Ford Frick - National League President and Baseball Commissioner

National League President and Baseball Commissioner

In the late 1930s, Frick played a central role in establishing the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. Later, during his tenure as National League president, when several members of the St. Louis Cardinals planned to protest Jackie Robinson's breaking of baseball's color barrier, Frick threatened any players involved with suspension. In 1951, he succeeded Happy Chandler as commissioner of baseball. Frick's critics accused him of favoring the NL in his rulings, such as how the 1960s expansion teams would be stocked.

In 1957 during his tenure as commissioner, Frick addressed an organized campaign of ballot stuffing for that year's All-Star Game in which most of the ballots originated from Cincinnati and had stacked the National League team with Reds. In response, Frick overruled the fan vote, removed two Reds from the starting lineup and appointed two replacements from other teams, and then took the vote away from the fans and kept it that way for the remainder of his tenure.

Frick's most highly criticized decision as commissioner was to convince baseball record-keepers to list the single-season home run records of Babe Ruth and Roger Maris separately in 1961, based on the length of the season played. Later, it was revealed that Frick had served as a ghostwriter for Ruth earlier in his career. In 1991, the "asterisk" was struck from the record book, as Frick had no real authority over how the records were presented. Maris' record was officially recognized thereafter until broken by Mark McGwire in 1998.

Frick has an award named after him given to recognized broadcasters in the MLB.