The Western League
Born in Norwalk, Ohio, Johnson went on to study law at Marietta College, although he did not take his degree. He subsequently became the sports editor of a newspaper in Cincinnati. During this time, Johnson befriended Charles Comiskey, who was then manager of the Cincinnati Reds. At the urging of Comiskey and Reds owner John T. Brush, Johnson was elected as president of the Western League, a faltering minor league, at a reorganization meeting held in 1893.
Johnson had criticized the National League for its rowdy atmosphere, which was driving away families and women. He set about making baseball more friendly to both. Contrary to the practice of the time, Johnson gave his umpires unqualified support and had little tolerance for players or managers who failed to show them due respect. Johnson also fined and suspended players who used foul language on the field. Soon, the Western League was recognized as not only the strongest minor league, but also as the most effectively managed league in all of baseball.
Read more about this topic: Ban Johnson
Famous quotes containing the words western and/or league:
“It is fatally easy for Western folk, who have discarded chastity as a value for themselves, to suppose that it can have no value for anyone else. At the same time as Californians try to re-invent “celibacy,” by which they seem to mean perverse restraint, the rest of us call societies which place a high value on chastity “backward.””
—Germaine Greer (b. 1939)
“He will deliver you from six troubles; in seven no harm shall touch you. In famine he will redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword. You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, and shall not fear destruction when it comes. At destruction and famine you shall laugh, and shall not fear the wild animals of the earth. For you shall be in league with the stones of the field, and the wild animals shall be at peace with you.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Job 5:19-23.