August Garry Herrmann entered the murky waters of 19th century machine politics in Cincinnati, serving as a trusted lieutenant to one of the most powerful political bosses in the country, George B. Cox. Herrmann, a gifted man who introduced modern management principles to municipal government and oversaw the committee that built Cincinnati's modern water works system, eventually did for baseball what he did for his home town, guiding it into a new century.

Along with George B. Cox and Cincinnati mayor Julius Fleischmann, Herrmann bought the Cincinnati Reds from John T. Brush in 1902. By 1903 he had chaired the peace conference between the leagues that ushered in the modern game. With the leagues united, Herrmann was selected to head up the National Commission, a three-person ruling body that governed major league baseball in the years before the commissionership.