The best that can be said about Fay Vincent’s contributions to Major League Baseball (MLB) is that he cared about everyone connected to the game: players, ticket-takers, the stadium groundskeepers, and umpires. The integrity of baseball, and all its contributors, was paramount to him.
Professional sports, in particular, lost a tremendous leader on Saturday. Vincent, 86, died in Vero Beach, Florida, after battling bladder cancer.
Vincent had an affinity for umpires. He respected their work and understood the difficult task they marshaled on the field. Whereas some may pay little attention to those who keep the games moving by calling balls and strikes as safe or out, according to the rule book, Vincent viewed umpires as valued contributors who the game couldn’t do without. That respect from Vincent’s office—from September 1989 to September 1992—towards the MLB officials didn’t go unnoticed by their rank and file.
“[Vincent] always had the best interest of baseball in mind, and he meant it,” said retired 26-year MLB umpire Al Clark to The Epoch Times on Sunday in Aruba when informed of the former commissioner’s passing.
Clark also recalled the powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake that struck Loma Prieta in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1989.
“The commissioner spent 20 minutes in the umpires’ dressing room before the quake hit. After the quake hit, and Game 3 of the World Series was postponed, Mr. Vincent was under tremendous pressure to move the game to a neutral site. We were told that it was going to be Phoenix,” he said.
The 1989 World Series between the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s will forever be remembered as the “Earthquake World Series.” Clark recalls Vincent being adamant that the Series wouldn’t be relocated out of the Bay Area. Fondly, Clark spoke of Vincent’s determination to the fans in both markets having waited a long time for such a regional match up, and that he wasn’t going to turn his back on those expectations.
“Mr. Vincent said that baseball was going to be part of the solution, to bring things back to normal to the Bay Area. He was 100 percent right. Ten days later, the World Series came back, and baseball was absolutely the catalyst that brought the area back. Mr. Vincent saw umpires as important. He was a friend to the umpires. I’m proud to have worked for him.”
Tim Welke, who worked 33 MLB seasons as an umpire, summed up Vincent as simply being a wonderful contributor to the game. Welke, who made his MLB umpiring debut during the 1983 season and was hired full-time the following season, staying on the job through the 2015 season, has happy memories of Vincent visiting the umpires’ dressing room prior to games.
“The commissioner was [umpires’] friend. He understood that we all had a tough job. When he was in the ballpark, Mr. Vincent would make it a point to say hello to everyone,” Welke told The Epoch Times on Sunday from his home in southwestern Michigan. “As commissioner, Mr. Vincent knew there were three teams out on the field wearing uniforms. You knew the commissioner had your back.”
Joe West, who after the 2021 MLB season retired from his MLB umpiring duties after 43 seasons working 5,460 games, is perhaps the go-to judge, when it comes to grading integrity and competency in the commissioner’s office. After learning of Vincent’s passing on Sunday while returning from a trip to Missouri with his wife, West spoke with The Epoch Times as he was making his way through a Florida airport.
“[Vincent] understood our job,” West said. “There were three good commissioners in my opinion; Peter Ueberroth, Bart Giamatti, and Fay Vincent. Vincent was always on top of the game. He was a baseball fan. One year, after he was commissioner, I brought him to an umpire school. I called Hunter Wendelstedt [of Wendelstedt Umpire School], and let him know what I was doing. Up until then, no commissioner had appeared at an umpire school. Vincent spoke with the class, and he seemed to really appreciate it as much as the students.”
West, considered by many as a future member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, will remember Vincent as a “good man,” and his passing as a big loss for the game of baseball.
Always with the best interest of baseball in mind, almost to a detriment, when Vincent attempted to direct MLB’s future as he saw fit, club owners who had conflicting visions decided to replace him. In September 1992, a no-confidence vote of 18–9 with one abstention by owners spelled the end of Vincent’s tenure. Six days shy of what would have been his third full year as MLB commissioner, Vincent left office.
Fay Vincent left the game of baseball in better shape than when he came aboard as MLB commissioner. He was MLB’s greatest fan.
