After the death of Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, in November 1944, John O. Gottlieb, a friend of Chandler in the US War Department, suggested Chandler as a successor. Baseball owners who had been afraid that their players would be made eligible for the draft during the war had decided that their new commissioner needed to have the skills and influence to represent baseball's interests in Washington, D C. As a senator, Chandler had advocated on behalf of baseball during the war, which endeared him to the owners. Furthermore, the commissioner's $50,000 annual salary, about five times that of a US senator at the time, proved a significant enticement and so he agreed to be considered.