.
"Belongs on most Sports bookshelves."
—Library Journal

"well-regarded"
—Washington Post

"Finally, an objective biography of Baseball's
first Commissioner. Beautifully done."
—Jerome Holtzman

"Judge and Jury is first rate."
—Fay Vincent

"Baseball fans should be grateful for this
comprehensive biography of one of the
game's most towering and
dominating figures."
—Attorney General Richard Thornburgh

"The most comprehensive biography yet of
"the man who save baseball" from the stain of
the 1919 Black Sox scandal."
—USA Today Baseball Weekly

"Handled readably and with plenty of
documenting research . . .every baseball
history library should make room
for 'Judge and Jury.'"
—Total Baseball Daily

"David Pietrusza has gone beyond the one
dimensional public image of Kenesaw M.
Landis that too many people today accept as
graven truth . . . In this meticulously
researched book, Pietrusza with admirable
objectivity depicts both the faults and virtues
of one of the most important and colorful
figures of the 20th century."
—Robert Creamer

"Judge and Jury: The Life and Times of
Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis is one of a
handful of historical baseball books that
actually get beyond the field to understand the
social, intellectual, economic, and political
forces that made the modern game. It is must
reading for serious students of the game: very
good on the business side and a fair appraisal
of Landis' role as commissioner. Baseball fans
may buy it because they love the game, but
when they read it, they will learn a lot of
history about the United States in the
progressive era, the first World War, and in
the 1920s."
—Prof. Richard F. Hamm
Professor of History and Public Policy and
Chair, History Department
at the University at Albany.

"I expected the book to be thorough, but I
learned more about politics, history, and yes,
baseball, than I ever imagined."
—Matt Silverman

"Pietrusza offers a fair and balanced
[portrait], one that is a major contribution to
the literature. It belongs on the bookshelves
of every student and historian of our National
Pastime."
—G. S. Rowe

"Absolutely must reading for anyone digging
into the events that led to Landis' selection as
baseball's Commissioner. . . . I recommend it."
—Gene Carney
Author, Burying the Black Sox: How
Baseball's Cover-Up of the 1919 World Series
Fix Almost Succeeded

"[I] was stunned at the amount of detail,
accuracy, original research, and skilled
interpretation of the facts."
—Rob Neyer, ESPN

"superb . . . a wonderful book."
—James Brock
Professor of Economics, Miami University

¨ One of "1998['s] Best Baseball Books"
—The Sandlot Shrink

"A detailed, caring portrait, provided within
proper historical context … full-blooded,
accurate, and honest."
—The Diamond Angle

"Recommended."
—Baseball America

"Filled with captivating stories . . . an
excellent in-depth look at the man attributed
with cleaning up a tainted game"
—World Wide Collectors Digest

"The first substantial biography of one of
baseball's most imposing figures . . . . goes
beyond the myths to reveal who Landis really
was and why he had such an impact on
American life, both as a federal judge and as
the first commissioner of baseball."
—Sean Lahman's Baseball Archives  
.
Winner of the CASEY Award:
Best Baseball Book of 1998
.
Finalist, 1998
Seymour Medal

Nominee 1998
NASSH Book
Award
Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis
"In this fascinating,
diligently
researched work,
Pietrusza tackles a
complex, important
man and makes him
his own."

—Publishers Weekly
From amazon.com . . .

Baseball's first commissioner cast such a long
and powerful shadow over the game, it's
often hard to untangle his contribution from
his personality, and his life from his lasting
myth. The truth that emerges from this
exhaustive and engaging biography of Judge
Landis has no problem matching the outsized
legend stride for stride. Landis moved into
the public spotlight to clean up the national
pastime after the disgrace of the 1919 World
Series, but there was much more to this
complex man and his complex career. Judge
and Jury chronicles the entirety.

A tough, colorful judge, his rulings could be
as unpredictable as he was. Landis could be
as severe and stubborn as he could be gentle
and understanding, characteristics that both
defined his decision-making and confused his
critics. Noted as a trustbuster—he went head
to head with John D. Rockefeller, fining
Standard Oil $29 million—he upheld
baseball's exemption from antitrust status
from the bench. Known for his harsh
sentences, he was almost impeached for his
leniency to the destitute. As commissioner, he
loved the post, the game, and his perceived
responsibility as its primary upholder and
restorer of virtue: "You have told the world
that my powers would be absolute," he
warned the owners who hired him. "I
wouldn't take this job for all the gold in the
world unless I knew my hands were free." In
his regime, they pretty much were, and he
used them to grab his share of whatever
power and glory he could wrap them around.

—Jeff Silverman, amazon.com

"[Judge and Jury] is outstanding. I have
learned more about the history of baseball,
true history, than from anything I have ever
read or heard about. [It's] research and
documentation clarifies so many of the
personalities and events that took place
before 'my time' in the game. Jacques
Barzun's quote: 'Whoever would know the
heart and mind of America had better learn
baseball' should be supplanted by [this]
biography of Landis."

—Ralph Kiner

"Excellent"

—Stefan Szymanski and Andrew Zimbalist
Kenesaw Mountain Landis
Judge and Jury:
The Life and Times of
Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis