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Chandler, Happy

Albert Benjamin Chandler
Born: July 14, 1898, Corydon, Kentucky
Died: June 15, 1991, Versailles, Kentucky
Elected to the Hall of Fame by Veterans Committee: 1982
Biography: 

After succeeding the larger-than-life Kenesaw Mountain Landis as commissioner in 1945, Albert Happy Chandler guided baseball through six turbulent years. A former U.S. senator and governor of Kentucky, the honest Chandler maintained the commissioner's office as a position of authority. He took swift action against players who left to play in the Mexican League and presided over the game when Brooklyn Dodgers' president Branch Rickey signed Jackie Robinson in 1945 and integrated Major League baseball in 1947.

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HOFers who reached their 90th birthday (pdf)

Induction Speech

Did You Know: 
that during the first six months of his tenure as commissioner, Happy Chandler continued to serve as U.S. Senator from Kentucky?
Happy was somebody I loved like my own father. He was as fine and memorable a person as the game ever produced, and that's over 150 years. -1991
Bowie Kuhn