A. Bartlett Giamatti

[Yankee4Life]

A few days ago in the shoutbox a link was posted about an article that former commissioner of baseball A. Bartlett Giamatti wrote. It got me to thinking about him again and how much respect I had for this man.

I have never heard of Giamatti until he became the President of the National League in 1986. Before that he was the President of Yale University and I didn't pay any attention to that. In fact I didn't even know he was Yale's President until he was named the NL President. Yale's a fine school but I could care less who is the President there if you know what I mean. I still feel that way.

My first reaction to Giamatti was a negative one as soon as I discovered he was a life time Red Sox fan. "Great, another one." I grumbled. (I was Y4L then before I became Y4L here as you can tell.)

It did not take me long to warm up to this guy. This was a man, a highly educated man who had such a love for baseball it was impressive. And I didn't care if he was born in Boston. I wouldn't of cared if he was born on Landsdowne Street.

Giamatti didn't put up with anything as National League President. Before banning Pete Rose which he was most famous for, he banned Rose for thirty days in 1988 for physical contact with an umpire. And in that same year, he suspended Dodger reliever Jay Howell for using pine tar in the NLCS against the New York Mets.

When there was an infraction in the game he just didn't talk about it and do nothing. This guy actually DID something.

Giamatti became commissioner of baseball in 1988, a move I was extremely supportive of. By this time I was a huge Giamatti fan, cheering him on since 1986.

Five years ago during a Yankee-Red Sox series in Fenway Park, Gary Sheffield went back for a fly ball in right field and caught the ball right at the wall near the fans. When he threw the ball back into the infield, some Boston fans tried to hold his arm and Sheffield shoved them away before throwing the ball in. I saw this on TV and immediately became upset. It was just another long line of excuses to hate the Red Sox for me. I made a comment in here that followed me around for awhile because it upset some people. I said "nothing good comes out of Boston."

I said this sixteen years after Giamatti died. I was never more wrong in my life. Because if only one good thing came out of that city and it was this man then Boston had a lot to be proud of. My issues are with the Red Sox fans in Fenway Park who like to repeat that little chant to the Yankees, even when their team was losing 14 - 3 as they were one point about a week ago. But that's another subject and it's not going to be talked about further in here.

Giamatti's tenure as commissioner was very short. But he made it memorable. In 1989 there was that big investigation of Pete Rose and finally near the end of August that year Giamatti lowered the boom. I was lucky enough to be home that day and I watched the news conference on CNN.

He started the news conference with these words here: "The banishment for life of Pete Rose from baseball is a sad end of a sorry episode. One of the game's greatest players has engaged in a variety of acts which have stained the game, and he must now live with the consequences of those acts. There is absolutely no deal for reinstatement."

It was Giamatti's finest hour. Rose was caught red handed and was out of the game. Many people today clamor for Rose to get back in the game just based on what he did. But Giamatti had information collected from investigations that had Rose dead to rights. For many years Rose maintained he did not bet on baseball. Finally in 2004 he came out with a book that admitted he bet on major league baseball games, something Giamatti knew before the public did in 1989.

On September 1st, 1989 I remember where I was when I heard the news about Giamatti. I was out to dinner with my family and in the background there was a TV and I heard the commentator reporting on the death of the commissioner. He was only 51. It was one of the worst dinners I have ever had.

Giamatti was a hero to me during this time period. A hero I have not thought of in years. Because of the attitude of the Red Sox fan in recent years and the way they conduct themselves, it managed to overshadow the greatest contribution Boston ever made to this game of ours, A. Bartlett Giamatti.

"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone." -Still to me the best description of the game of baseball that I have ever read.

[MarkB]

I opened this tab yesterday and just got around to reading it. Very nice post, Y4L. I'd never heard of him until now.

[DylanBradbury]

Very good post Y4L.

Also did you know that Paul Giamatti, the actor from Sideways, is Bartlett Giamatti's son?

[JoeRudi26]

Very good post Y4L.

Also did you know that Paul Giamatti, the actor from Sideways, is Bartlett Giamatti's son?

I didn't know that.  He's one of my favorite actors.   :clapping:

[Yankee4Life]

Very good post Y4L.

Also did you know that Paul Giamatti, the actor from Sideways, is Bartlett Giamatti's son?

I didn't know that until 2001 when Planet of the Apes came out and he was in it. That's when it was mentioned that he was his father.