Baseball Commissioner

NEW YORK -- Baseball commissioner Fay Vincent sat in his New York office last week, surrounded by photographs of friends and heroes, including George Bush, Whitey Ford and his father.AHe wore a summer suit and a floral print necktie. He occasionally reached for an ashtray with a large cigar parked inside. For about 50 minutes, he spoke directly and indirectly about his troubles with baseball's most demanding, most fickle audience -- the 28 major-league baseball owners.Vincent has had plenty of trouble.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The search for a baseball commissioner was expected to take a major step forward during the three-day major-league meeting that ended yesterday at the Marriott Harbor Beach Resort, but a group of 11 owners pulled the plug on the search committee before it could make a recommendation.Search committee chairman Bill Bartholomay announced yesterday afternoon that he had been passed a letter during a late-night Executive Council session Tuesday in which representatives of 11 teams advised him that they would block the election of a commissioner until a new collective bargaining agreement is forged with the players union.

It's nostalgia time. It's time to look back fondly on the Bowie Kuhn era.You remember Bowie, don't you? He was the guy who was dubbed "the village idiot" by former Oakland Athletics owner Charles O. Finley. He was the brunt of one joke after another during his 16-year tenure as baseball commissioner.He looks pretty good, in retrospect.Baseball has gone 11 months without a commissioner . . . and it shows. The game is controlled by the Executive Council, which is fine for negotiating a television contract and negotiating a labor agreement, but the sport no longer has a moral or ethical rudder.

Like most films depicting historic accounts of real-life events, the bio-epic "42" carries the immediate disclaimer that it is based on a true story, leaving room for interpretive analysis and creative license. Consequently, dramatic interpretations are by their nature subject to scrutiny and debate. While the film sticks close to the well-chronicled historic record regarding Jackie Robinson's unique place in time as the first African American to play in the major leagues, its sins are mostly of omission.

For decades, the Orioles commanded a sweeping empire of fans - a territory larger than some European countries, stretching from southern Pennsylvania to North Carolina and including Washington, where the team operated a popular retail store. The club's games are still broadcast across most of the same region, but the Orioles now share much of it with the Washington Nationals, who are ensconced in a population-rich portion of what was once the Orioles' domain. The Nationals' arrival in 2005 created a complicated relationship in which the teams are at once neighbors, opponents on the field and, lately, bickering business partners when it comes to the regional television network they co-own but the Orioles control.

Baseball Commissioner's office: Permitted Reds to sign OF Deion Sanders to minor-league contract. Deal was blocked last month because it came after Dec. 7 deadline to re-sign. Cincinnati since received permission from other 29 teams to sign him. Football Dolphins: Signed LB Nat Hemsley to two-year contract. Hockey Predators: Signed RW Tom Fitzgerald to one-year contract.

He said it "It's like Obi-Wan Kenobi going head-to-head with Luke Skywalker." Brian Anderson, of Diamondbacks, on Curt Schilling facing former mentor Roger Clemens He said it "I mean, even Branch Rickey had to start somewhere." Bud Selig, baseball commissioner, citing the Brooklyn Dodgers executive who signed Jackie Robinson, in expressing his dismay at big-league clubs not filling more front office positions with minorities.

The baseball commissioner's job is to save the club owners from themselves. They don't tolerate that.George claims the mantle of Harry Truman who came from behind in '48. It's really that of Harry Truman hounded from office as a bumbling failure in '52.Some other guy named Berger wants to tear up Baltimore County schools. Don't blame me.And to think that Gandhi formed his ideas for nonviolence in South Africa.

Moves Baseball COMMISSIONER'S OFFICE: Suspended Phillies manager Larry Bowa one game and fined him for inciting benches to clear during spring training game; Bowa has appealed and will have a hearing Tuesday. ANGELS: Claimed P Elio Serrano off waivers from Rockies. Designated P Mark Lukasiewicz for assignment. BREWERS: Named Sarah Harris VP and general counsel. DEVIL RAYS: Signed 2B Damion Easley. Optioned 2B Brent Abernathy to Triple-A Durham. Sent OF George Lombard outright to Durham and P Hans Smith outright to Double-A Orlando.