Letter from Kenesaw Landis to FDR Regarding Baseball

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Description

Five weeks after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States entered World War II, Commissioner of Baseball Kenesaw Mountain Landis wrote President Franklin D. Roosevelt asking whether major league baseball should be played…in these “not ordinary times.” This letter is known as the “red light letter” and includes the White House transcript.

President Roosevelt responded, yes “that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going.”

This document is featured in “Baseball: The National Pastime in the National Archives,” a free eBook from the National Archives.

Transcript

BASEBALL

Kenesaw M. Landis
Commissioner
Leslie H. O’Connor
Secretary-Treasurer

333 North Michigan Avenue
Chicago

January 14 1942

Dear Mr. President:

The time is approaching when, in ordinary conditions, our teams would be heading for spring training camps. However, inasmuch as these are not ordinary times, I venture to ask what you have in mind as to whether professional baseball should continue to operate. Of course my inquiry does not relate at all to individual members of this organization whose status in this emergency is fixed by law operating upon all citizens.

Normally we have, in addition to the sixteen major teams, approximately three hundred and twenty minor teams – members of leagues playing the United States and Canada.

Health and strength to you – and whatever else it takes to do this job.

With great respect,

Very truly yours

Kennesaw M. Landis

The President
Washington D.C.

Citation

This primary source comes from the Collection FDR-PPF: Papers as President, President's Personal File.

National Archives Identifier: 6997538

Full Citation: Letter from Kenesaw Landis to President Franklin D. Roosevelt Regarding Baseball; 1/15/1942; PPF 227: Baseball; President’s Personal Files, 1933 – 1945; Collection FDR-PPF: Papers as President, President’s Personal File,; Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, NY. [Online Version, https://docsteach.org/document/landis-to-fdr/, January 17, 2026]

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