RIP Bowie Kuhn

[Inky_Wretch]

Just moved on wire...

 

[ondeadline]

I remember hating his decisions as a kid, but he was commish during a difficult time.

 

[slappy4428]

much of it, his own making.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

He was still alive?

 

[badmoon]

Certainly a man of rigid integrity, but one incapable of navigating the narrow passage between the old-school owners (and some of the new-school ones as well) used to getting their way and the suddenly empowered players.
Inspired one of Red Smith's better lines -- that his shirts were "impeccably stuffed" -- and had the unfortunate habit, passed down to Selig, of sitting in freezing cold stadiums pretending that the weather was fine. (Actually Bud has that porn theater trench coat he always wears, but the comparison seems apt.)
Maybe no one could have succeeded during that period as commissioner. Kuhn obviously did not and, hate to bring it up on this day, but he should be remembered most for two dreadful words: Designated Hitter.

 

[slappy4428]

Certainly a man of rigid integrity, but one incapable of navigating the narrow passage between the old-school owners (and some of the new-school ones as well) used to getting their way and the suddenly empowered players.
Inspired one of Red Smith's better lines -- that his shirts were "impeccably stuffed" -- and had the unfortunate habit, passed down to Selig, of sitting in freezing cold stadiums pretending that the weather was fine. (Actually Bud has that porn theater trench coat he always wears, but the comparison seems apt.)
Maybe no one could have succeeded during that period as commissioner. Kuhn obviously did not and, hate to bring it up on this day, but he should be remembered most for two dreadful words: Night World Series.

 

[ondeadline]

How sad is it that Bowie Kuhn dies and the thread about it barely has any life?

 

[Armchair_QB]

His work as commissioner looks much better with each passing season.

 

[Pringle]

Kuhn was appointed as an owners' patsy and he carried out his job in that fashion. He did whatever it took to stay on the owners' good graces, including an embarrassingly heated defense of the "reserve clause" in the Curt Flood case that eventually made Kuhn a national laughingstock among a sporting press that was initially in his pocket on the issue, as well as calling Jim Bouton into the principal's office and giving him the "opportunity" to retract "Ball Four."

He wanted to put Negro League Hall of Fame plaques in a separate wing (long live Strom Thurmond!) and he wasn't present the night Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run because he has a "previous obligation."

 

[boots]

Kuhn was appointed as an owners' patsy and he carried out his job in that fashion. He did whatever it took to stay on the owners' good graces, including an embarrassingly heated defense of the "reserve clause" in the Curt Flood case that eventually made Kuhn a national laughingstock among a sporting press that was initially in his pocket on the issue, as well as calling Jim Bouton into the principal's office and giving him the "opportunity" to retract "Ball Four."

He wanted to put Negro League Hall of Fame plaques in a separate wing (long live Strom Thurmond!) and he wasn't present the night Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run because he has a "previous obligation."

**** Bowie. He didn't do Hank Aaron right in any way. I'm sure Hank wasn't shedding a tear. Bowie was a lackie and a very well liked one at that.

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

Kuhn was appointed as an owners' patsy and he carried out his job in that fashion. He did whatever it took to stay on the owners' good graces, including an embarrassingly heated defense of the "reserve clause" in the Curt Flood case that eventually made Kuhn a national laughingstock among a sporting press that was initially in his pocket on the issue, as well as calling Jim Bouton into the principal's office and giving him the "opportunity" to retract "Ball Four."

He wanted to put Negro League Hall of Fame plaques in a separate wing (long live Strom Thurmond!) and he wasn't present the night Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run because he has a "previous obligation."

That's what commissioners do. They're hired by the owners. They're paid by the owners. They work for the owners. If they stray from that, they get fired, like Fay Vincent did.

Why do people think the commissioner is some great independent power dedicated to the good of baseball?

 

[slappy4428]

Why do people think the commissioner is some great independent power dedicated to the good of baseball?

 

[Pringle]

Kuhn was appointed as an owners' patsy and he carried out his job in that fashion. He did whatever it took to stay on the owners' good graces, including an embarrassingly heated defense of the "reserve clause" in the Curt Flood case that eventually made Kuhn a national laughingstock among a sporting press that was initially in his pocket on the issue, as well as calling Jim Bouton into the principal's office and giving him the "opportunity" to retract "Ball Four."

He wanted to put Negro League Hall of Fame plaques in a separate wing (long live Strom Thurmond!) and he wasn't present the night Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run because he has a "previous obligation."

That's what commissioners do. They're hired by the owners. They're paid by the owners. They work for the owners. If they stray from that, they get fired, like Fay Vincent did.

Why do people think the commissioner is some great independent power dedicated to the good of baseball?

Because they claim to be such.

 

[cranberry]

Why do people think the commissioner is some great independent power dedicated to the good of baseball?

Bart was a cutthroat CEO in baseball, just like he was at Yale -- a place where he was known best for his union-busting tactics against the clerical workers in the mid-'80s.

 

[BYH]

His work as commissioner looks much better with each passing season.

Nothing emboldens one's legacy more than being followed by a parade of boobs.