Former baseball players who have won the Most Valuable Player award over the years have asked the league to remove former commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis from the plates.
Landis’ name is shown on the American and National League MVP award plaques. He was known for cleaning up the game in sports, but MLB historian John Thorn said his legacy is “always a complicated story” that includes “documented racism.”
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Landis’s past makes Hall of Fame member Barry Larkin wonder why his name is still there.
Barry Larkin is introduced prior to the MLB All-Star baseball game in Cincinnati. Something still annoys Barry Larkin about his MVP award. The other name engraved on the trophy: Kenesaw Mountain Landis. “Why is it there?” said Larkin, the black shortstop voted National League MVP in 1995 with the Cincinnati Reds. (AP Photo / John Minchillo, File)
“I was always aware of his name and what that meant to decrease the color line in Major League Baseball, the racial injustice and inequality that black players had to go through,” Larkin told The Associated Press.
Former Philadelphia Phillies slugger Mike Schmidt agreed.
“If you’re looking to expose people in baseball history who promoted racism by continuing to close baseball doors to men of color, Kenesaw Landis would be a candidate,” he said.
Looking at baseball in the early 20th century, this was the norm. However, it doesn’t make it right. Removing his name from the MVP trophy would expose the injustice of that time. I would gladly replace the engraving on my trophies.
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Landis was a commissioner of the Major League Baseball from 1920 to 1944. During his time, there were no black players in baseball. Jackie Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.
In this Oct. 1, 1941 file photo, baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis throws the first ball, formally opening the 1941 World Series with the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium, New York. . (AP Photo)
Landis was a federal judge and his claim to fame at the time was banning Joe Jackson and the Black Sox for launching the 1919 World Series. He allowed the Baseball Writers Association of America to choose the MVP awards for each league in 1931 and the organization voted to have his name added to the plaques in 1944. He died a month later and was inducted into the Hall of Fame.
“Landis is who he is. He was who he was, ”Thorn told the AP. “I fully support the movement to remove the Confederate monuments, and Landis was quite close to the Confederacy.”
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Larkin said that when he won the MVP award in 1994, he received a call from Joe Morgan, a two-time MVP winner in his own right. Larkin said Morgan raised the issue with him and agreed.
“Your name should not be depicted on a plaque or award of honor, especially on this day and time,” Larkin said. “If his name were taken from him, I would not object at all.”
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Landis’ name is not part of the BBWAA constitution and any member can object, said secretary-treasurer Jack O’Connell.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
