August "Garry" Herrmann: A Baseball Biography (review)

Garry Herrmann was the president of the Cincinnati Reds from 1902 to 1927 and the president of the major leagues' governing body, the National Commission, from 1903 to 1920. In 1962, veteran sportswriter Dan Daniel lamented that there had been no "expanded profile" of Herrmann (44). As with so many once well-known people of the past, he had fallen into what William Cook calls "the bottomless pit of historical isolation" (1). Cook, whose baseball books include biographies of Waite Hoyt and Pete Rose, and an account of the 1877 Louisville Grays' gambling scandal, sets out to fill that void.

In recent years, the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library has been cataloguing and archiving more than forty boxes of Herrmann's papers. As David Pietrusza did with his Judge Landis biography, Judge and Jury, a few years ago, Cook decided to publish his book now, rather than wait for public access to those papers. He has written a good baseball biography, though an unusual one. Because of Herrmann's key role in the leadership of George B. "Boss" Cox's political machine in Cincinnati, the book is as much an account of the city's politics and growth in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as it is a baseball book. Although this may not be what the reader looking for a "hardcore" baseball narrative wants, Cook has wisely decided to tell the full story of Herrmann's two worlds. This is certainly not a baseball story told in a societal vacuum.

In 1891, Herrmann was appointed to Cincinnati's Board of Administration, and five years later he was elected Commissioner of Water Works. A key player in Cox's Republican regime, Herrmann's public relations skills proved indispensable. In 1902, Cox, Cincinnati mayor Julius Fleischmann and his brother Max (of the Fleischmann Yeast Company), and Herrmann bought the Reds baseball club from John Brush. Sporting Life dubbed them "the Big Four" (40).

Early on, Cook tries to capture Herrmann's style and personality. He describes a flamboyant man, "the picture of sartorial elegance-smelling of perfume and dressed in silk," from his underwear and socks to his suits (10). In his history of the Reds, Lee Allen described Herrmann as "a walking delicatessen," and Cook tells of Herrmann's love affair with the sausage. As Damon Runyon wrote upon Herrmann's death, "His face reflected his manner of living. His nose was bulbous, his complexion at all times as red as the sunset. He loved to eat, and he loved to drink" (65). Most of all, Herrmann loved to entertain others. He was in many ways the ultimate host. For his baseball colleagues, this hospitality was on display each year at the World Series, which he turned into his annual lavish party.

Cook does a good job of tapping into the source of Herrmann's success in both city politics and baseball governance. Charles Comiskey captured it when he met the Reds owner in early 1903 during the AL-NL peace settlement: "This man Herrmann is so different from the other men who have been leaders in the National League that I am really surprised, and agreeably so. That fellow talks right. He has a way of getting at things in a jiffy, and he talks in a candid, straightforward way" (49-50). Cook persuasively argues that Herrmann's integrity and ability to bring people together, rather than his longtime friendship with Ban Johnson, led to his long reign as president of the National Commission.

Cook presents a balanced picture of his subject. "There still exists some ambiguity in his ethics," he writes (10). For example, as a Cox lieutenant, Herrmann was offered "honorariums" for city hall access. On the Reds' signing of Hal Chase in 1916, Cook provides little information; one wishes he had provided more. On the subject of the 1919 World Series, he concludes the well-connected Herrmann surely knew more than he ever disclosed. Like other baseball magnates, he did not want...