Commissioner Bowie Kuhn suspends New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner for two years as a result of Steinbrenner’s conviction for illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon and others.

 

 

On November 27, 1974 — Commissioner Bowie Kuhn suspends New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner for two years as a result of Steinbrenner’s conviction for illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon and others.

In a 12‐page ruling that was probably the sternest of his six‐year term as commissioner, Kuhn declared the Yankees’ owner “ineligible and incompetent” to have “any association whatsoever with any major league club or its personnel.”

“An essential element of a professional team sport,” the commissioner said, “is the public’s confidence in its integrity. If the public does not believe that a sport is honest, it would be impossible for the sport to succeed. Attempting to influence employes to behave dishonestly is the kind of misconduct which, if ignored by baseball, would undermine the public’s confidence in our game.”

Steinbrenner, chairman of the American Ship Building Company of Cleveland, headed the 15‐man syndicate that bought the Yankees two years ago from the Columbia Broadcasting System. They took over with the promise to restore the team to its past eminence, which included 29 American League pennants and 20 world titles between 1921 and 1964. The Yankees, after finishing fourth in the Eastern Division of the league three straight years, responded with a rousing pennant race this summer that failed on the last day of the season.

Meanwhile, Steinbrenner pleaded guilty on Aug. 23 to having made illegal contributions to the 1972 campaigns of former President Richard M. Nixon and several Democratic candidates for Congress. He also pleaded guilty to a scheme through which ship‐company funds, disguised as staff bonuses, were channeled into political campaigns. He was fined $15,000 and the company $20,000.

Steinbrenner, who is 45 years old and owns interests in basketball and horse racing, reacted sharply to Kuhn’s ruling.

“Naturally, we are shocked beyond belief by Mr. Kuhn’s decision,” he said in a statement issued through the Yankees’ office. “It is certainly a wonderful Thanksgiving present.”

“I will be meeting with my attorney, Edward Bennett Williams, in the next few days and will announce our plans early next week. We haven’t yet had time to carefully study the full decision. But we Understand that Mr. Kuhn has found that I am ‘ineligible and incompetent’ It’s impossible to understand how the commissioner of baseball count call me incompetent.”

Gabe Paul, who was brought from Cleveland by Steinbrenner in 1973 to become president of the Yankees, commented:

“I am shocked and distressed by the penalty invoked by the commissioner. I can’t believe it.”

The ruling apparently will permit Steinbrenner to retain his stock in the Yankees, but will prohibit him from taking any part in running the team. He volunteered a similar position in September, severing his day‐to‐day contact for one month while the commissioner studied his case, though he followed the Yankees on their final trip down the home stretch of the pennant race.

 

It was not the first such action taken by Kuhn since he became commissioner under a seven‐year contract that will expire at the end of next year. He suspended Denny McLain of the Detroit Tigers for half the 1970 season because of the pitcher’s involvement with bookmakers. He also assessed heavy fines against Charles O. Finley, owner of the world champion Oakland A’s for actions during the 1972 and 1973 World Series.

However, it marked the first time during Kuhn’s term that he had forced an owner to relinquish control over one of the 24 teams in the big leagues. It also marked the first time in half a century, since a single commissioner began to oversee the sport, that a suspension had been invoked, though two previous commissioners had forced two owners to sell their ownership.

In 1943, Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis ordered William Cox to sell his interests in the Philadelphia Phillis after Cox allegedly had placed bets on his team. Cox denied the charge, but sold the team to Robert Carpenter, who still owns the

Ten years later, Commissioner Ford C. Frick and Warren Giles, president of the National League, induced Fred Saigh to sell the St Louis Cardinals. They acted after Saigh had been fined $15,000 and sentenced to 15 months in prison for Federal income‐tax evasion. The Cardinals now are owned by August A. Busch Jr.

“The detrimental effect is particularly significant,” Kuhn said yesterday, recounting the charges against Steinbrenner, “both because of the important position which Mr. Steinbrenner, holds and the serious nature of his offenses. As general partner and chief executive officer of the New York Yankees, Mr. Steinbrenner possesses extensive authority over the team, its players and its front‐office personnel.

“The New York Yankees’ partnership agreement states that Mr. Steinbrenner, ‘in his full and exclusive discretion, shall manage, control and make all decisions affecting the business and assets of the Yankees.’ It is essential to baseball’s success that transgressions of the type here involved by those who occupy positions like that of Mr. Steinbrenner not be ignored.”

The commissioner also noted that Steinbrenner had admitted “that he caused certain of his employes to make false statements to agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and attempted to in fluence these employes to give false testimony to a Federal grand jury.”

“Mr. Steinbrenner’s conduct,” he went on, “amounted to an attempt to prevent these investigative bodies from exercising their legitimate and proper law‐enforcement functions. I am compelled to view this conduct, when taken together with Mr. Steinbrenper’s guilty plea to Count I of the indictment, as a clear disregard and disrespect for the law.”

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