Four Dubious Acts By Baseball Commissioners

Kenesaw Mountain Landis
Bans barnstorming in the mid-'20s. effectively ending games between white and black pro clubs.

A.B. (Happy) Chandler
Teetotaling Kentuckian signs six-year, $6 million deal in 1947 with Gillette for TV rights to World Series, eschewing more lucrative offer from Rheingold beer.

Bowie Kuhn
Invoking best-interests-of-baseball clause, hands lifetime bans (later overturned) to Hall of Famers Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays for doing promotional work for Atlantic City casinos.

Fay Vincent
Citing policy against investment from outside North America, opposes 1992 bid by Japanese owners of Nintendo to buy Mariners; reverses course after deputy Stephen Greenberg concedes no such policy exists.