Fay Vincent, who became an unexpected baseball commissioner in 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 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. 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.
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, , Vincent was a securities lawyer when he was hired in as president and chief executive officer of Columbia Pictures Industries Inc. 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 s. 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. Vincent was praised for a day delay before the series resumed. His first full season as commissioner began after a day spring training lockout. Vincent later reinstated Steinbrenner as of He also ordered both leagues to supply players equally for the expansion draft and that any future expansion money be divided equally among all clubs.
Owners approved a resolution of no confidence in an vote on Sept. Selig was installed as chairman of the executive council, a new position that made him in effect acting commissioner. A longtime Anglophile, Vincent wanted to decompress and rented the Mill House in the Berkshire village of Sutton Courtenay for the first six months of Living in the home of former British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, Vincent frequently entertained visitors during his sabbatical.
