August "Garry" Herrmann was the president of the Cincinnati Reds baseball club from 1902 to 1927. For seventeen of those years, he also was the chairman of the National Commission, the ruling body of Organized Baseball (1903-1920).

A native of Cincinnati who was born to German immigrants on May 3, 1859, Herrmann gained the nickname "Garry" from the foreman of the printing shop where he first apprenticed. The shop printed the official newspaper of the courts of Hamilton County, The Law Bulletin, and Herrmann soon became involved in Cincinnati's political machine. Herrmann rose in the ranks of the Ohio Republican party quickly, and became one of political boss George B. Cox's most important men. Herrmann was on the Cincinnati Board of Education, as well as a court clerk, before being named to the city's Board of Administration. He later served as chairman of Cincinnati's Water Works Commission before leaving City Hall for the ballpark.

Herrmann's affiliations went beyond bossism and baseball. He was involved in a plethora of groups, including the Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks, the Shriners, the Masons, the International Typographical Union, the Republican Party, the American Bowling Congress, and the local Turner Society, to name a few. These connections led Herrmann to positions of national prominence in areas beyond the ball field, For instance as president of the American Bowling Congress for two terms in 1907 and 1908, as chairman of the national gathering of Turner Societies in 1909, and as Grand Exalted Ruler of the Elks for the 1910 to 1911 session. The interest Herrmann garnered from his involvement in those organizations paled in comparison with the attention he received as President of the Cincinnati Reds and as Chairman of the National Commission. He became involved with the Reds in 1902 when he negotiated with John T. Brush to purchase the team. Herrmann, Cox, and Julius Fleischmann, of yeast and gin fame, equally split the purchase price. Herrmann's administrative abilities and outgoing personality led the new owners to install him as president of the club. He remained at that position for a quarter of a century.

One of Garry's first efforts in baseball was brokering the peace agreement between the American and National Leagues in early 1903. He chaired the National League Peace Committee, and influenced the meetings with the American League representatives enough that they signed the Cincinnati Peace Agreement. Herrmann also was on the National League Board of Directors for many years, and he chaired many of the League's committees over the years. Herrmann oversaw remodeling projects at Palace of the Fans and the construction of Redland Field, the two Cincinnati ballparks where the Reds played between 1902 and 1927. He administered the ballpark concessions, which included the Coca-Cola Company, Fleischmann Company, Jung Brewing Company, and Philip Morris; and advertising, which included hotels, restaurants, railroads, lumber stores, and shoe companies. He also approved arrangements for renting the grounds for movies and other baseball games, including teams such as the Long Branch Cubans, Cuban X Giants, American Giants, American Bloomer Girls, and Texas Bloomer Girls. In addition, Herrmann arranged for the Reds to play exhibition games with many semi-professional and minor league teams.

The Reds were a mediocre team for most of the time that Herrmann ran the club. Even with notables like Joe Kelley, Edward "Ned" Hanlon, Clark Griffith, Hank O'Day, Joe Tinker, and Charles "Buck" Herzog managing the team, the Reds usually finished in the lower half of the standings. The Reds climbed into the first division and remained there with greater regularity between 1917 and 1926, under managers Christy Mathewson, Pat Moran, and Jack Hendricks. Their greatest accomplishment during Herrmann's tenure was winning the 1919 World Series. Unfortunately, the "Black Sox" scandal tarnished the luster of that victory. Some of the more notable players that passed through the Reds organization during Herrmann's tenure included John "Rube" Benton, Hal Chase, Lew Fonseca, Henry "Heinie" Groh, Miller Huggins, John "Hans" Lobert, Adolfo Luque, John "Larry" McLean, Eppa Rixey, Edd Roush, Ivy Wingo, and two of the first Cubans to play major league ball, Armando Marsans and Rafael Almeida.

Herrmann's tenure as the chairman of the National Commission was initiated by the National Agreement that was signed on 11 September 1903 by the American League, National League, and National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues. This document provided for a ruling body of three men consisting of the presidents of the American and National Leagues, and a third member who would chair the Commission, elected annually by the clubs. The Commission gave decisions regarding player and teams disputes, and administered the finances and planning of the World Series. The chairman, who presided at the meetings, would cast the deciding vote and became the default chief justice of the three-member panel. The first man elected to chair the National Commission was also the only man to hold the position, August Herrmann. The baseball executives recognized his efforts in negotiating the peace agreement and rewarded him with the chairmanship, citing his broad views of justice and unquestioned honesty. Widely recognized as fair and equitable in his decisions, Herrmann still incurred the wrath of particular owners. Team presidents like Charles Murphy (Chicago Cubs, 1906-1913), Horace Fogel (Philadelphia Phillies, 1909-1912), and Barney Dreyfuss (Pittsburgh Pirates, 1900 -1932) were vocal in their displeasure with any decision of the Commission that they perceived as unjust. There were also heated exchanges between members of the Commission themselves as they were deciding cases. American League president Ban Johnson at times had an acrid pen, as did National League presidents Harry Pulliam, Thomas J. Lynch, John K. Tener, and John Heydler. While most of the decisions of the National Commission were perceived as just and fair, a few contributed to the downfall of the Commission in 1920, including the George Sisler and Scott Perry cases. The George Sisler case was complicated, but boiled down to a dispute between the Pittsburgh National League team and the St. Louis American League team. Each claimed contractual rights to Sisler, and it took three years for the Commission to mull the evidence and come to a decision. When the Commission sided with St. Louis in 1916, Dreyfuss exploded and worked continually to overthrow Herrmann as chairman.

The Scott Perry case was a feud between the Boston National League club and the Philadelphia American League club as to which club owned the rights to Perry's services. The panel sided with Boston, but Philadelphia disregarded the ruling and secured an injunction from the civil courts to keep Perry. The AL club's failure to comply with the decision resulted in fractured relations with the National League, and furthered the movement to remove Herrmann. Other factors conspired to bring an end to the National Commission. These included the legal fight against the Federal League, which lasted from 1914 to 1922, and the "Black Sox" scandal of the 1919 World Series. The court case involving the Federal League was expensive and time consuming, and while the decision eventually supported Organized Baseball, it added to the growing displeasure with the current administration of baseball. The "Black Sox" scandal involved eight players of the Chicago White Sox who were reportedly involved in a deal to purposely lose games in the 1919 World Series in exchange for money. While the gambling scandal mainly came to light after Herrmann's resignation as chairman in early 1920, it accelerated the demise of the National Commission and paved the way for the Office of the Commissioner.

With the end of the National Commission, Herrmann remained involved in the search for a baseball commissioner. Once Kenesaw Mountain Landis took office, Herrmann devoted his remaining years in baseball to the Reds. He officially resigned as president of the Reds after the 1927 season due to deteriorating health and increasing deafness. He died on 25 April 1931, one week shy of his seventy-second birthday, and one month after the deaths of Ernest S. Barnard and B. Bancroft Johnson, presidents of the American League.