The Cooperstown Symposium--Part Two

Several intriguing presentations highlighted Day Two of the Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, but the best one that I saw at the Hall of Fame involved an overview of the nine commissioners who have lorded over the game.  I have to confess to knowing little about the commissioners, so the Thursday presentation provided enlightenment across the board.

In assessing each of the nine czars, professor Robert Lewis of New Mexico University discussed the concepts of "hard power" vs. "soft power." Those who used hard power ruled with a military style that emphasized law and order and discipline, while those using soft power tried to build consensus by persuading others to accept their ideals. According to Lewis' study, General William "Spike" Eckert was the "softest" of the commissioners, while Bowie Kuhn (recently elected to the Hall of Fame) was the "hardest" in his management style. According to Lewis, those commissioners who successfully blended the soft and hard approaches best exhibited the use of "smart" power.

As Lewis pointed out, the game's first commissioner, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, tried to preserve the mythology of baseball as a pure and wholesome sport while applying an autocratic approach. Contrary to popular opinion, Landis loved baseball and its players, but didn't care much for the owners, the ones who paid his salary. He brought down justice swiftly and severely on both sides, whenever he felt the rules had been violated. After Landis died in 1944, the major league owners decided that they wanted something else--a completely different approach from the next commissioner.

That attitude set the scene for the hiring of A.B. "Happy" Chandler, who had a far more happy-go-lucky personality than the stern Landis. Chandler supported Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson in their efforts to integrate the major leagues in the mid-1940s, but banned Mike Gardella and other players for violating their contracts and jumping to the riches of the Mexican League. According to Lewis, Chandler began to draw the ire of the owners when he failed to negotiate the best possible TV deal and also suspended Brooklyn Dodgers manager Leo Durocher.

After the reigns of Ford Frick, described as the "reluctant leader," and Spike Eckert, derisively known as the "unknown soldier," Bowie Kuhn stepped into the Commissioner's Office. Employing a volatile style, Kuhn carried on a marathon war with Marvin Miller, losing almost every labor battle along the way. Kuhn was too sensitive to the wishes of the owners, particularly the Dodgers' powerful Walter O'Malley, which made him completely untrustworthy in the eyes of the players. In Lewis' opinion, Kuhn's style helped make him the worst of the commissioners. (Lewis' assessment surprised me, since Eckert has earned infamy for his ineffectiveness in overseeing the game during the late 1960s.)

Then came Peter Ueberroth, who unlike Kuhn, Frick, Chandler and Landis, didn't like baseball. Coming from the marketing side of athletics, Ueberroth looked at baseball solely as a business and landed near the middle of the hard and soft approaches. Ueberroth has always been of particular interest to me because of his friendship with my late mother, Grace. They both worked in the travel industry before Ueberroth became involved with the Los Angeles Olympic Games. 

Due to time constraints, Lewis skipped over the reigns of Bart Giamatti and Fay Vincent, before concluding his talk with a brief assessment of the current commissioner, Bud Selig. Lewis termed Selig the "most balanced" between the use of hard and soft power, in other words, Selig has successfully exhibited "smart power" during his long tenure as the game's leader. That is a lesson that should be observed by the next man to take on the role of the Commissioner's Office.