the league that won the All-Star Game, used from 2003 through 2016. The playoff changes are covered in the history of baseball playoff expansion.

The steroid era was the other defining issue. Testing began in 2003, penalties were strengthened in the following years, and in December 2007 former senator George Mitchell published a report naming dozens of players. Replay review was introduced for home run calls in 2008 and expanded to a challenge system in 2014. Revenue grew substantially during his term, and the sport went without a work stoppage after 1995. He retired in January 2015, was elected to the Hall of Fame in December 2016 and was inducted in 2017. The business context is discussed in the history of baseball salaries.

Rob Manfred (2015-present)

Manfred, a labor lawyer who had been Selig's chief operating officer, was elected in August 2014 and took office in January 2015. His early years focused on pace of play. Rules limiting batters leaving the box arrived in 2015, mound visits were limited in 2018, and an automatic intentional walk replaced the four-pitch version in 2017. In January 2020 he announced penalties after an investigation of sign stealing by the Houston Astros in 2017: the club was fined, lost draft picks, and its general manager and manager were suspended and then fired.

The 2020 season was cut to 60 games by the pandemic, and in December of that year Manfred announced that Negro Leagues from 1920 to 1948 would be recognized as major leagues. In 2021 he moved the All-Star Game from Atlanta to Denver after Georgia passed a voting law. A lockout began in December 2021 when the labor agreement expired and ended on March 10, 2022, after 99 days. The new agreement created the universal designated hitter, a 12-team postseason and a draft lottery, which is covered in the draft lottery explained. In 2023 a pitch clock, larger bases and limits on defensive shifts took effect.

In May 2025 Manfred ruled that permanent ineligibility ends with a person's death, a decision that removed Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson from baseball's permanently ineligible list. The Hall of Fame sets its own eligibility rules. As of the 2025 season, he remained in office, and the current labor agreement is due to expire at the end of 2026, so readers should check MLB's official site for the latest.

The ten commissioners at a glance

Common questions

What powers does the commissioner have? The Major League Agreement gives the commissioner authority to investigate and to act in the best interests of the game, including discipline of players, clubs and owners. The owners can set terms and decline to renew a term, and they have removed or forced out several commissioners.

Which commissioner served longest? Landis, at 24 years. Kuhn served 15 and Selig, counting his years as acting commissioner, about 22.

Who hires the commissioner? The 30 club owners vote, and a three-quarters majority has been required for election in recent decades. The owners also decide whether to renew a term.

Did commissioners ever work for the players? No. The players have their own union, and the commissioner represents the owners in labor talks even when the office speaks of the good of the game.

Where to go next

For more on the labor side of the story, read the collusion years and how free agency works. For topic pages, browse the business and labor topic page and the history and Hall of Fame topic page. And how to read a box score covers the page where every one of these stories eventually shows up as a result.