Happy Chandler Marquee Hall of Fame 1982

Happy Chandler had served as a United States senator and governor of Kentucky before the owners chose him to succeed Landis as commissioner in 1945. Born in July 1898 and dead in June 1991, he appeared on two Hall of Fame ballots before the Veterans Committee elected him in 1982.

The clubs are reported to have voted fifteen to one against allowing Robinson to play. Chandler let Brooklyn proceed anyway, and Robinson debuted on April 15, 1947. He also suspended Leo Durocher for a season and backed the players' first pension fund.

The owners declined to renew his contract in 1951 and he went back to Kentucky politics, serving as governor again. He said afterward that he expected to meet his maker and be asked to explain himself, and wanted to have an answer. He lived to ninety-two.