Fay Vincent, whose idealism and self-styled independence as baseball commissioner clashed with owners eager for war with the players’ union, leading to his resignation under pressure in 1992, died on Saturday in Vero Beach, Fla. He was 86.
The cause was complications of bladder cancer, according to The New York Times, which cited his wife, Christina.
As Major League Baseball’s eighth commissioner, Vincent served the shortest term — just shy of three years — besides the five-month tenure of his predecessor, Bart Giamatti, who died of a heart attack on Sept. 1, 1989. Vincent had been deputy commissioner to Giamatti, whose time in office was consumed by the Pete Rose gambling investigation, which led to Rose’s lifetime ban from the sport.
Vincent’s term was similarly eventful. He presided over a World Series interrupted by an earthquake; a spring-training lockout by team owners; a banishment of George Steinbrenner from the daily operations of the Yankees; and, ultimately, a showdown with owners over the very definition of his job.
Vincent, who had come to baseball after serving in top executive roles for Columbia Pictures and Coca-Cola, had hoped to rebuild trust with the union after the collusion fiasco of the mid-1980s, when owners illegally conspired against players by…
