The Hall of Fame remembers former Commissioner Fay Vincent

Fay Vincent, who served as Major League Baseball’s eighth commissioner from 1989-1992 and was a longtime supporter of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, passed away on Feb. 1, 2025. He was 86.

A baseball purist who believed in the integrity and tradition of the game, Vincent first served as Deputy Commissioner under Bart Giamatti. He assumed the top position on Sept. 13, 1989, shortly after Giamatti’s sudden death at the age of 51.

“Former Commissioner Fay Vincent was a tremendous supporter of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum,” said Jane Forbes Clark, Chairman of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. “As a member of the Hall of Fame’s Board of Directors, he always kept baseball and its history’s best interests at heart, and his passion for the game extended beyond his time in the league office. He later chaired the Special Committee that elected 17 Negro Leagues legends in 2006 and collaborated with the Hall of Fame on a groundbreaking series of oral history interviews that will forever be a part of the Museum’s collection, and the game’s historical record. On behalf of the entire Board of Directors, we share our condolences with the Vincent family.”

Vincent’s three-year tenure started with the interruption of the 1989 World Series by the Loma Prieta earthquake that struck the San Francisco Bay area. He also contended with the lockout of 1990, expansion, National League realignment and the suspensions of Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and pitcher Steve Howe.

Vincent resigned as Commissioner on Sept. 7, 1992, giving way to baseball’s Executive Council, composed of a group of franchise owners then headed by Bud Selig of the Milwaukee Brewers, who became “Acting Commissioner” until being named to the post officially in July 1998.

“I accepted the position believing the Commissioner has a higher duty and that sometimes decisions have to be made that are not in the best interests of some owners,” Vincent wrote in his letter of resignation. “Unique power was granted to the Commissioner of Baseball for sound reasons – to maintain the integrity of the game and to temper owner decisions predicated solely on self-interest. The Office should be maintained as a strong institution. My views on this have not changed.”

Francis Thomas “Fay” Vincent Jr. was born on May 29, 1938, in Waterbury, Conn. Growing up a fan of the New York Yankees, Vincent graduated in 1960 from Williams College cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He then went to Yale Law School, earning an LL.D. in 1963.

A member of the Hall of Fame’s Board of Directors during his tenure as Commissioner, Vincent spent time supporting the Cooperstown institution in a number of roles.

Vincent was the non-voting chairman of the Hall of Fame’s Special Committee on Negro Leagues when 17 Negro League pioneers were elected to the Hall of Fame on Feb. 27, 2006.

“I’m sorry that we’re late,” Vincent said that day. “I’m sorry we couldn’t do this 30 or 40 years ago when some of our candidates were alive. But we’re here now to make this right.”

Also in 2006, thanks to a generous donation from Vincent, the traveling art exhibit, Shades of Greatness, spent four months at the Hall of Fame. Shades of Greatness was the first-ever collaborative professional art exhibition inspired by Negro Leagues baseball. The exhibit featured 35 original works of art created to interpret the Negro leagues experience both on and off the field.

Inspired by Lawrence Ritter’s famed book “The Glory of Their Times,” Vincent took on an oral history project for the Hall of Fame involving players from the 1930s through the 1980s. This resulted in three books: “The Only Game in Town” (2006); “We Would Have Played for Nothing” (2009); and “It’s What’s Inside the Lines That Counts” (2010).