Happy Chandler - Commissioner of Baseball - Other Matters of Chandler's Term

Other Matters of Chandler's Term

During the 1946 postseason, rumors began to swirl that Yankees owner Larry MacPhail was lobbying Brooklyn Dodgers manager Leo Durocher to leave the Dodgers and manage the Yankees. The move angered Dodgers owner Branch Rickey, who encouraged Chandler to begin an investigation into the gambling habits of Durocher and his associate, actor George Raft. In the offseason, Chandler and Durocher had a meeting wherein Chandler counseled Durocher to abandon his gambling. Branch Rickey charged Chandler with maintaining a double standard, however, when the commissioner took no action after seeing MacPhail with two known gamblers at a Yankees–Dodgers preseason exhibition in Havana, Cuba. MacPhail then signed two Dodgers assistant coaches—Chuck Dressen and John Corriden—as aides to Yankee manager Bucky Harris while they were still employed by the Dodgers. Chandler suspended Dressen for 30 days and levied $2,000 fines against MacPhail and the Yankees.

The Yankees–Dodgers feud continued in the New York newspapers throughout the offseason. Charges were levelled by both sides, including accusations that Durocher was a philanderer because of his alleged involvement with married actress Laraine Day, which ultimately resulted in Day's divorce. When Durocher subsequently married Day, a local Catholic priest declared that attending Dodgers games was a venal sin. Prompted in part by this declaration, Chandler suspended Durocher from baseball for a year just days before Opening Day, citing "conduct detrimental to baseball".

Also in 1947, Chandler sold the rights to broadcast the World Series on the radio for $475,000; he used the money from the contract to establish a pension fund for baseball players. In 1949, Chandler negotiated a seven-year contract with Gillette and the Mutual Broadcasting System to broadcast the Series. Proceeds from the $4,370,000 deal went directly into the pension fund. The same two companies negotiated a six-year, $6 million contract to broadcast the Series on television in 1950. Again, Chandler directed the proceeds into the pension fund.

In 1949, Danny Gardella, who had left the New York Giants for the Mexican League in 1946, filed suit against Major League Baseball, claiming Chandler's ban on players who went to the Mexican League had denied him a means of pursuing his livelihood. Gardella demanded $100,000 in damages from the suspension, and claimed that the award should be tripled because baseball was subject to federal antitrust laws. Similar suits were filed by Max Lanier and Fred Martin, both of whom also played in Mexico. On June 2, 1949, a federal court refused to reinstate the three players pending their trials, but urged that the antitrust issues be adjudicated as soon as possible. Attempting to alleviate the legal pressure on Major League Baseball, Chandler lifted the bans on players who had gone to Mexico, reinstating them almost two years early. Lanier and Martin dropped their suits, but Gardella pursued his. After Gardella's lawyer publicly questioned Chandler in court about baseball's antitrust exemption for a day and a half in September 1949, baseball executives, including Chandler, agreed to settle Gardella's case for $60,000.

Chandler's contract as baseball commissioner was not due to expire until April 1952, but he asked for the owners to extend it in December 1949. The owners voted against offering the extension at that time, but promised to consider the request again in December 1950. The vote in 1950 was nine votes for Chandler and seven against, leaving him three votes short of the necessary three-fourths majority. Chandler asked that the extension be considered again at the owners' meeting on March 12, 1951, but the vote was again 9–7. Upset that his contract was not extended, Chandler resigned effective July 15, 1951.

In an interview with The Sporting News in August 1951, Chandler cited his decision to void a trade between the New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox for outfielder Dick Wakefield as a major factor in his inability to secure a new contract. The Yankees traded Wakefield to the White Sox for cash, but Wakefield refused to report to the White Sox after a salary dispute, leading to a disagreement between the teams over who was responsible for his salary. Chandler voided the trade, making Wakefield's contract the Yankees' responsibility and angering their owner, Del Webb. It was not until the 1970s that Chandler began to cite his involvement in the integration of baseball as a reason for his contract not being renewed. Historian John Paul Hill considers this unlikely, however, because two of Chandler's strongest allies, Connie Mack and Walter Briggs, Sr., were ardently opposed to integration while William DeWitt, the second owner in the American League to integrate, voted against him. Hill points to the Dick Wakefield dispute, as well as Chandler's investigations of Del Webb and Cardinals owner Fred Saigh involving their rumored connections to gambling interests, as more compelling reasons for Chandler's dismissal.

Following his tenure as baseball commissioner, Chandler returned to his law practice. He also engaged in farming and published The Woodford Sun newspaper. The Kentucky Press Association and the Kentucky Broadcasting Association both named him Man of the Year. He continued his involvement in sports, presiding over the International Baseball Conference from 1952 to 1955.