NEW YORK — Fay Vincent, who became an unexpected baseball commissioner in 1989 following the death of A. Bartlett Giamatti and then was forced out three years later by owners intent on a labor confrontation with players, has died. He was 86.
Vincent had undergone radiation and chemotherapy for bladder cancer and developed complications that included bleeding, said his wife, Christina. He asked that treatment be stopped and died Saturday at a hospital in Vero Beach, Florida.
“Mr. Vincent served the game during a time of many challenges, and he remained proud of his association with our national pastime throughout his life,” current commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement.
A lawyer who became a movie studio executive at the behest of a college friend, Vincent had been retired for three decades and lived in New Canaan, Connecticut, and Vero Beach.
During his three-year tenure as commissioner, Vincent had a string of what he called “three-cigar days,” angering owners by becoming the first management official to admit the collusion among teams against free agents following the 1985, ‘86 and ’87 seasons. He suspended the Yankees’ George Steinbrenner, divided expansion fees among both leagues, attempted to force National League realignment and negotiated a settlement that ended a 1990 spring training lockout.
“I had the conviction that being commissioner was a public trust. I tried to do what I thought was best for the game and the public who cared so much about it,” Vincent said in a 2023 interview with The Associated Press. “I had mixed results. Sometimes I’m pleased with what I did. The tragedy of baseball is the single biggest thing I left undone was to build a decent relationship between the owners and the players. I thought somebody would take over after me and get that done. If I died tomorrow, that would be the big regret, is that the players and the owners still have to make some commitment to each other to be partners and to build the game.”
Born May 29, 1938, Vincent was a securities lawyer when he was hired in 1978 as president and chief executive officer of Columbia Pictures Industries Inc. by Herbert Allen Jr., who had known him their time as undergraduates at Williams College.
Vincent remained a corporate executive for a decade, then had been with a law firm for only a few months when he was asked to become deputy commissioner by Giamatti, a friend since they met during a party at Princeton in the 1970s.
Giamatti, the former Yale president, was NL president from June 1986 until succeeding Peter Ueberroth as commissioner in April 1989. Giamatti tasked Vincent with supervising the gambling investigation of career hits leader Pete Rose, and Vincent hired lawyer John M. Dowd to lead a probe that led to Rose agreeing to a lifetime ban that August.
Giamatti died of a heart attack that Sept. 1, and Vincent was elected commissioner by owners 12 days later and given a 4 1/2-year term.
Vincent’s first World Series in charge was interrupted by the Loma Prieta earthquake, which struck a half-hour before Game 3 was to start at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park. Vincent was praised for a 10-day delay before the series resumed.
“It is becoming very clear to us in Major League Baseball that our concerns, our issue, is a rather modest one,” he said then.
His first full season as commissioner began after a 32-day