The Kenesaw Mountain Landis Memorial Baseball Award, named in honor of MLB’s first commissioner Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, has been awarded annually to the most valuable player in each league since 1944 ... until now. The Baseball Writers Association of America voted by an overwhelming margin (89 percent in favor) Friday to remove Landis’ name from the award, citing his alleged racist leanings. Landis was no ally to the black community, upholding baseball’s “unwritten” ban on African Americans throughout his 24-year stint in the commissioner chair. Dodgers great Jackie Robinson broke MLB’s color barrier shortly after Landis’ passing.
The decision to end MLB’s association with Landis, whose name and likeness will no longer appear on either MVP plaque, was prompted in part by pressure from past MVPs Barry Larkin, Terry Pendleton and Mike Schmidt, who called for the league to cut ties with Landis earlier this year. It’s unclear if MLB has any future plans to rename the award, though this year’s MVP plaques will reportedly be nameless.
Landis was credited with restoring the game’s integrity after years of gambling controversies (the league was still reeling from the previous year’s “Black Sox Scandal” when he took office in 1920), but MLB’s inaugural commissioner largely turned a blind eye to the sport’s rampant racism, barely lifting a finger to integrate African Americans. Distancing itself from Landis by removing his name from the league’s flagship award continues MLB’s long-overdue reckoning, which began years earlier when the Red Sox chose to rename Yawkey Way (home of Fenway Park) following allegations of owner Tom Yawkey’s past racism.
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