The Last Commissioner: A Baseball Valentine [Hardcover]

Fay Vincent (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 24, 2002

For Fay Vincent, being Baseball Commissioner meant a chance to see his favorite game from the perch of a field-level seat. Now he offers us the same view in The Last Commissioner, a wonderfully entertaining portrait of the sport he knows better than most.

On one glorious All-Star Game morning, Vincent hosted a private discussion of the game between the heroes of his youth, Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams. Such moments are rare in life but plentiful in these pages, and Vincent recounts them with warmth and affection. He met and talked baseball with the likes of Yogi Berra, Warren Spahn, and Whitey Ford, and he provides a candid portrait of his predecessor and friend, the late Bart Giamatti. But baseball is also a business, and the ugly disputes and machinations are recalled here with the candor of a commissioner who was more surprised than anyone else that he got the job in the first place. Whether it's the Pete Rose gambling scandal (the evidence against him was over-whelming, says the author) or a Roger Clemens suspension that turned on his use of the word "you, " Fay Vincent had the best seat in the house, and he shares it with readers in the best baseball memoir in many, many seasons.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

To publish a valentine to baseball on the heels of the sport's recent labor crisis seems like a particularly bad stroke of timing. It is to his credit that Vincent, the commissioner of baseball in the late 1980s and early '90s, ignores the game's current scars to focus on its past-both the distant past of DiMaggio and Williams and the more recent past of Vincent's own tenure. Unfortunately, Vincent too often sends his valentine to his brand-name chums, to whom he gives various shout-outs ("Ralph Branca... is today a great friend"; late baseball commissioner Bart Giamatti was "a friend who enriched me, changed me, challenged me, fascinated me"), or even to himself. He describes his "full life" cavorting with CEOs-he was a Hollywood producer, a Coca-Cola executive and a Yale Law School graduate, he reminds readers a few times-and assorted baseball legends. What redeems the book are the deep reserves of baseball anecdotes throughout, recalled by everyone from Leo Durocher and the DiMaggio brothers to a rookie umpire. Vincent also vividly retells the turbulent months he spent building cases against Pete Rose and George Steinbrenner in a manner that manages to be informed without feeling like insider gossip. A chapter on baseball's most recent labor crisis offers some innovative, if at times not fully cooked, ideas about how owners and players can better work together. This is an uneven and at times self-indulgent effort, but Vincent gets away with it, in part because of the book's appealing leisurely pace and nostalgic tone.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Upon the untimely death of A. Bartlett Giamatti in 1989, Vincent, Giamatti's friend and deputy, became commissioner of baseball. In 1992, after a "no confidence" vote by the Major League club owners, he resigned. Milwaukee Brewers owner Bud Selig served as acting commissioner until his daughter Wendy assumed the role of Brewers CEO and president, ostensibly eliminating the obvious conflict of interest of an owner being commissioner, and in 1998 Selig was elected commissioner. To many, Vincent, who, like his seven predecessors had no such conflict of interest, remains "the last commissioner." Here he recounts his strife with Pete Rose, George Steinbrenner, and the owners who made up the "Slay Fay" movement prior to his resignation, settling a few scores in an admirably low-key way. Vincent is strongest, however, in the "baseball valentine" portions, speaking of how the game has enriched his life and offering vignettes of baseball people from his father to Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Satchel Paige, and Derek Jeter. If the infighting and business turmoil that led to his resignation explain why baseball is on shaky ground, its fans' innate love of the game as reflected by the former commissioner shows why baseball should prevail. Recommended for most public library baseball collections.
Jim Burns, Jacksonville P.L., FL
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1ST edition (September 24, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743244524
• ISBN-13: 978-0743244527
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,066,124 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marvelous, September 26, 2003

By 

Todd Hawley (San Francisco CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Last Commissioner : A Baseball Valentine (Hardcover)

Fay Vincent calls his book his "valentine to baseball" and it's not too far off from the truth. He has divided each chapter into their own "half innings," the "top half" being about a particular topic, and the "bottom half" being various lists. In between, his stories and opinions I found to be quite entertaining and even in some cases thought-provoking. Whether it's relaying old baseball anecdotes involving Hall of Famers like Yogi Berra, Ted Williams & Joe DiMaggio, or old Negro League ballplayers he got to know during his stint as Commissioner, or stories about his friendship with both George Bush and his son (a one time Texas Rangers owner), or more serious topics like the suspension of Pete Rose, his time and friendship with Bart Giamatti (the commissioner he succeeded in office after Giamatti's death), or his experiences at the earthquake-marred 1989 World Series, the reader is certainly never bored. I especially found his story about this fascinating, as I was among the crowd at that game 3 some thirteen years ago now. I never realized how much Isaiah Nelson, a SF cop on duty at the game helped to orchestrate the orderly evacuation of the park.

After reading his thoughts on Rose, I as well as another reviewer have come to change my mind about whether Rose should be re admitted to the game (although as of this review, pressure to reinstate Rose in some capacity seems to be growing). I also agreed with him about Steve Howe, whose continued readmittance to baseball after several drug convictions in my humble opinion marred the game. When Vincent resigned as commissioner of baseball in 1992, I felt the game has been deprived of a leader, even if I sometimes disagreed with his decisions. I wouldn't call this book a "great masterpiece," but I'm glad I ignored a couple of negative reviews I've seen of it. This book is an enjoyable read and makes me wonder how different today's game might have been if Vincent had been allowed to at least finish out his term as commissioner, much less be commissioner today.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Book better than I thought it would be, October 20, 2006

By 

Bookworm - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last Commissioner : A Baseball Valentine (Hardcover)

I tend to stay away from autobiographies as some could better be cross marketed as fiction.

Vincent didn't care for Selig or Kuhn, as he states that Selig & Reinsdorf were the ring leaders in the 1987 collusion. He doesn't really have a whole lot to say about Uberroth, other than collusion. Selig wanted the job of commissioner all along. Okay, that was no surprise statement, as I think most astute fans surmised that during Bud's protracted interim commissioner period. George W. Bush called Fay (family friend) on at least two occasions to mention that Selig said that George could have the job if he wanted it. Fay told George that he thought that Selig really wanted the job for himself and that he should forget about becoming commissioner. Personally I think there's good chance that Bush may become commissioner come 2009.

Fay doesn't come out and say say it but other than for window dressing the hiring of Bill White as NL President was a mistake. Vincent does confess that the job of league president is little more than getting along with the umpires and keeping peace within the league with little policy making or management skills particularily needed, which qualified White for the job. Fay states that White admitted that he always has had a problem with authority figures. Vincent & Giamatti tried to get White to take the lead on improving minority issues in MLB, but White said that he had no interest in that as he was tired of beating his head against the wall.

I can think of worse league presidents than White (Gene Budig immediately comes to mind). Fay loved Len Coleman and thought he shouldn't have been dumped by MLB, when his position as NL president was no longer needed.

Vicent does give some interesting insight as to the hard core owners were who wanted to bust the MLB union (Selig, et al), and has some very innovative ideas on how a better relationship between the owners and players could be had. Fay had some interesting comments about Joe D & Mays. I found it amazing (but maybe I shouldn't have) how the owners gave Giamatti everything he wanted in the contract to be commissioner that Vincent negotiated for his friend Bart. The problem was that MLB really had no point person to negotiate the contract in their behalf, Giamatti was really ordained as commissioner before the terms were negotiated.

2.0 out of 5 stars Heavy on the valentine, light on the commissioner part, May 4, 2006

By 

Dave Buckley (Beacon, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last Commissioner : A Baseball Valentine (Hardcover)

Most of this book consists of Vincent relaying very short and sweet stories about small incidents and moments in time. Particularly, he pays very much attention to retired players he met and coming to terms with the differences in public personas and actual personalities.

I expected a far heavier treatment given the first half of the title. However, the opinions and issues are very skant throughout the book. There moments he gives opinions are often not substantiated and the depth of material is actually suited best for younger readers.I expected the opportunity to be taken to rationalize the role of the commissioner and outline a concrete argument about Vincent's experiences and how things could improve. Instead, the minor essays give a taste of the subject that most hardcore baseball fans would already know before reading.