TMC
05-07-2004, 05:44 PM
The Baseball Chronology (http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/chronology/)
Mountain Landis
http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/L/Landis_Kenesaw_Mountain.stm
Landis was granted absolute power over the game as commissioner in 1920 after the Black Sox scandal had tainted the game. He exercised his authority tyrannically until his death in 1944, with no recourse from his decisions available or public criticism of them permitted. Although he was harsh and narrow-minded, and often arbitrary and inconsistent, he persuaded most Americans that the integrity of the national pastime had been restored.
Landis was a judge in an Illinois federal district court when he came to the attention of baseball's establishment during the Federal League's antitrust suit, which was heard in his court. A Federal League victory would have destroyed baseball's unique monopoly status, and Landis won the owners' gratitude by stalling his decision until the Feds had collapsed and their suit was withdrawn. The three-man National Commission, which had ruled baseball since 1903 under the leadership of Ban Johnson, had been weakened by owner disputes and grievances, and collapsed in the aftermath of the Series scandal. Judge Landis was the first and only choice for commissioner.
Named after a Civil War battle, young Kenesaw was meagerly educated and minimally trained for the law. Still, his craggy face, shock of white hair, and flamboyant style were captivating. In his first years as commissioner he banished 15 players, including the eight Black Sox, and at one time had 53 players ineligible. Though he did not treat his victims equally or, in some cases, fairly, the numerous bribe offers, thrown games, and betting plots that arose showed baseball's corruption to be far deeper than once believed, and his no-mercy stance was accepted, if not applauded.
Landis was opposed to the development of farm systems and made free agents of numerous players he decreed to have been "covered up" in the minor leagues, but he was unable to eradicate the practice, which preserved many of the faltering leagues. He loved the World Series, conducted it personally, and was constantly photographed at games with his chin on the railing of a front row box. He was also a strong supporter of both the Hall of Fame and the All-Star Game, pushing hard to continue the mid-summer exhibitions during WWII. Landis was inducted to the Hall of Fame himself in 1939, and no commissioner since has enjoyed such power. (ADS)
Happy Chandler
http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/C/Chandler_Happy.stm
Chandler was the second Commissioner, succeeding the legendary Judge Landis. He was elected in 1945, after having served as Governor of Kentucky for four years and U.S. Senator for six. He was perceived as a players' Commissioner, and he cautioned owners to be less stubborn to avoid later confrontations. His advice was ignored.
Despite the negative feelings of most club owners, he supported the entry of Jackie Robinson into the major leagues. When some players jumped to the Mexican League in 1946, he suspended them for five years (but gave them blanket amnesty in 1949). He suspended Dodgers manager Leo Durocher for one year for a series of actions detrimental to baseball's image, including consorting with gamblers. He was the first to put six umpires on the field for the World Series.
Having made some decisions that riled several owners, he was fired after one term, receiving only nine of the twelve votes necessary to continue. When he left, his reputation for being good-humored, iron-willed, and honest remained intact. He had put the players' pension fund on a sound footing, averted threats to the reserve clause, and helped open the ML door for black players. In 1982 he was named to the Hall of Fame. (NLM)
Ford Frick
http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/F/Frick_Ford.stm
It was fitting that the ultimate tribute to Ford Frick was his election to the Hall of Fame. He was president of the National League when the shrine was proposed, and he gave the idea his fullest support.
Frick began his career as a midwestern sports writer and moved to New York with the Hearst papers. He pioneered the nightly radio sports report, giving scores and news. In 1934 he became NL public relations director and succeeded the ailing William Heydler as NL president the next year. In 1951 he replaced Happy Chandler as Commissioner as the owners sought a less stubbornly independent figure at the helm than Chandler or the untameable Judge Landis. Much-derided for his controversial decision to attach an asterisk to Roger Maris's record 61 HR in the new 162-game season in 1961 (Frick had been Babe Ruth's ghostwriter), he saw his resourceful administration and gentle guidance of the owners away from their instinct for self-destruction overshadowed by the asterisk issue. In Frick's wake have come General Eckert, Bowie Kuhn, and Peter Ueberroth, and a trend toward baseball as a billion-dollar business perhaps too willing to shed its old values, values the traditionalist Frick revered. (JK)
William Eckert
http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/E/Eckert_William.stm
Eckert was a retired Air Force general, a supply officer who specialized in negotiating defense contracts. When he was elected commissioner in 1965, he knew nothing about baseball's inner workings and had not attended a game in ten years. At the time every baseball man nominated had too many enemies to gain enough votes. Eckert was quiet, bright, honest, and willing, but he was in a situation for which he had neither preparation nor aptitude. Lee McPhail was appointed administrator to help him, but Eckert became a symbol of executive futility. He incurred the public's ire by refusing to cancel games after the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King and the owners' disdain because he refused to deal forcefully with substantive business issues. Anticipating a players' strike and having no confidence in Eckert's ability to handle the situation, the owners voted him out in early 1969 although he still had three years on his contract. (NLM)
Bowie Kuhn
http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/K/Kuhn_Bowie.stm
As baseball's Commissioner from 1969-1984, Kuhn presided over the sport's period of greatest affluence but also, paradoxically, one of its most strife-ridden eras. With the major leagues threatened by a player's strike before the 1969 season and with the office of the Commissioner vacant after the firing of General Eckert in December 1968, the owners hired Kuhn, a lawyer for the National League and a favorite of Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley. In the style that he would use throughout his three terms, Kuhn verbally placated the owners and then gave in to all the Players Association demands. He dealt with the controversial Curt Flood case at the end of the year, denying Flood's request to overturn the reserve clause and, more specifically, allow Flood to circumvent a trade that had sent him from the contending Cardinals to the cellar-dwelling Phillies.
Kuhn went on to withstand a Spring Training strike in 1972 that cut into the heart of the season, and he forced the owners to abandon a pre-season lockout in 1976 following a pro-player decision by an independent arbitrator in the Messersmith-McNally challenge to the reserve clause. Kuhn had advised against the use of an arbitrator in the case, his law background perhaps leading him to realize what shaky ground the owners were on. Kuhn forestalled a player strike in 1980, but was unable to prevent the mid-season strike of 1981, when the owners stood firm in an ultimately unsuccessful rear-guard action against free agency.
Despite his frequent, albeit forced, accomodations of player demands, Kuhn was perceived as a tool of the owners and as overmatched by the head of the Players Association, Marvin Miller. Kuhn regularly chided the players for their demands, called them overpaid, and preached of the potential evils of free agency, all stances pleasing to his employers, the owners. But Kuhn's officious, pompous manner gained him enemies beyond the ranks of the players. His handling of an investigation of Cubs manager Leo Durocher ended in personal, although largely private, embarrassment. Writer Red Smith excoriated Kuhn in many columns, producing such bon mots during the 1981 strike as "this strike wouldn't have happened if Bowie Kuhn were alive today" and "an empty car pulled up and Bowie Kuhn got out." Kuhn also feuded with A's owner Charlie Finley, who referred to Kuhn as a "village idiot" and then apologized for the offense to village idiots. Kuhn vetoed some of Finley's innovations, and in 1973 he prevented Finley from vindictively placing second baseman Mike Andrews on the DL during the World Series following a costly error. Their biggest clash came when Kuhn voided the sales, and lopsided trades involving cash, of A's stars Vida Blue, Joe Rudi, and others. The players were going to leave Oakland as free agents to escape Finley's tyrannical ownership, and Finley was trying to get some value for them. Many owners in the past had sold off their stars; Connie Mack, who had guided the A's for a half-century, was famous for breaking up his great teams. But Kuhn ruled that Finley's deals were not "in the best interests of baseball." Kuhn also suspended Yankees owner George Steinbrenner for a year after he was convicted of perjury and making illegal contributions to the election campaign of Richard Nixon, and suspended Braves owner Ted Turner for tampering.
Kuhn may ultimately be remembered for the spectacular growth of baseball in the 1970s and 1980s, a period that began with expansion in 1969, the same year Kuhn became Commissioner. Attendance in 1980 was more than triple what it had been in 1968, and television revenue was up more than $ 10 million dollars in the same period. But the eagerness of baseball to bow to the demands of network TV resulted in concessions criticized by purists. The most notable of these concessions was night baseball during the World Series. The first such game, in 1971, found Kuhn attending bareheaded and coatless despite the cold weather, with cameras frequently focusing on him in an attempt to deny the effects of the temperature. (WOR)
Peter Ueberroth
http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/U/Ueberroth_Peter.stm
Ueberroth was Commissioner of Baseball from after the 1984 season until before the 1989 season. The millionaire California travel agent became a public figure for his leadership organizing the 1984 Olympics, which turned a $215 million-dollar profit by exploiting corporate sponsorships and media contracts. As Commissioner of Baseball, he successfully increased owners' revenues through his television contract negotiations and marketing schemes that encouraged big-dollar promotional support from large corporations. The blot on Ueberroth's tenure was the owners' proven collusion against free agency by players. This highly visible restraint of trade left the owners with substantial contingent liabilities which survived Ueberroth's departure. Until final damages are awarded, the profit picture for his reign is incomplete.
Commissioner Ueberroth came down heavily on players who used cocaine, largely on the grounds that they were being poor role models. Several big names, including Dwight Gooden and Lonnie Smith, served drug-related suspensions while Ueberroth was in office. In 1989, Ueberroth turned over the Commissioner's reins to former NL president A. Bartlett Giamatti. (TF/MS)
Bart Giamatti & Fay Vincent
http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/G/Giamatti_Bart.stm
http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/V/Vincent_Fay.stm
Vincent, the deputy commissioner under his friend Bart Giamatti, replaced Giamatti as Commissioner in September 1989 after Giamatti's death. Vincent was previously a securities lawyer who ran Columbia Picture Industries for nearly ten years. (SH)
FROM THE BASEBALL CHRONOLOGY
» September 13, 1989: Fay Vincent is elected baseball's 8th commissioner, succeeding the late Bart Giamatti, whom he served as deputy commissioner.
» July 30, 1990: In a surprisingly harsh ruling, Commissioner Fay Vincent orders Yankees owner George Steinbrenner to resign as the club's general partner by August 20th and bans him from day-to-day operation of the team for life. The ruling is a result of Steinbrenner's $40,000 payment to confessed gambler Howie Spira for damaging information about since-traded Yankee star Dave Winfield.
» March 12, 1991: Commissioner Fay Vincent orders a ban on the use of smokeless tobacco in the Class A Appalachian and Northwest leagues and the rookie Pioneer and Gulf Coast leagues.
» April 10, 1991: Sixty-eight-year-old Minnie Minoso is denied a chance to appear in a professional game in his 6th consecutive decade by baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent. Minoso had been scheduled to suit up for the independent Miami Miracle of the Class A Florida State League in their April 13 game against the Ft. Lauderdale Yankees. Vincent refuses to allow Minoso to sign a contract, even for a single night.
» April 26, 1991: Roger Clemens' appeal of the 5-game suspension and $10,000 fine levied against him for his confrontation with umpire Jim Evans and threat to "get" umpire Terry Cooney during the 1990 American League playoffs is denied by commissioner Fay Vincent.
» April 24, 1992: Former Yankees vice president Leonard Kleinman drops his $30 million lawsuit against baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent. The suit had been one of the obstacles standing in the way of George Steinbrenner's reinstatement with the Yankees.
» June 24, 1992: Yankees P Steve Howe is permanently banned from baseball by Commissioner Fay Vincent after having pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of attempting to purchase a gram of cocaine. It is Howe's 7th ban from the game, as he becomes the 1st player ever permanently banned from baseball because of drugs.
» July 6, 1992: Commissioner Fay Vincent orders realignment of the National League for the 1993 season, forcing the Cubs and Cardinals into the Western Division.
» July 24, 1992: Commissioner Fay Vincent announces that George Steinbrenner can resume active control of the Yankees on March 1, 1993.
» September 3, 1992: Baseball owners vote 18–9, with one abstention, calling for the resignation of Commissioner Fay Vincent.
» September 7, 1992: Baseball commissioner Fay Vincent resigns three days after failing to receive a vote of confidence by the owners at a meeting in Rosemont, Illinois.
» September 24, 1992: Baseball's executive council rescinds the National League realignment announced by Fay Vincent earlier this year. Vincent has since resigned from his post.
» July 2, 1999: Umpire Tom Hallion is suspended for three games for his actions during an argument with Colorado catcher Jeff Reed and pitching coach Milt May on June 26th. The dispute began when Rockies pitcher Mike DeJean, while walking to his dugout complained to third base umpire Terry Tata about a check-swing call, and home plate ump Hallion, told DeJean to get in the dugout. Officials couldn't recall another suspension of an umpire for an on-field dispute. In 1990, National League president Bill White was prepared to suspend umpire Joe West for slamming Philadelphia pitcher Dennis Cook to the field, but commissioner Fay Vincent intervened and no discipline was imposed.
Bud Selig
http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/S/Selig_Bud.stm
FROM THE BASEBALL CHRONOLOGY
» April 1, 1970: The Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club, headed by Bud Selig, purchases the Seattle Pilots for $10,800,000. Although negotiations were conducted over a period of months, it was not until March 13 when a federal bankruptcy referee declared the Pilots bankrupt. Brewers tickets go on sale tomorrow.
» September 9, 1992: Milwaukee owner Bud Selig is chosen as chairman of the major league's executive council, effectively becoming the interim baseball commissioner. Tomorrow he is appointed acting commissioner.
» January 19, 1994: Major league owners amend the major league agreement, giving complete power to the commissioner on labor negotiations. Bud Selig will continue to act as interim commissioner.
» September 2, 1994: According to acting commissioner Bud Selig, September 9th is the tentative deadline for canceling the rest of the season is no agreement is reached between the owners and players.
» September 14, 1994: The remainder of the baseball season is canceled by acting commissioner Bud Selig after 34 days of the players' strike. There will be no World Series for the 1st time since 1904.
» October 14, 1994: Bud Selig and Donald Fehr meet with President Clinton at the White House in an effort to reach an agreement concerning the strike.
» January 13, 1995: Use of replacement players for spring training and regular season games is okayed by baseball's executive council. Acting commissioner Bud Selig announces, "We are committed to playing the 1995 season and will do so with the best players willing to play."
» May 7, 1996: In another announcement out of Cincinnati, Marge Schott issues an apology for her laudatory comments about Adolph Hitler made last Sunday. Acting commissioner Bud Selig says, "we will continue to monitor the situation."
» November 11, 1996: Owner Bud Selig meets with Don Fehr, the players' labor leader, in a futile attempt to convince Fehr to accept the owners' demands. With the deadline for an agreement at midnight on the 14th, there is virtually no hope that the two sides will agree. If the two sides reach the deadline without an agreement, the interleague schedule for next year will be wiped out, and a traditional schedule followed.
» November 5, 1997: In what Bud Selig says is Phase one of a realignment of the major leagues, his Milwaukee Brewers move from the American League to the National League.
» June 29, 1998: Bud Selig calls a special session of the owners for July 9th in Chicago.
» July 9, 1998: Bud Selig is elected as the 9th Commissioner of Baseball by a vote of club owners.
» March 31, 1999: Commissioner Bud Selig confirms that discussions are underway which could lead to advertising space being sold on the sleeves of players uniforms.
» June 28, 1999: Hack Wilson ups his RBI total for the 1930 season to 191. 69 years after the season, an RBI is added by the commissioner's office, which also gives Babe Ruth six additional walks, raising his career-record total to 2,062. "There is no doubt that Hack Wilson's RBI total should be 191," commissioner Bud Selig said. "I am sensitive to the historical significance that accompanies the correction of such a prestigious record, especially after so many years have passed, but it is important to get it right." The missing RBI came from the 2nd game of a doubleheader between Wilson's Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds on July 28, 1930 where Charlie Grimm was credited with two RBIs in the game and Wilson with none. Ruth's walks total is now 2,062. Ted Williams is second, trailing by 43, and Rickey Henderson of the New York Mets is third, 134 behind Ruth.
» August 2, 1999: Commissioner Bud Selig announces that Darryl Strawberry's reinstatement has been moved up from August 11th to August 4th.
» August 23, 1999: Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig announces that Pete Rose will be invited to the World Series if he is elected to the All-Century Team. Rose has been banned from baseball since 1989.
» September 15, 1999: Baseball owners vote to merge the administrative operations of the American and National leagues. National League President Leonard Coleman, concluding his job had become irrelevant, announces his resignation effective after the World Series. He will become a senior adviser to Commissioner Bud Selig.
» December 21, 1999: The Dodgers are fined $50,000 and banned from scouting any Dominican Republic players for one year as a penalty for having signed 3B Adrian Beltre as a 15-year-old. Beltre is not given his free agency, according to Commissioner Bud Selig, because he participated in the scheme, and because the claim for free agency was made too late. The players' association is expected to file a grievance in the matter.
» January 6, 2000: Major league baseball officials order Atlanta Braves P John Rocker is to undergo psychological testing following derogatory remarks he made in an interview with Sports Illustrated magazine. Baseball commissioner Bud Selig says he will listen to what the doctors say before deciding what punishment—if any—will be handed down to the pitcher.
» January 6, 2000: Gene Budig resigns as American League president and is appointed a senior adviser to baseball commissioner Bud Selig. The American and National leagues will be disbanded as legal entities later this month, with their functions consolidated in the commissioner's office.
» January 19, 2000: Major league baseball owners vote to approve the $320 million sale of the Indians to Larry Dolan and his family trusts. They also vote to give Commissioner Bud Selig power "without limitation" to ensure "there is an appropriate level of long-term competitive balance among the clubs." He can override all of baseball's rules, and even attempt to impose a salary cap if he thinks it necessary to reach an agreement with the players following the 2001 season.
» January 20, 2000: Baseball owners vote to give all their internet rights to the commissioner's office. Bud Selig is expected to parcel out monies in 30 equal amounts.
» January 31, 2000: Braves reliever John Rocker is suspended from baseball until May 1st by Commissioner Bud Selig for his racial and ethnic remarks in an article published in Sports Illustrated last month. He's also fined an undisclosed amount and ordered to undergo sensitivity training.
» February 28, 2000: Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig announces the Yankees OF Darryl Strawberry is suspended for one year for having tested positive for cocaine last month. It is Strawberry's 3rd cocaine-related suspension.
» October 28, 2001: Commissioner Bud Selig says it is possible that two major league teams could be eliminated by the start of next season. The Montreal Expos, Florida Marlins, Minnesota Twins, and Tampa Bay Devil Rays are the teams mentioned as most likely to be eliminated.
» November 14, 2001: After Marvin Miller, former head of the players union, calls on Bud Selig to resign because of a conflict of interest with the Twins contraction and his ownership, the Commissioner reacts angrily. "St. Louis is closer to Minneapolis than Milwaukee is," misstates Selig in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "Are the Red Sox going to benefit if Montreal is contracted? No. I don't think the Brewers will gain either. Its so outrageous and not worthy of comment," he comments.
» January 9, 2002: Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan says Bud Selig should resign because he appeared to violate major league rules in a 1995 loan from a company controlled by the owner of the Minnesota Twins. Conyers, The House Judiciary Committee's ranking Democrat says the loan created an "irreparable conflict of interest" for Selig in his plan to fold two franchises, a proposal that most likely would include the Twins." Selig rejects the suggestion saying, "The suggestions made in your letter are wholly unacceptable."
» January 10, 2002: Bud Selig asks the players to accept a luxury tax that would slow the increase of salaries. He also proposes that teams vastly increase the amount of local revenue they share.
» February 5, 2002: Commissioner Bud Selig announces that major league baseball has postponed plans for contraction until 2003.
» March 12, 2002: Baseball czar Bud Selig announced he's going to start enforcing the 60–40 rule, which says teams can't have an assets/debts ratio below that level. According to Doug Pappas, an expert on baseball finances, "At best, this is one more example of Bud's arbitrary and selective enforcement of MLB's rules, retroactively punishing owners who've spent more on players than Bud would like. At worst, it's yet another grotesque case of Selig, he of the permanent conflict of interest, twisting the rules for his own benefit. In 1995, his Milwaukee Brewers were so far in debt they couldn't borrow money to contribute to the construction of their new park. Forbes estimated that as of the 1997 season, the Brewers' debt had risen to an incredible 97% of franchise value. Selig said nothing about the 60/40 rule. But the Brewers' new park opened in 2001. The first-year attendance spike sent club revenues to a record $113 million. Isn't it amazing how the Commissioner suddenly decided to enforce the rule just when his own club could finally meet the standard?"
» June 5, 2002: Baseball commissioner Bud Selig announces that the sport will contract by at least two teams before the 2003 season.
» June 7, 2002: In a Northern League (Independent) game between the visiting Gary Southshore RailCats at Midway Stadium in St. Paul, Saints owner Mike Veeck gives away seat cushions that feature the likeness of MLB Commissioner Bud Selig on one side and that of Players Association Executive Director Don Fehr on the other. During the seventh-inning stretch, an informal poll shows that about 90 percent of the fans on the cushions are sitting on Bud.
» July 9, 2002: In a controversial finish, the All–Star Game ends in a 7–7 tie after 11 innings as both the National and American leagues run out of pitchers. Both managers discuss it with commissioner Bud Selig, who calls the game. Alfonso Soriano and Barry Bonds hit home runs in the contest.
Mountain Landis
http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/L/Landis_Kenesaw_Mountain.stm
Landis was granted absolute power over the game as commissioner in 1920 after the Black Sox scandal had tainted the game. He exercised his authority tyrannically until his death in 1944, with no recourse from his decisions available or public criticism of them permitted. Although he was harsh and narrow-minded, and often arbitrary and inconsistent, he persuaded most Americans that the integrity of the national pastime had been restored.
Landis was a judge in an Illinois federal district court when he came to the attention of baseball's establishment during the Federal League's antitrust suit, which was heard in his court. A Federal League victory would have destroyed baseball's unique monopoly status, and Landis won the owners' gratitude by stalling his decision until the Feds had collapsed and their suit was withdrawn. The three-man National Commission, which had ruled baseball since 1903 under the leadership of Ban Johnson, had been weakened by owner disputes and grievances, and collapsed in the aftermath of the Series scandal. Judge Landis was the first and only choice for commissioner.
Named after a Civil War battle, young Kenesaw was meagerly educated and minimally trained for the law. Still, his craggy face, shock of white hair, and flamboyant style were captivating. In his first years as commissioner he banished 15 players, including the eight Black Sox, and at one time had 53 players ineligible. Though he did not treat his victims equally or, in some cases, fairly, the numerous bribe offers, thrown games, and betting plots that arose showed baseball's corruption to be far deeper than once believed, and his no-mercy stance was accepted, if not applauded.
Landis was opposed to the development of farm systems and made free agents of numerous players he decreed to have been "covered up" in the minor leagues, but he was unable to eradicate the practice, which preserved many of the faltering leagues. He loved the World Series, conducted it personally, and was constantly photographed at games with his chin on the railing of a front row box. He was also a strong supporter of both the Hall of Fame and the All-Star Game, pushing hard to continue the mid-summer exhibitions during WWII. Landis was inducted to the Hall of Fame himself in 1939, and no commissioner since has enjoyed such power. (ADS)
Happy Chandler
http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/C/Chandler_Happy.stm
Chandler was the second Commissioner, succeeding the legendary Judge Landis. He was elected in 1945, after having served as Governor of Kentucky for four years and U.S. Senator for six. He was perceived as a players' Commissioner, and he cautioned owners to be less stubborn to avoid later confrontations. His advice was ignored.
Despite the negative feelings of most club owners, he supported the entry of Jackie Robinson into the major leagues. When some players jumped to the Mexican League in 1946, he suspended them for five years (but gave them blanket amnesty in 1949). He suspended Dodgers manager Leo Durocher for one year for a series of actions detrimental to baseball's image, including consorting with gamblers. He was the first to put six umpires on the field for the World Series.
Having made some decisions that riled several owners, he was fired after one term, receiving only nine of the twelve votes necessary to continue. When he left, his reputation for being good-humored, iron-willed, and honest remained intact. He had put the players' pension fund on a sound footing, averted threats to the reserve clause, and helped open the ML door for black players. In 1982 he was named to the Hall of Fame. (NLM)
Ford Frick
http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/F/Frick_Ford.stm
It was fitting that the ultimate tribute to Ford Frick was his election to the Hall of Fame. He was president of the National League when the shrine was proposed, and he gave the idea his fullest support.
Frick began his career as a midwestern sports writer and moved to New York with the Hearst papers. He pioneered the nightly radio sports report, giving scores and news. In 1934 he became NL public relations director and succeeded the ailing William Heydler as NL president the next year. In 1951 he replaced Happy Chandler as Commissioner as the owners sought a less stubbornly independent figure at the helm than Chandler or the untameable Judge Landis. Much-derided for his controversial decision to attach an asterisk to Roger Maris's record 61 HR in the new 162-game season in 1961 (Frick had been Babe Ruth's ghostwriter), he saw his resourceful administration and gentle guidance of the owners away from their instinct for self-destruction overshadowed by the asterisk issue. In Frick's wake have come General Eckert, Bowie Kuhn, and Peter Ueberroth, and a trend toward baseball as a billion-dollar business perhaps too willing to shed its old values, values the traditionalist Frick revered. (JK)
William Eckert
http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/E/Eckert_William.stm
Eckert was a retired Air Force general, a supply officer who specialized in negotiating defense contracts. When he was elected commissioner in 1965, he knew nothing about baseball's inner workings and had not attended a game in ten years. At the time every baseball man nominated had too many enemies to gain enough votes. Eckert was quiet, bright, honest, and willing, but he was in a situation for which he had neither preparation nor aptitude. Lee McPhail was appointed administrator to help him, but Eckert became a symbol of executive futility. He incurred the public's ire by refusing to cancel games after the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King and the owners' disdain because he refused to deal forcefully with substantive business issues. Anticipating a players' strike and having no confidence in Eckert's ability to handle the situation, the owners voted him out in early 1969 although he still had three years on his contract. (NLM)
Bowie Kuhn
http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/K/Kuhn_Bowie.stm
As baseball's Commissioner from 1969-1984, Kuhn presided over the sport's period of greatest affluence but also, paradoxically, one of its most strife-ridden eras. With the major leagues threatened by a player's strike before the 1969 season and with the office of the Commissioner vacant after the firing of General Eckert in December 1968, the owners hired Kuhn, a lawyer for the National League and a favorite of Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley. In the style that he would use throughout his three terms, Kuhn verbally placated the owners and then gave in to all the Players Association demands. He dealt with the controversial Curt Flood case at the end of the year, denying Flood's request to overturn the reserve clause and, more specifically, allow Flood to circumvent a trade that had sent him from the contending Cardinals to the cellar-dwelling Phillies.
Kuhn went on to withstand a Spring Training strike in 1972 that cut into the heart of the season, and he forced the owners to abandon a pre-season lockout in 1976 following a pro-player decision by an independent arbitrator in the Messersmith-McNally challenge to the reserve clause. Kuhn had advised against the use of an arbitrator in the case, his law background perhaps leading him to realize what shaky ground the owners were on. Kuhn forestalled a player strike in 1980, but was unable to prevent the mid-season strike of 1981, when the owners stood firm in an ultimately unsuccessful rear-guard action against free agency.
Despite his frequent, albeit forced, accomodations of player demands, Kuhn was perceived as a tool of the owners and as overmatched by the head of the Players Association, Marvin Miller. Kuhn regularly chided the players for their demands, called them overpaid, and preached of the potential evils of free agency, all stances pleasing to his employers, the owners. But Kuhn's officious, pompous manner gained him enemies beyond the ranks of the players. His handling of an investigation of Cubs manager Leo Durocher ended in personal, although largely private, embarrassment. Writer Red Smith excoriated Kuhn in many columns, producing such bon mots during the 1981 strike as "this strike wouldn't have happened if Bowie Kuhn were alive today" and "an empty car pulled up and Bowie Kuhn got out." Kuhn also feuded with A's owner Charlie Finley, who referred to Kuhn as a "village idiot" and then apologized for the offense to village idiots. Kuhn vetoed some of Finley's innovations, and in 1973 he prevented Finley from vindictively placing second baseman Mike Andrews on the DL during the World Series following a costly error. Their biggest clash came when Kuhn voided the sales, and lopsided trades involving cash, of A's stars Vida Blue, Joe Rudi, and others. The players were going to leave Oakland as free agents to escape Finley's tyrannical ownership, and Finley was trying to get some value for them. Many owners in the past had sold off their stars; Connie Mack, who had guided the A's for a half-century, was famous for breaking up his great teams. But Kuhn ruled that Finley's deals were not "in the best interests of baseball." Kuhn also suspended Yankees owner George Steinbrenner for a year after he was convicted of perjury and making illegal contributions to the election campaign of Richard Nixon, and suspended Braves owner Ted Turner for tampering.
Kuhn may ultimately be remembered for the spectacular growth of baseball in the 1970s and 1980s, a period that began with expansion in 1969, the same year Kuhn became Commissioner. Attendance in 1980 was more than triple what it had been in 1968, and television revenue was up more than $ 10 million dollars in the same period. But the eagerness of baseball to bow to the demands of network TV resulted in concessions criticized by purists. The most notable of these concessions was night baseball during the World Series. The first such game, in 1971, found Kuhn attending bareheaded and coatless despite the cold weather, with cameras frequently focusing on him in an attempt to deny the effects of the temperature. (WOR)
Peter Ueberroth
http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/U/Ueberroth_Peter.stm
Ueberroth was Commissioner of Baseball from after the 1984 season until before the 1989 season. The millionaire California travel agent became a public figure for his leadership organizing the 1984 Olympics, which turned a $215 million-dollar profit by exploiting corporate sponsorships and media contracts. As Commissioner of Baseball, he successfully increased owners' revenues through his television contract negotiations and marketing schemes that encouraged big-dollar promotional support from large corporations. The blot on Ueberroth's tenure was the owners' proven collusion against free agency by players. This highly visible restraint of trade left the owners with substantial contingent liabilities which survived Ueberroth's departure. Until final damages are awarded, the profit picture for his reign is incomplete.
Commissioner Ueberroth came down heavily on players who used cocaine, largely on the grounds that they were being poor role models. Several big names, including Dwight Gooden and Lonnie Smith, served drug-related suspensions while Ueberroth was in office. In 1989, Ueberroth turned over the Commissioner's reins to former NL president A. Bartlett Giamatti. (TF/MS)
Bart Giamatti & Fay Vincent
http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/G/Giamatti_Bart.stm
http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/V/Vincent_Fay.stm
Vincent, the deputy commissioner under his friend Bart Giamatti, replaced Giamatti as Commissioner in September 1989 after Giamatti's death. Vincent was previously a securities lawyer who ran Columbia Picture Industries for nearly ten years. (SH)
FROM THE BASEBALL CHRONOLOGY
» September 13, 1989: Fay Vincent is elected baseball's 8th commissioner, succeeding the late Bart Giamatti, whom he served as deputy commissioner.
» July 30, 1990: In a surprisingly harsh ruling, Commissioner Fay Vincent orders Yankees owner George Steinbrenner to resign as the club's general partner by August 20th and bans him from day-to-day operation of the team for life. The ruling is a result of Steinbrenner's $40,000 payment to confessed gambler Howie Spira for damaging information about since-traded Yankee star Dave Winfield.
» March 12, 1991: Commissioner Fay Vincent orders a ban on the use of smokeless tobacco in the Class A Appalachian and Northwest leagues and the rookie Pioneer and Gulf Coast leagues.
» April 10, 1991: Sixty-eight-year-old Minnie Minoso is denied a chance to appear in a professional game in his 6th consecutive decade by baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent. Minoso had been scheduled to suit up for the independent Miami Miracle of the Class A Florida State League in their April 13 game against the Ft. Lauderdale Yankees. Vincent refuses to allow Minoso to sign a contract, even for a single night.
» April 26, 1991: Roger Clemens' appeal of the 5-game suspension and $10,000 fine levied against him for his confrontation with umpire Jim Evans and threat to "get" umpire Terry Cooney during the 1990 American League playoffs is denied by commissioner Fay Vincent.
» April 24, 1992: Former Yankees vice president Leonard Kleinman drops his $30 million lawsuit against baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent. The suit had been one of the obstacles standing in the way of George Steinbrenner's reinstatement with the Yankees.
» June 24, 1992: Yankees P Steve Howe is permanently banned from baseball by Commissioner Fay Vincent after having pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of attempting to purchase a gram of cocaine. It is Howe's 7th ban from the game, as he becomes the 1st player ever permanently banned from baseball because of drugs.
» July 6, 1992: Commissioner Fay Vincent orders realignment of the National League for the 1993 season, forcing the Cubs and Cardinals into the Western Division.
» July 24, 1992: Commissioner Fay Vincent announces that George Steinbrenner can resume active control of the Yankees on March 1, 1993.
» September 3, 1992: Baseball owners vote 18–9, with one abstention, calling for the resignation of Commissioner Fay Vincent.
» September 7, 1992: Baseball commissioner Fay Vincent resigns three days after failing to receive a vote of confidence by the owners at a meeting in Rosemont, Illinois.
» September 24, 1992: Baseball's executive council rescinds the National League realignment announced by Fay Vincent earlier this year. Vincent has since resigned from his post.
» July 2, 1999: Umpire Tom Hallion is suspended for three games for his actions during an argument with Colorado catcher Jeff Reed and pitching coach Milt May on June 26th. The dispute began when Rockies pitcher Mike DeJean, while walking to his dugout complained to third base umpire Terry Tata about a check-swing call, and home plate ump Hallion, told DeJean to get in the dugout. Officials couldn't recall another suspension of an umpire for an on-field dispute. In 1990, National League president Bill White was prepared to suspend umpire Joe West for slamming Philadelphia pitcher Dennis Cook to the field, but commissioner Fay Vincent intervened and no discipline was imposed.
Bud Selig
http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/S/Selig_Bud.stm
FROM THE BASEBALL CHRONOLOGY
» April 1, 1970: The Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club, headed by Bud Selig, purchases the Seattle Pilots for $10,800,000. Although negotiations were conducted over a period of months, it was not until March 13 when a federal bankruptcy referee declared the Pilots bankrupt. Brewers tickets go on sale tomorrow.
» September 9, 1992: Milwaukee owner Bud Selig is chosen as chairman of the major league's executive council, effectively becoming the interim baseball commissioner. Tomorrow he is appointed acting commissioner.
» January 19, 1994: Major league owners amend the major league agreement, giving complete power to the commissioner on labor negotiations. Bud Selig will continue to act as interim commissioner.
» September 2, 1994: According to acting commissioner Bud Selig, September 9th is the tentative deadline for canceling the rest of the season is no agreement is reached between the owners and players.
» September 14, 1994: The remainder of the baseball season is canceled by acting commissioner Bud Selig after 34 days of the players' strike. There will be no World Series for the 1st time since 1904.
» October 14, 1994: Bud Selig and Donald Fehr meet with President Clinton at the White House in an effort to reach an agreement concerning the strike.
» January 13, 1995: Use of replacement players for spring training and regular season games is okayed by baseball's executive council. Acting commissioner Bud Selig announces, "We are committed to playing the 1995 season and will do so with the best players willing to play."
» May 7, 1996: In another announcement out of Cincinnati, Marge Schott issues an apology for her laudatory comments about Adolph Hitler made last Sunday. Acting commissioner Bud Selig says, "we will continue to monitor the situation."
» November 11, 1996: Owner Bud Selig meets with Don Fehr, the players' labor leader, in a futile attempt to convince Fehr to accept the owners' demands. With the deadline for an agreement at midnight on the 14th, there is virtually no hope that the two sides will agree. If the two sides reach the deadline without an agreement, the interleague schedule for next year will be wiped out, and a traditional schedule followed.
» November 5, 1997: In what Bud Selig says is Phase one of a realignment of the major leagues, his Milwaukee Brewers move from the American League to the National League.
» June 29, 1998: Bud Selig calls a special session of the owners for July 9th in Chicago.
» July 9, 1998: Bud Selig is elected as the 9th Commissioner of Baseball by a vote of club owners.
» March 31, 1999: Commissioner Bud Selig confirms that discussions are underway which could lead to advertising space being sold on the sleeves of players uniforms.
» June 28, 1999: Hack Wilson ups his RBI total for the 1930 season to 191. 69 years after the season, an RBI is added by the commissioner's office, which also gives Babe Ruth six additional walks, raising his career-record total to 2,062. "There is no doubt that Hack Wilson's RBI total should be 191," commissioner Bud Selig said. "I am sensitive to the historical significance that accompanies the correction of such a prestigious record, especially after so many years have passed, but it is important to get it right." The missing RBI came from the 2nd game of a doubleheader between Wilson's Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds on July 28, 1930 where Charlie Grimm was credited with two RBIs in the game and Wilson with none. Ruth's walks total is now 2,062. Ted Williams is second, trailing by 43, and Rickey Henderson of the New York Mets is third, 134 behind Ruth.
» August 2, 1999: Commissioner Bud Selig announces that Darryl Strawberry's reinstatement has been moved up from August 11th to August 4th.
» August 23, 1999: Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig announces that Pete Rose will be invited to the World Series if he is elected to the All-Century Team. Rose has been banned from baseball since 1989.
» September 15, 1999: Baseball owners vote to merge the administrative operations of the American and National leagues. National League President Leonard Coleman, concluding his job had become irrelevant, announces his resignation effective after the World Series. He will become a senior adviser to Commissioner Bud Selig.
» December 21, 1999: The Dodgers are fined $50,000 and banned from scouting any Dominican Republic players for one year as a penalty for having signed 3B Adrian Beltre as a 15-year-old. Beltre is not given his free agency, according to Commissioner Bud Selig, because he participated in the scheme, and because the claim for free agency was made too late. The players' association is expected to file a grievance in the matter.
» January 6, 2000: Major league baseball officials order Atlanta Braves P John Rocker is to undergo psychological testing following derogatory remarks he made in an interview with Sports Illustrated magazine. Baseball commissioner Bud Selig says he will listen to what the doctors say before deciding what punishment—if any—will be handed down to the pitcher.
» January 6, 2000: Gene Budig resigns as American League president and is appointed a senior adviser to baseball commissioner Bud Selig. The American and National leagues will be disbanded as legal entities later this month, with their functions consolidated in the commissioner's office.
» January 19, 2000: Major league baseball owners vote to approve the $320 million sale of the Indians to Larry Dolan and his family trusts. They also vote to give Commissioner Bud Selig power "without limitation" to ensure "there is an appropriate level of long-term competitive balance among the clubs." He can override all of baseball's rules, and even attempt to impose a salary cap if he thinks it necessary to reach an agreement with the players following the 2001 season.
» January 20, 2000: Baseball owners vote to give all their internet rights to the commissioner's office. Bud Selig is expected to parcel out monies in 30 equal amounts.
» January 31, 2000: Braves reliever John Rocker is suspended from baseball until May 1st by Commissioner Bud Selig for his racial and ethnic remarks in an article published in Sports Illustrated last month. He's also fined an undisclosed amount and ordered to undergo sensitivity training.
» February 28, 2000: Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig announces the Yankees OF Darryl Strawberry is suspended for one year for having tested positive for cocaine last month. It is Strawberry's 3rd cocaine-related suspension.
» October 28, 2001: Commissioner Bud Selig says it is possible that two major league teams could be eliminated by the start of next season. The Montreal Expos, Florida Marlins, Minnesota Twins, and Tampa Bay Devil Rays are the teams mentioned as most likely to be eliminated.
» November 14, 2001: After Marvin Miller, former head of the players union, calls on Bud Selig to resign because of a conflict of interest with the Twins contraction and his ownership, the Commissioner reacts angrily. "St. Louis is closer to Minneapolis than Milwaukee is," misstates Selig in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "Are the Red Sox going to benefit if Montreal is contracted? No. I don't think the Brewers will gain either. Its so outrageous and not worthy of comment," he comments.
» January 9, 2002: Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan says Bud Selig should resign because he appeared to violate major league rules in a 1995 loan from a company controlled by the owner of the Minnesota Twins. Conyers, The House Judiciary Committee's ranking Democrat says the loan created an "irreparable conflict of interest" for Selig in his plan to fold two franchises, a proposal that most likely would include the Twins." Selig rejects the suggestion saying, "The suggestions made in your letter are wholly unacceptable."
» January 10, 2002: Bud Selig asks the players to accept a luxury tax that would slow the increase of salaries. He also proposes that teams vastly increase the amount of local revenue they share.
» February 5, 2002: Commissioner Bud Selig announces that major league baseball has postponed plans for contraction until 2003.
» March 12, 2002: Baseball czar Bud Selig announced he's going to start enforcing the 60–40 rule, which says teams can't have an assets/debts ratio below that level. According to Doug Pappas, an expert on baseball finances, "At best, this is one more example of Bud's arbitrary and selective enforcement of MLB's rules, retroactively punishing owners who've spent more on players than Bud would like. At worst, it's yet another grotesque case of Selig, he of the permanent conflict of interest, twisting the rules for his own benefit. In 1995, his Milwaukee Brewers were so far in debt they couldn't borrow money to contribute to the construction of their new park. Forbes estimated that as of the 1997 season, the Brewers' debt had risen to an incredible 97% of franchise value. Selig said nothing about the 60/40 rule. But the Brewers' new park opened in 2001. The first-year attendance spike sent club revenues to a record $113 million. Isn't it amazing how the Commissioner suddenly decided to enforce the rule just when his own club could finally meet the standard?"
» June 5, 2002: Baseball commissioner Bud Selig announces that the sport will contract by at least two teams before the 2003 season.
» June 7, 2002: In a Northern League (Independent) game between the visiting Gary Southshore RailCats at Midway Stadium in St. Paul, Saints owner Mike Veeck gives away seat cushions that feature the likeness of MLB Commissioner Bud Selig on one side and that of Players Association Executive Director Don Fehr on the other. During the seventh-inning stretch, an informal poll shows that about 90 percent of the fans on the cushions are sitting on Bud.
» July 9, 2002: In a controversial finish, the All–Star Game ends in a 7–7 tie after 11 innings as both the National and American leagues run out of pitchers. Both managers discuss it with commissioner Bud Selig, who calls the game. Alfonso Soriano and Barry Bonds hit home runs in the contest.