European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 22, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday june 22, 1990 the stars and stripes a a a Page 23commentary Vincent a Diamond in baseball rough no one knows whether Kenesaw Mountain Landis the first commissioner of the game loved baseball. Could he have named the starting lineup of the 1929 Philadelphia athletics Complete with batting averages strikeouts per inning and walks per game would he have known How pie Traynor got his nickname did he collect player cards As a kid did he even keep the score at the games did he think of a double play As 6-4-3? was he even up on the infield Fly Rule. Did he even know who the third baseman was in the tinker to Evers to Chance combination it was Harry Steinfeldt would he know who Frank Leja was we have a commissioner now who knows All of the above a and More. Chances Are Good that if Francis t. Fay Vincent were not the commissioner of All baseball he would be haunting the baseball card and Memorabilia shows. If he weren to barring Pete Rose he might be buying Charlie hustlers batting helmet. Fay Vincent is like a kid locked in a Candy store. He can to believe his Good Luck. He thinks he has the third Best Job in the United states and he a not too sure about the other two. Does it help or Hurt to be a fan with a capital of a a it a essential a he notes positively. A if you done to love baseball you  be in  Vincent is the eighth commissioner of baseball. The first a and the Man against whom All others Are usually compared a was Landis. Did Landis love baseball there a no evidence Landis loved much of anything. Its almost impossible to write Landis name without the adjective crusty in front of it. Landis was a judge and he ran baseball As if it were a courtroom full of pickpockets. He conceived his Job to be one of punishing. And he handed out punishment and fines with will and enthusiasm coming Down on owners and players alike breaking up the St. Louis cardinals infamous minor league a Chain gain operations with the same Zeal and zest he broke up Standard Oil. Kenesaw was an off with their Heads commissioner. Jim Murray when he was gone baseball went to a Back slapping politician. After six years of baseball Happy Chandler was glad to go Back to the comparative serenity of being governor of Kentucky again. Ford Frick the third commissioner had been a Newspaperman. So he hardly saw the game through a Haze of romantic legend. He had been babe Ruth a ghost writer and his chief legacy to the sport was placing an asterisk after Roger Marisa name because he broke babe Ruth a single season Home run record in a season eight games longer than Ruth a. Fortunately Frick was gone by the time Henry Aaron broke Ruth a career record a so we were spared that blood Bath. William Eckert was the next commissioner an air transport general they found in the far reaches of the Pentagon apparently playing with paper air planes. New York sports writer Dick Young dubbed him a the unknown Soldier a and he was just As unknown three years later when he left the Job although he May have made the planes run on time. Bowie Kuhn a ramrod stiff formal inflexible Man with a rigid set of values ran the game As if it were a military school and in a nation in which some 40 states had lotteries banned from the game two of its greatest stars a Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle a for playing customer Golf for a Casino in Atlantic City. Bowie Wasny to a fan he was a Drill sergeant. Peter Ueberroth Wasny to a fan either. He was a marketing Genius who took the most visible loss Leader operation in the history of the world a the olympics a and promptly made several Hundred million dollars off them showing the world what it should have been doing All along. Peter put baseball in the Black too. He  abide strikes he thought the owners had the View of the world of the German general staff and before he left he had in place the most lucrative to and marketing contracts a in the billions of dollars a the game had Ever seen. We never got to know Bart Giamatti. He was a fan a of the Boston red sox. He probably had no Clear idea who Frank Leja was either but he goes Down in history As the Man who kicked Pete Rose out of baseball. That a a Little better than the Man who shot Santa Claus. But not much. Which brings the game to Fay Vincent. He hardly got the fax machine put in before troubles began coming in the windows. He had the Pete Rose mess the games labor relations were in shambles arbitrators had found the owners collusive. Then the world series got virtually wiped out by an earthquake. And then the owners locked the players out of Spring training. Fortunately Vincent has been there before. A securities and Exchange bureaucrat in Washington he got called in to head up Columbia pictures after the David Begelman scandals a the studio head had misappropriated company funds. He presided Over the company through its Sale to coca cola then headed the division that brought in to programs like a a jeopardy and a wheel of  he was still there when the studio released  he is no stranger to disasters. Hardly anyone asks him who Frank Leja is a Leja had 23 at bats As a Yankee and Angel in the 1950s and �?T60s. No one wants to know if Irv Norco played More games in left Field than Norm Siebum in 1956 and what year Mantle won the triple Crown. Instead the conversation veers around to drug control lockouts arbitration George Steinbrenner. The nations no. 1 fan gets to talk everything but baseball. Hardly anyone cares who Frank Leja was anymore. The Good news though is that everyone ill know who Fay Vincent is. The los Angeles times wll springing from the Fountain of age Nolan Ryan is still rising at 43fires sixth no hitter by Jim Golen associated press writer seem like old times it is. In the merry month of june so far a 45-year-old Hale Irwin became the oldest player to win the . Open. A 43-year-old Nolan Ryan became the oldest Pitcher to throw a no hitter no. 6. A 52-year-old Harry Gant became the oldest Driver to win a Lascar event when he won the Miller 500. Other grand old geezers have looked Good this month too. Chuck Daly at 60 the oldest coach in the Aba helped the Detroit pistons earn a place in league history by leading them to Back to Back championships. George Foreman at 42, improved his record to 67-2 by knocking out Adilson Rodrigues. Told by Many that they  maintain their level of achievement these gentlemen proved their critics right. They got better. Irwin figured by most to be Over the Hill danced Over Hill and Dale in Celebration of his sudden death Victory monday in the . Open which he had already won twice before. A a in be never considered Many things impossible a he said. A some Are just improbable. But i never looked at my age As one of the factors. I always Felt i could do it and i always wanted to do  Ryan is a Journeyman As Hall of fam ers go. First one team then another has been afraid to take a Chance on the aging superstar. But Ryan has paid off every time a most recently for the Texas rangers who were on the winning end of his sixth no hitter no. 5 was already a record. A it comes so late in my career that it makes it extra special a said Ryan whose fastball has dropped to a Mere 98 Mph. A i Haven to gotten bored with no hitters yet a he said. A i done to know How Many More chances in a going to get but the Way in be been throwing its certainly not out of the question that ill get another  Gant did no to figure to play a role in the Miller 500. Instead he won it a his first Victory in More than a year. A i Hope i win the most of anybody at this age a he said. A a you re never too  John Myers a spokesman for the american association of retired persons said the Harp a has argued for Many years that age is no Barrier to a great Many things including excellence m physical  the organization cites the recent victories by Irwin Ryan and others As evidence that a older athletes Are just As competitive As they were in their  history bears this out. Kareem Abdul Jabbar ran the floor in the Aba finals at the age of 43. Gordie Howe and Satchel Paige played at the highest level into their �?T50s. And when Bill Shoemaker and his mount Ferdinand won the 1986 Kentucky Derby they had a combined age of 57. The horse of c a he horse of course was 3. Hale Irwin awoke for . Open 45-Ycar-old Champion a youth and enthusiasm Are great but age and craftiness Are better for me. As 1 get older i get better a Foreman said after finishing off Rodriqus in the second round saturday night. Then there Sandres Gomez the French open Winner. He a just a Pup at 30, but he was 10 years older than his finals opponent Andre Agassi and 14 years older than the women a Champion Monica Seles. Winning the title was a Nice finish for a Fine career right wrong. A i see this As More of a Sunrise than a Sunset a he said