Less than a year before the Black Sox scandal, Ed Bang of The Cleveland News wrote about the need for a central authority to govern the game. He suggested his top candidate:
“William H. Taft.
“That’s the name to conjure with in any walk of life to say nothing of baseball and it may come to pass that one of these days the former president of the United States will be the sole member of the national baseball commission, the court of last resort in the national pastime.”
Bang called baseball “a rather sick individual” since the Federal League wars of 1914 and ’15., then “confined to bed” when the war department declared baseball a non-essential occupation. The situation became more dire earlier in the year when minor league magnates “threw down the gauntlet,” threatening to no longer honor the draft and options agreements.
“It became evident,” wrote Bang, “that baseball needed a doctor.”
Taft, he said was agreeable to most of the major league owners who, like the public had a “lack of confidence,” in August Herrmann, chairman of the National Commission as well as American League President Ban Johnson, and John Tener, who had resigned as National League president in August.
Bang said:
“A man of the caliber of William Howard Taft, one who is in no way connected with the national pastime either as league president or club owner and one who would give all parties a square deal, would add considerable prestige to the sport. Prestige is what is needed right now and if Mr. Taft or any other figure of equal ability can bring that about, the baseball magnates could well afford to pay him $50,000 a year and figure the money as well spent.”
Taft was, of course never hired, and baseball lacked a single, central power as commissioner through the 1919 season and scandal, until Kennesaw Mountain Landis became the first commissioner in 1920.
Baseball History Daily 
Taft’s bonafides ~ https://sabr.org/journal/article/a-crank-on-the-court-the-passion-of-justice-william-r-day/ <
I believe that the Chicago player in the newspaper photo is misidentified. The original caption may have named him as Mordecai Brown, but the profile is not a match for Brown’s. It looks more like Joe Tinker, or possibly Artie Hofman.
Very possible. I am definitely not a photo expert. It came from an article about Taft attending a game in Chicago in 1909.
https://baseballhistorydaily.com/2016/10/05/president-taft-not-only-likes-the-game-but-knows-it/