From the back of the sketch: Former Judge Landis as he appeared the other day at a Salvation Army campaign luncheon at the Sherman Hotel listening to the reports of the campaign. There is a Chicago Herald & Examiner stamp on the back, also. The artist was on staff at this newspaper. Kenesaw Mountain Landis (November 20, 1866 - November 25, 1944) was an American jurist who served as a federal judge from 1905 to 1922 and as the first Commissioner of Baseball from 1920 until his death. He is remembered for his handling of the Black Sox scandal, in which he expelled eight members of the Chicago White Sox from organized baseball for conspiring to lose the 1919 World Series and repeatedly refused their reinstatement requests. His firm actions and iron rule over baseball in the near quarter-century of his commissionership are generally credited with restoring public confidence in the game. . Two weeks after his death, Landis was voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame by a special committee vote.