In particular, Chicago White Sox owner Charles Comiskey was piqued and incensed at what he perceived to be the indifference of the commission members (especially Johnson) to his suspicions that the 1919 World Series had been thrown to Herrmann's Reds.

Eventually, at the urging of Detroit Tigers owner and Johnson loyalist Frank Navin, a compromise was reached in late 1920 to reform the National Commission with a membership of non-baseball men.

[4] Landis responded by declaring that he would only accept an appointment as sole commissioner, with nearly unlimited authority to act in the "best interests of baseball" – in essence, serving as an arbitrator whose decisions could not be appealed.

Landis argued that because a parent club could unilaterally call up players from teams that were involved in pennant races, the organization was unfairly interfering with the minor competitions.

[12] During his service, he presided over the establishment of a pension fund for players and oversaw the initial steps toward integration of the major leagues, beginning with the debut of Jackie Robinson with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.

Retired US Army LTG William Eckert became a serious candidate for the commissionership only after fellow general officer Curtis LeMay gave Major League Baseball a recommendation for him.

In spite of his much-publicized failures and shortcomings, William Eckert also developed more effective committee actions, streamlined business methods, and helped stabilize franchises with bigger stadiums and long-term leases.

In addition, Eckert worked hard toward promoting the game internationally, including a 1966 post-World Series tour of Japan by the National League champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

Kuhn, who thought that baseball could attract a larger audience by featuring a prime time telecast (as opposed to a mid-afternoon broadcast, when most fans either worked or attended school), pitched the idea to NBC.

Finley forced player Mike Andrews to sign a false affidavit saying he was injured after the reserve infielder committed two consecutive errors in the 12th inning of Oakland's Game 2 loss to the New York Mets.

In 1976, when Finley attempted to sell several players to the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees for $3.5 million, Kuhn blocked the deals on the grounds that they would be bad for the game.

Kansas City Royals catcher Darrell Porter told the Associated Press that during the winter of 1979–1980 he became paranoid, convinced that Kuhn knew about his drug abuse, was trying to sneak into his house, and planned to ban him from baseball for life.

Hall of Famers Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle were banned in 1980 and 1983 respectively after they were hired by casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey, as greeters and autograph signers.

In 1980, during the Iranian hostage crisis, Kuhn sat at a baseball game with Jeremiah Denton, a Navy admiral and former POW in Vietnam who would be elected U.S. senator later that year from the state of Alabama.

During the course of his stint as commissioner, Ueberroth reinstated Hall of Famers Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle, who had been banned from working for Major League Baseball by Kuhn because of their associations with gambling casinos.

Also, Ueberroth suspended numerous players because of cocaine use, negotiated a $1.1 billion television contract with CBS,[23] and initiated the investigation against Pete Rose's betting habits.

Players entering free-agency were prevented from both signing equitable contracts and joining the teams of their choice during this period, a strategy that union leader Marvin Miller later held was "tantamount to fixing, not just games, but entire pennant races, including all post-season series".

A Yale professor of English literature who became president of the university, A. Bartlett Giamatti had a lifelong interest in baseball (he was a die-hard Boston Red Sox fan).

Later that year, Giamatti also suspended Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Jay Howell, who was caught using pine tar during the National League Championship Series.

Giamatti, whose tough dealing with Yale's union favorably impressed Major League Baseball owners, was unanimously elected to succeed Peter Ueberroth as commissioner on September 8, 1988, and assumed office on April 1, 1989.

He presided over the 1989 World Series, which was interrupted by the Loma Prieta earthquake; the owners' lockout during Spring training of the 1990 season; and the expulsion of George Steinbrenner in his first year.

During his commissionership, Vincent made it known and very clear (e.g. while being interviewed by Pat O'Brien during CBS' coverage of Game 4 of the 1991 World Series) that if he had the chance, he would get rid of the designated hitter rule.

At 5:04 p.m., just prior to Game 3 of the World Series between the San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics, the 6.9 Mw Loma Prieta earthquake hit with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent).

Fehr believed that a salary cap could possibly restrict the number of choices that free agents could make and a pay-for-performance scale would eliminate multi-year contracts.

The owners were also disappointed by dwindling television ratings in light of a US$1.1 billion, four-year deal with CBS (which ultimately cost the network $500 million) beginning in 1990 (Vincent's first full season as commissioner) and upwardly spiraling salaries.

(It is also important to note that CBS itself contributed to decreasing ratings thanks to the haphazard scheduling of Game of the Week broadcasts during the regular season to the point that fans grew tired of tuning into no baseball on summer Saturdays.)

[34] Following the release of the Mitchell Report, Congressman Cliff Stearns called publicly for Selig to step down as commissioner, citing his "glacial response" to the "growing stain on baseball".

In 2020, during the COVID-shortened 60 game season, Manfred instituted further changes: the universal designated hitter rule (which became a full-time rule in the National League in 2022), a three-batter minimum for relief pitchers, using an automatic runner (often referred to by fans and the media as a "ghost runner" or "Manfred man") at second base to start each extra inning, and shortening double headers to two seven-inning games rather than nine innings each.

Vincent put it this way: "The Union basically doesn't trust the Ownership because collusion was a $280 million theft by Selig and Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf of that money from the players.

[50] However, on 17 January 2008, it was announced that Selig accepted a 3-year extension through the 2012 season [51] A prominent issue currently faced by Major League Baseball is the usage of performance-enhancing drugs, including anabolic steroids, by ballplayers in the late 1990s through 2009.