Happy Chandler: Commissioner Who Backed Robinson Dead At 92
VERSAILLES, Ky. - A.B. "Happy" Chandler, who came out of Kentucky politics to become baseball commissioner, died yesterday. He was 92.
Ben Chandler said his father died at his home, apparently of a heart attack.
Chandler coached football at Centre College in Danbury, Ky., and high-school basketball in Versailles. He also coached women's basketball at the University of Kentucky.
Chandler had been a state senator, lieutenant governor, two-term governor and and U.S. senator from Kentucky when he was called in 1945 to run baseball as the successor to Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis.
It was during Chandler's tenure that one of the most important events in baseball history occurred - the breaking of the color line.
Chandler, despite considerable pressure, supported the introduction of Jackie Robinson into the major leagues with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Chandler also made the controversial decision to suspend Brooklyn Manager Leo Durocher for the 1947 season because of his associations with gamblers.
During his time as commissioner, Chandler often was criticized by owners as being too pro-player. He fought for players' rights, helped institute the pension fund, and lifted the ban on players who had defected to the Mexican League after World War II.
In 1950, a small group of owners banded together and fired Chandler, who finished out his term in mid-1951. After that time, in the tenure of Ford Frick and Gen. William Eckert as commissioners, Chandler was blacklisted from baseball.
He never was invited to a World Series or All-Star Game and slid back into obscurity in Versailles, where he had started practicing law in 1924.
"They forgot me and I forgot them," Chandler said of the baseball establishment.
But the mood changed when Bowie Kuhn became commissioner in 1969. Under Kuhn, Chandler was invited to the World Series, where he threw out the first ball.
In 1982, supported by Kuhn and longtime baseball executives Gabe Paul and Joe Cronin, Chandler was elected to the Hall of Fame.