Commishioner Talk

[timconnelly]

Wanted to ask all you history buffs who you would select as the best and worst commissioners:

I think Landis did some great things for the game but if he had a hand in keeping black players out, I have to really hesitate before naming him the best.

Happy Chandler took a real strong stance in favor of Jackie Robinson. I think that based solely on that, he would be my pick. We got Mays, Aaron, Clemente, Gibson, F Robinson, and a who's who of other great players from breaking the color line.

The Civil Rights movement had no legs when Chandler took his position. Who knows if that didn't influence the high court when Brown vs. the Board of Education was decided some 7 years later.

[SmedIndy]

Wow, most of them have been abysmal.

Frick, Kuhn, puh-leeze.

Vincent and Giamatti weren't that bad. Uberroth was fairly successful, except for that collusion thing.

It is a shame that MLB has never had as good of a commissioner as the NFL, NBA and NHL have been / are now blessed with.

[Skipper Steve]

The thing with Peter U was that he got caught - - otherwise, it was a pretty good plan.

[sweaver]

I would rate Landis best. Far from perfect, the man was vain and a bigot, but he was independent and worked for the best for baseball.
Chandler's only accomplishment was getting Jack R. in the game, or at least not standing in Branch Rickey's way. Still, there was a
"quota" for a while of two blacks per team (the star and his roommate) and Chandler was not exactly a Civil Rights bastion. He did get the owners mad enough to fire him.

Ford Frick didn't know his butt from a hole in the wall. The owners thought he was a perfect commissioner, until football became more popular than baseball.

Bowie Kuhn was a little better, but not much. He combined Landis' faults with Chandler's, although he was probably not much of a bigot. Not much backbone, though.

Ueberroth was pretty effective in bringing baseball into the 20th century, but encouraged the collusion fiasco that cost owners millions in the long run.

Giamatti was sort of Chandler revisited, except he was an academician rather than a politician. Vincent might have become the best commish ever, given time, but the owners canned him before he could really do anything.

The best? Pretty even between Landis and Ueberroth, in my book. Neither is really close to David Stern, Pete Rozelle, or even Bert Bell in other sports.


Selig. Ha. Hahaha. Heeheehee. Bwahahahahahahahaha!
That's a good one.

[CubFan7125]

I know it's off topic & sport but am I allowed to vote for Dave Stern or Pete Rozelle, the 2 best commissioners no matter what the sport.