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American baseball executive

Byron Bancroft Johnson (January 5, 1864 – March 28, 1931) was an American executive in professional baseball who served as the founder and first president of the American League (AL). Johnson developed the AL—a descendant of the minor league Western League—into a "clean" alternative to the National League, which had become notorious for its rough and tumble atmosphere. To encourage a more orderly environment, Johnson strongly supported the new league's umpires, which eventually included Hall of Famer Billy Evans. With the help of league owners and managers such as Charles Comiskey, Charles Somers and Jimmy McAleer, Johnson lured top talent to the AL, which soon rivaled the more established National League. Johnson dominated the AL until the mid 1920s, when a public dispute with baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis culminated in his forced resignation as league president.

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. 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. At one point, Johnson even had ownership interests in the Cleveland and Washington teams.

The Frazee dispute planted the seed for Johnson's downfall. Eventually, the league divided into two factions, with the Red Sox, White Sox and New York Yankees on one side (commonly known as "The Insurrectos") and the other five clubs (the Indians, Philadelphia Athletics, St. Louis Browns, Detroit Tigers and Washington Senators, known as the "Loyal Five") on the other. By this time, Comiskey had become a bitter enemy of Johnson; the two men's once warm friendship had strained considerably. Johnson's authority eroded further that year when the Red Sox traded Carl Mays to the Yankees in defiance of a Johnson order to suspend him after Mays had jumped the club. The Yankees went to court and received an injunction to allow Mays to play, as Johnson had demonstrated throughout the proceedings that his investment in the Cleveland Indians hindered his ability to be impartial. The final nail in Johnson's coffin proved to be the Black Sox Scandal. Johnson paid no attention to Comiskey's claims that his White Sox may have been on the take from gamblers. However, when the scandal broke after the 1920 season, the White Sox, Red Sox and Yankees threatened to pull out of the AL and join a new 12 team National League. The enlarged league would include a new team in Detroit unrelated to the Tigers, who were owned by Johnson loyalist Frank Navin. However, Navin was in no mood for another war and persuaded the other five clubs to agree to appoint a new National Commission of non baseball men. Federal District Court Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was appointed as chairman. However, Landis would accept an appointment only as sole Commissioner of Baseball, with unlimited power over the game. The owners were still reeling from the damage to baseball's reputation due to the Black Sox Scandal, and readily agreed to Landis' demands. Under the circumstances, a clash between the iron willed Johnson and the iron willed Landis was inevitable, and it happened prior to the 1924 World Series. Landis banned two New York Giants from the Series for attempting to bribe members of the Philadelphia Phillies late in the season. After Frankie Frisch and two other Giants stars were implicated, only to be cleared by Landis, Johnson demanded that the Series be canceled. He publicly criticized Landis for his handling of the affair, and Landis threatened to resign if the AL owners didn't rein Johnson in. After the Series, the AL owners promised to remove Johnson from office if he stepped out of line again. Johnson remained on good behavior for two years, even getting an extension of his contract to 1935 and a raise to $40,000 (he had previously made $25,000). However, in 1926, Johnson criticized Landis for granting Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker an amnesty after evidence surfaced that they had fixed a game in 1919. Landis demanded that the AL choose between him and Johnson. The AL owners were prepared to remove Johnson from office at their annual meeting in January 1927. Because Johnson was in ill health at the time, the owners decided to put him on an indefinite sabbatical instead. Johnson tried to return in the spring and acted as if nothing had changed. However, the situation had become untenable, and Johnson was forced to resign at the end of the season. Frank Navin served as acting president of the American League until the owners selected Indians general manager Ernest Barnard as president.

Johnson died on March 28, 1931, at age 67, in St. Louis, Missouri, just a few hours after his successor, Ernest Barnard. Johnson was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937 as one of its charter members. The athletic fieldhouse at Marietta College is named in his honor. He was laid to rest at Riverside Cemetery in Spencer, Indiana. Will Harridge, who succeeded to the AL presidency in 1931, summed up Johnson's legacy: "He was the most brilliant man the game has ever known. He was more responsible for making baseball the national game than anyone in the history of the sport".