The 1989 baseball season ended with disaster. At 5:04 p.m. on October 17 in San Francisco’s Candlestick Park — just a half-hour before game three of the 1989 World Series — fans and players felt a vibration. For a few seconds, they didn’t know what to make of the tremors, but then the reality…
On September 1, 1989, Commissioner Bart Giamatti dies from a heart attack at the age of 51. Giamatti’s death occurs only eight days after he made headlines by banning Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose from baseball for gambling. Giamatti had been elected commissioner in 1988.
“In the absence of a hearing and therefore in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, I am confronted by the factual record of the Dowd report, and on the basis of that, yes, I have concluded that he bet on baseball.” – A. BARTLETT GIAMATTI, commissioner commenting on Pete Rose’s lifetime banishment. “Regardless of what the commissioner said today, I did not bet on baseball.” – PETE ROSE, defending himself at Riverfront Stadium news conference. Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti, stating he believed that Pete Rose had bet on games, including those of the team he managed, announces an agreement that bans Mr. Rose permanently from baseball. The five-page agreement, signed by the commissioner and the Reds manager, does not indicate the suspension is specifically for betting on baseball games and does not include language that Rose wagered bets on games.
Former Yale University and National League president Bart Giamatti becomes the seventh commissioner of major league baseball. Baseball’s new leader, a lifelong Red Sox fan, is the author of The Green Fields of the Mind, an essay which laments the end of a season in Boston.
Reds manager Pete Rose meets with Commissioner Peter Ueberroth and Commissioner-elect Bart Giamatti to explain the allegations concerning his gambling habits. Major League Baseball will launch a full investigation into the matter next month, which will lead to “Charlie Hustle’s” permanent ban from the game in August.
On March 3, 1984, Peter Ueberroth is elected commissioner of baseball, succeeding Bowie Kuhn starting on October 1, 1984. Ueberroth, the president of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, will become the game’s sixth commissioner. Ueberroth will serve a five-year term before giving way to A. Bartlett Giamatti. Peter Ueberroth will receive compensation of $450,000,…