Editing Commissioner of Baseball (section)

== Origin of the office ==
{{See also|History of baseball in the United States}}
The title "commissioner", which is a title that is now applied to the heads of several other major sports leagues as well as baseball, derives from its predecessor office, the [[National Baseball Commission]], the ruling body of professional baseball starting with the National Agreement of 1903, which created unity between both the [[National League (baseball)|National League]] and the [[American League]]. The agreement consisted of three members: the two league presidents and a commission chairman, whose primary responsibilities were to preside at meetings and to mediate disputes. Although [[Cincinnati Reds]] president [[August Herrmann]] served as commission chairman and as such was the nominal head of major league baseball, it was the American League president [[Ban Johnson]] who dominated the commission.

The event that would eventually lead to the appointment of a single commissioner of baseball was the [[Black Sox Scandal]] – perhaps the worst of a series of incidents in the late 1910s that jeopardized the integrity of the game of baseball. However, the desire to rebuild public relations was not the only motivation behind the creation of the commissioner's office. The scandal had not only tarnished the image of baseball, but it had brought relations between team owners and American League president Johnson to a boiling point. In particular, [[Chicago White Sox]] owner [[Charles Comiskey]] was piqued and incensed at what he perceived to be the indifference of the commission members (especially Johnson) to his suspicions that the [[1919 World Series]] had been thrown to Herrmann's Reds. Meanwhile, the commission came under pressure to remove Herrmann from his post due to anti-German sentiment following U.S. entry into [[World War I]].

At the end of the 1920 season, the National League, whose owners had never been on good terms with Johnson, agreed to invite the White Sox along with the [[Boston Red Sox]] and [[New York Yankees]] to join their league. The National League also unveiled plans to put a twelfth team in Cleveland or Detroit. With the American League's status as a major league (and possibly its very existence) suddenly in jeopardy, the five American League owners loyal to Johnson sued for peace. Eventually, at the urging of [[Detroit Tigers]] owner and Johnson loyalist [[Frank Navin]], a compromise was reached in late 1920 to reform the National Commission with a membership of non-baseball men.<ref>{{Cite web |last=admin |title=1920 Winter Meetings: The Year that Rocked Baseball and Changed it Forever – Society for American Baseball Research |url=https://sabr.org/journal/article/1920-winter-meetings/ |access-date=2024-07-17 |language=en-US}}</ref>