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The 'Commissioner of Baseball' is the chief executive of Major League Baseball.^[1] Under the direction of the Commissioner, the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball hires and maintains the sport's umpiring crews, and negotiates marketing, labor, and television contracts. The Commissioner is chosen by a vote of the owners of the teams.
The current Commissioner is Bud Selig, who has been in office since 1998 (was "Acting Commissioner" from 1992 to 1998).

Contents

Origin of the Office

Owners' "Coup"

Current Challenges

Trivia

Commissioners of Baseball

References

External link

Origin of the Office

The unique title ''Commissioner'', which is a title now applied to the heads of several other major sports leagues as well as baseball, derives from its predecessor office, the National Commission. The National Commission was the ruling body of professional baseball starting with the National Agreement of 1903, which made peace between the National League and the American League (see History of baseball in the United States). It consisted of three members: the two League Presidents and a Commission Chairman, whose primary responsibility was to preside at meetings and presumably to mediate disputes.
The Black Sox Scandal was seen as a failure of the National Commission. The Commission was in some sense baseball's equivalent to the Articles of Confederation: a good start, but ultimately scrapped and replaced with a more powerful and centralized government. In 1920, team owners decided to reform the National Commission with a membership of non-baseball men. However, their pick for chairman, former federal judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, would only accept an appointment as sole commissioner. He also demanded unlimited authority over all aspects of organized baseball. The owners, still reeling from perceptions that the sport was crooked, agreed.

Owners' "Coup"

Landis ruled baseball with an iron hand for 24 years. For example, in response to fining Babe Ruth $5,000, he is quoted as saying, "In this [commissioner's] office he's just another ballplayer." Subsequent commissioners wielded varying degrees of power with varying degrees of success. An important aspect of the office is that, while charged with defending the "best interests of baseball", the commissioner was always elected by baseball team owners alone, and thus is not directly answerable to players, umpires, or fans. Still, there are a number of occasions on which the commissioner has made decisions unpopular with the owners to defend the "best interests of baseball," such as when Bowie Kuhn invalidated a 1976 sale of high-profile players to the Yankees.
The inherent tension, exacerbated by baseball's chronic labor conflicts with the Major League Baseball Players Association beginning in the 1970s, came to a head in 1992, when baseball owners voted no confidence in Commissioner Fay Vincent by a tally of 18-9. The owners had a number of grievances against Vincent, especially the perception that he had been too favorable to the players during the lockout of 1990. Unlike the current commissioner, Vincent has stated that the owners colluded against the players. Vincent put it this way: "The Union basically doesn’t trust the Ownership because collusion was a $280 million theft by Selig and Reinsdorf of that money from the players. I mean, they rigged the signing of free agents. They got caught. They paid $280 million to the players. And I think that’s polluted labor relations in baseball ever since it happened. I think it’s the reason Fehr has no trust in Selig."^[2] Vincent resigned 7 September 1992. Selig, the longtime owner of the Milwaukee Brewers was appointed chairman of baseball's Executive Council, making him the ''de facto'' acting commissioner.
Selig continued as acting commissioner until 1998, when the owners made him commissioner in his own right. Having been an owner himself for 30 years, Selig is seen as much less of an independent authority than were previous commissioners. His ascent was soon followed by the disastrous 1994 Major League Baseball strike, in which the intransigence of both players and owners led to the cancellation of the World Series and widespread disillusionment among baseball fans. Selig's later administration has had many perceived successes, such as expansion and interleague play, but many still see his lack of independence from the owners as a problem.

Current Challenges

The most prominent issue currently faced by Major League Baseball is the usage of performance enhancing drugs by ballplayers, including anabolic steroids, in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Addressing the issue of whether or not Selig should have taken alternate actions, former commissioner Fay Vincent wrote in the April 24, 2006, issue of ''Sports Illustrated'' that with most of Bonds' official troubles being off the field, and with the strength of the players' union, there is little Selig can do beyond appointing an investigating committee. Vincent said that Selig is largely ''"an observer of a forum beyond his reach."''

Trivia

★ It is said that George W. Bush, then owner of the Texas Rangers and now President of the United States, angled for the position when it was technically vacant (Selig was only "acting" commissioner) in the 1990s.^[3] An oft-mentioned candidate at that time was George J. Mitchell, then Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate.

★ By the end of 2007, Bud Selig will have passed Ford Frick and Bowie Kuhn to become the second longest-serving commissioner (if one counts his stint as "Acting Commissioner" from 1992-mid 1998), behind only Kenesaw Mountain Landis.

★ Bud Selig announced that he will retire at the end of his contract in 2009.^[4]

Commissioners of Baseball

★ Kenesaw Mountain Landis (1920-1944)

★ A. B. "Happy" Chandler, Sr. (1945-1951)

★ Ford Frick (1951-1965)

★ William Eckert (1965-1968)

★ Bowie Kuhn (1969-1984)

★ Peter Ueberroth (1984-1989)

★ Bart Giamatti (1989)

★ Fay Vincent (1989-1992)

★ Bud Selig (1998-present; held title of "acting commissioner" from 1992-1998)

References

1. MLB Executives
2. http://www.businessofbaseball.com/vincent_interview.htm
3. Does baseball need a commissioner with a background in the game?
4. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2681764

External link

★ Major League Baseball : History : Commissioners