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| "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 —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 "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 "superb . . . a wonderful book." —James Brock Professor of Economics, Miami University |
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| Judge and Jury: The Life and Times of Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis |
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| Winner of the CASEY Award: Best Baseball Book of 1998 |
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| Finalist, 1998 Seymour Medal Nominee 1998 NASSH Book Award |
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| "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 Szymanksi and Andrew Zimbalist |
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