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Articles by Fay Vincent
Opinion | Pete Rose Doomed Himself
Pete Rose died Monday, 35 years after he signed an agreement I wrote that banned him from baseball for life. At the time he neither admitted nor denied gambling on the game he loved. Only much later did he come clean. As usual in baseball, his opponents defined him best. The crafty lefty Yankee pitcher Whitey Ford gave him his nickname—“Charlie Hustle”—because Rose had the habit of sprinting in top gear to first base even after being walked. That was the way Rose played the game. He only had one gear.
Opinion | The Yankees’ ‘Old Reliable’ Had It Right
It was one of those magical games that define baseball. The year was 1941. The New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers faced each other—for the first time ever—in the World Series. The Yankees’ Tommy Henrich was at bat with two out and his team losing in the ninth inning at Ebbets Field. Henrich told me the third strike pitch he swung at and missed was a “spitball” thrown by Hugh Casey that dropped a foot.
Opinion | The Time Willie Mays Saved Me
He saw what others didn’t—including, during the 1989 World Series, that I was about to get spiked by Will Clark. There is a unique element of insight in a baseball player like Willie Mays. I saw a tiny example of it one day at old Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Willie, a beloved member of the Giants family, was getting ready to throw out the ceremonial first pitch for Game 3 of the 1989 World Series against the Oakland A’s when an earthquake struck. The game was canceled and everyone went home.
Opinion | My Student-Loan Forgiveness, and Ours
Not all student loans are issued by the government. I recently made a loan to a young music major attending Western Connecticut State University. But the new Biden student-loan forgiveness policy, which could relieve millions of borrowers of debt, leaves my young borrower and me with challenges. My borrower’s mother is a phlebotomist who draws my blood regularly as part of my continuing treatment, and she mentioned to me her son’s need and interesting musical abilities.
Opinion | Elon Musk Changed the Way Washington Looks at Space
Elon Musk is doing his best to eliminate the federal government’s age-old use of “cost-plus” contracts to fund public projects. He argues that they stifle innovation and efficiency by thwarting the profit incentive. He is correct, and his effort isn’t getting the support it should.
Opinion | Is Baseball Better This Year? You Bet It Is
Major League Baseball ended the first half of its season this week with its annual All-Star game. The sport had much to celebrate and one growing menace to confront.
Opinion | Why We Swear to Tell the Truth
I received a call many years ago from a local politician who wanted my legal advice on what he termed an “awful” dilemma. His best friend was involved in a messy divorce and wanted him to testify in court that the friend hadn’t engaged in marital infidelities. The politician asked if there was any way he could avoid telling the truth under oath. I quickly thought of the ancient English maxim: The only time a gentleman is justified in lying is when defending another gentleman’s honor under oath.
Opinion | Honesty Is an Antidote to Dismay
There are baseball sayings that are appropriate for tough times. Think of “Say it ain’t so, Joe,” the plaintive plea a little boy supposedly made to Shoeless Joe Jackson after the Black Sox gambling scandal in 1919.
Opinion | A Hero of Midway Finally Got His Due
Though he played a vital role in the U.S. victory over Japan in World War II, Navy Capt. Joseph Rochefort and his heroics long went unrecognized. Rochefort, who died in 1976, was a mid-level intelligence officer whose small unit in Hawaii provided the analysis that led to the U.S. naval victory in the Battle of Midway—the turning point of the Pacific war.
Opinion | Old Age Is Like a Debenture
When you know you’re living on borrowed time, you learn to be patient and to tend your own garden. By Fay Vincent Jan. 17, 2023 5:53 pm ET A friend and I both turn 85 this year. He says we are like 10-year debentures that might get called early. His life-expectancy prediction may be generous, as the actuarial number is closer to 6 years. But the uncertainty raises the challenge of how to approach the final years. Endings have meaning. It is important to know when and how to leave each stage of life.
Opinion | Less ‘Joe,’ More ‘Mr. President’
There he was, on the hurricane-ravaged streets of Fort Myers Beach, Fla., the president of the United States, saying: No one effs with a Biden. I don’t use quotation marks because he used an unprintable word my mother taught me is “vulgar.” In ancient Rome, where formal Latin was spoken only by the educated class and written by the likes of Cicero, the street language was called the “vulgate” because it was the common tongue.
Opinion | Leadership Lessons in My 1950s Boarding School Original
When I was 17, the head of my school told me I ought to see myself as a leader. I’m reminded of that as I read about a growing trend in academia to adopt programs like Yale Law School’s new Joseph C. Tsai Leadership Program. I don’t know if leaders are born or trained, but I see value in this kind of leadership development. Budding leaders need mentors who encourage strong character. I had one. As a junior at Hotchkiss School in 1955, I followed my headmaster down the main corridor.
The former Major League Baseball commissioner reflects on the pursuit of the American League home run record. Original
What makes Judge so remarkable is not just his on-field feats, though they are superb, but also the elegant, intelligent way he is comporting himself off the field. He is careful with the press, never loses his cool or embarrasses himself publicly, and lets his performance speak loudly. As a Mr. Clean, Judge is showing what it means to be a person of character. He is a grown up playing a kid’s game. And loving it.
The former Major League Baseball commissioner reflects on the pursuit of the American League home run record.
What makes Judge so remarkable is not just his on-field feats, though they are superb, but also the elegant, intelligent way he is comporting himself off the field. He is careful with the press, never loses his cool or embarrasses himself publicly, and lets his performance speak loudly. As a Mr. Clean, Judge is showing what it means to be a person of character. He is a grown up playing a kid’s game. And loving it.
Opinion | You’ve Heard of King Charles III. Who Were I and II? Original
The regnal name of the new British king is Charles III, so you may be wondering about Charles I and II. Both, oddly, had ties to my hometown of New Haven, Conn. In my youth, my father smoked a locally made cigar named Judges Cave that took its name from a jumble of large glacial stones that form a cave in the western part of the city.
Fay Vincent (opinion): Factory towns of CT spark hope for brighter future Original
Today we are told of the decline of manufacturing as one of the causes of our current economic travails. And there is little doubt our country has lost much of its former manufacturing business. When I grew up within walking distance of the old Whitney factory, New Haven was the center of a huge gun manufacturing industry.
Opinion | I Still Root for the Underdog Yankees
My earliest memory of the New York Yankees was when they defeated the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1947 World Series. That team had a local flavor for me, as Frank “Spec” Shea, a rookie Yankee pitcher, was from my part of Connecticut. He went 14-5 that season and won two games in the World Series—which made me a Yankee fan because 9-year-old kids like winning. My Irish father, a Philadelphia Athletics fan, believed that rooting for the Yankees was like rooting for the rich.
Opinion | The Umpire Strikes Back
July 11, 2022 6:22 pm ET Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred aroused my Luddite inclinations recently when he announced he supports using robots to call balls and strikes beginning with the 2024 season. He cited the need to speed up the game. League data suggest that the change could shorten games by nine minutes. I’m in my 80s. I see all change as a threat. The job of us old-timers is to urge caution to those who believe they have a clear view of the future.
Fay Vincent (opinion): It was a very special year Original
The combination of Crosby with Kelly and the rest of a superb cast, including Frank Sinatra and Celeste Holm, romping through a score of Porter songs produced a huge hit film. For me, the highlight is the duet “True Love” sung by Crosby and the luminous Kelly. It is the only time she sang in a film, and it is a delicious segment. Another feature of the score is a lively jazz tune with Crosby and Armstrong singing in front of the jazz All Stars. Crosby loved jazz and he was at his best in that film.
Fay Vincent (opinion): It was a very special year
The combination of Crosby with Kelly and the rest of a superb cast, including Frank Sinatra and Celeste Holm, romping through a score of Porter songs produced a huge hit film. For me, the highlight is the duet “True Love” sung by Crosby and the luminous Kelly. It is the only time she sang in a film, and it is a delicious segment. Another feature of the score is a lively jazz tune with Crosby and Armstrong singing in front of the jazz All Stars. Crosby loved jazz and he was at his best in that film.
Fay Vincent (opinion): It was a very special year
The combination of Crosby with Kelly and the rest of a superb cast, including Frank Sinatra and Celeste Holm, romping through a score of Porter songs produced a huge hit film. For me, the highlight is the duet “True Love” sung by Crosby and the luminous Kelly. It is the only time she sang in a film, and it is a delicious segment. Another feature of the score is a lively jazz tune with Crosby and Armstrong singing in front of the jazz All Stars. Crosby loved jazz and he was at his best in that film.
Fay Vincent (opinion): It was a very special year
In 1956, I turned 18 and entered college after having spent the summer working in the oil fields in Texas for a young oil man named George H.W. Bush. I played football that fall on the Williams College freshman team, and we went undefeated. I was on top of my little world when, in December, I broke my back in an accident and was partially paralyzed. Nothing has been the same again, and so the year 1956 has remained sharply reserved in my memory.
Opinion | Roger Angell’s Writing on Baseball Was in a League of Its Own Original
June 3, 2022 5:17 pm ET Writing about Roger Angell is a form of conceit. It is like commenting on Ted Williams’s batting stance or Tiger Woods’s putting stroke. Angell, the New Yorker’s baseball writer, died May 22 at 101. His stepfather was E. B. White, the legendary humorist and author. White married Katharine Sergeant Angell, the New Yorker’s fiction editor, in 1929, when Roger was 9.
Fay Vincent (opinion): A search in New Haven for things past Original
The name of the street — Deepwood Drive — is an accurate description of the terrain. To reach the Wilder house, the narrow road winds through a leafy bower in which several modern-styled homes have been built no doubt by Yale faculty and other Brahmins who sought out the quiet and peace of the area.
Fay Vincent (opinion): A search in New Haven for things past
The name of the street — Deepwood Drive — is an accurate description of the terrain. To reach the Wilder house, the narrow road winds through a leafy bower in which several modern-styled homes have been built no doubt by Yale faculty and other Brahmins who sought out the quiet and peace of the area.
Fay Vincent (opinion): A search in New Haven for things past
The name of the street — Deepwood Drive — is an accurate description of the terrain. To reach the Wilder house, the narrow road winds through a leafy bower in which several modern-styled homes have been built no doubt by Yale faculty and other Brahmins who sought out the quiet and peace of the area.
Opinion: Former baseball commissioner recalls CT childhood. ‘I feel the tug to go’ home
Home is where family shared my every day, and so I think of parents and grammar school teachers and trying a cigarette with older boys and taking a 5-cent candy bar from a local store shelf while “forgetting” to pay for it. The store owner gently alerted my mother, and she knew just what to do. I was about 10 at the time.
Opinion: Former baseball commissioner recalls CT childhood. ‘I feel the tug to go’ home
Home is where family shared my every day, and so I think of parents and grammar school teachers and trying a cigarette with older boys and taking a 5-cent candy bar from a local store shelf while “forgetting” to pay for it. The store owner gently alerted my mother, and she knew just what to do. I was about 10 at the time.
Opinion | Devils in the Outfield
To me, that roar had the moral tone of the crowd at a bullfight. And it was awful to watch as it played out. When a Cleveland player tried to scale the outfield wall to confront a particularly abusive fan, debris rained from the stands. The game ended a few minutes later when the next batter drove Mr. Kiner-Falefa, giving the Yankees a 5-4 victory. Some fans in the right-field stands attacked Cleveland players with bottles and cans.
Opinion | Life, and Baseball, During Wartime Original
My earliest baseball memories date from 1946, when I was 8 and the Boston Red Sox lost the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals. I recall the sorrow the Sox fans in my New Haven, Conn., neighborhood grimly endured. World War II had ended a year earlier, and I associated its conclusion with the return home of my beloved uncle Ed from Italy and also with emergence from the odd wartime life of ration books, drawn shades at night and the worries about dangers I barely understood as a child.
Opinion | Dump the Character Standard for Baseball’s Hall of Fame
Major League Baseball is untidy these days. The players union and the owners are in a labor imbroglio, with the owners having “locked out” the players, which imperils the scheduled opening of the season in April.
Opinion | A National Anthem Answer for Jon Stewart
By Fay Vincent Jan. 19, 2022 6:27 pm ET Houston Astros players stand for the national anthem before playing the Atlanta Braves in game six of the World Series in Houston, Nov. 2, 2021. Photo: Thomas Shea/USA TODAY Sports The other day Jon Stewart questioned why fans at sports events stand for the national anthem. “Does anyone know when that started?” he asked. “It’s such a weird ritual.“ The custom has its roots in the 1918 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs.
Opinion | Labor Pains and Opportunities in Baseball
The current labor strife in Major League Baseball reflects the ebb and flow of some 50 years of struggle between the club owners and the players’ union. The union was molded and led for some 20 years by Marvin Miller (1917-2012), whose tenure resulted in two notable achievements. First, he brought to the players via collective bargaining health and pension programs that are the richest permitted by federal law—the best benefits the league can agree to provide.
Opinion | Congress Needs to Get Back to Regular Order
Henry David Thoreau offered this advice from Walden Pond in 1848: “Simplify, simplify.” Ralph Waldo Emerson replied that “Simplify” would have been enough. The legislative branch of the U.S. government has stopped doing the simple things. There are 435 representatives and 100 senators. For an entity of that size to function, sensible rules must govern the careful consideration of legislation. That process is called “regular order.”
Opinion | The Good Decisions I’ve Made
By Fay Vincent Oct. 18, 2021 6:33 pm ET Arizona Diamondbacks broadcaster Joe Garagiola waves to a cheering crowd during festivities for his retirement in Phoenix, April 14, 2013. Photo: Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press I made one awful life-changing decision when I was 18 to walk out onto an icy ledge to escape my college dorm room after my roommate locked me in as a prank. I fell and have been partly disabled ever since. But I’ve made some good decisions too.
Opinion | Lessons From a Summer Digging Ditches
I was 16 in the summer of 1954, when I worked my first job. My father believed I should be able to make some money to help with school costs, so I was hired by the largest construction company in New Haven, Conn., C.W. Blakeslee & Sons. I spent most days in a ditch with a pick and shovel. I learned a lot.
Opinion | Rob Manfred’s All-Star Error
The commissioner politicized baseball over a law he likely hadn’t examined. Major League Baseball decided last week to move the All-Star Game out of Atlanta after the Georgia Legislature passed changes to the state’s voting laws that many, including President Biden, called racist. Activists urged Commissioner Robert Manfred to punish Georgia. By rushing to do so without first protesting the substance of the law, Mr. Manfred made a serious mistake.
Opinion | Rogers Hornsby’s Unbreakable Record
Baseball is rooted in the records established by great players. Many claim that Joe DiMaggio’s 56-games hitting streak is the record most likely never to be broken. But for many years fans believed Babe Ruth’s 60 home-run season was a mark that would stand forever. Then Roger Maris hit 61 in 1961. That record, too, has since been broken—multiple times, though not without controversy. Obviously records are made to be broken and the DiMaggio hit streak may one day go.
Opinion | Why has so little effort been made to bring women into the MLB umpire ranks?
Fay Vincent was commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1989 to 1992. The umpires in baseball are often taken for granted, like the field geometry, the bases, the fair poles and the seats in the stands. Except for those moments when a decision angers one team or the other, umpires are part of the background to the game.
Trump and Biden get evites as Al Smith Dinner goes virtual
Alfred E. Smith IV, left, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, center, and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, right, during the 71st annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in New York on Oct. 20, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File) NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump is expected to be in virtual attendance Thursday as New York City’s annual Al Smith Dinner moves mostly online because of the coronavirus pandemic, organizers said.
Wisdom from Aquinas
Among the many editions and translations of Thomas Aquinas’ work, I have found Thomas Gilby’s two handy collections of philosophical and theological texts quite helpful over the years. His thematic approach can guide your interest and lead you to the primary text. Thus, in the first quotation below, the reference is to the Summa Theologica, Ia (First Part) Ia (Question One) 1 (Article One) ad.2 (His answer to objection two).
Has anti-Catholic bias disappeared in American public life, or has it taken new forms?
In 1970, to my surprise, I was invited to become a trustee of Williams College, my alma mater. At the time, I was 32 and a lawyer in Washington, D.C., of no particular achievement and little financial capacity, so the invitation was puzzling. When I asked why I was selected, I was told that Jack Sawyer, then the college president, wanted a younger trustee to expand the age range on the board. It took me a while to learn the real story.
Opinion | I Miss Baseball, the ‘Modest Little Game’
Thursday should have been Major League Baseball’s opening day. The season has been delayed because of the new coronavirus. In October 1989 a major earthquake in the Bay Area caused the San Francisco-Oakland World Series to be delayed. I was baseball commissioner, and I said that baseball is a “modest little game that knows its place,” meaning we would stand down until our games posed no threat to public safety.
A Catastrophic Accident, Then the Gift of Learning How to Live
Late in the afternoon on Dec. 10, 1956, when I was an 18-year-old freshman at Williams College, my roommate locked me in my fourth-floor room as a prank. I went out on the ledge outside my dorm window to escape, fell off and broke my back. I was paralyzed, and my life was never the same. Each year when Dec. 10 looms I think back to that day of my personal infamy, when my life changed in a few seconds.
Commentary: Flat-out cheating, not gamesmanship
By Fay Vincent/The Washington Post Saturday Nov 23, 2019 at 10:09 PM Nov 23, 2019 at 10:09 PM For several days, we have been reading about the Houston Astros, during their championship 2017 season, using a video feed from a center-field camera at Minute Maid Park as a means of stealing the opposing catcher's signs to the pitcher.
Commentary: Flat-out cheating, not gamesmanship
By Fay Vincent/The Washington Post Saturday Nov 23, 2019 at 10:09 PM Nov 23, 2019 at 10:09 PM For several days, we have been reading about the Houston Astros, during their championship 2017 season, using a video feed from a center-field camera at Minute Maid Park as a means of stealing the opposing catcher's signs to the pitcher.
Fay Vincent: What the Houston Astros are accused of is flat-out cheating
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Commentary by former MLB commissioner: Why it matters the Houston Astros are accused of cheating
For several days, we have been reading about the Houston Astros, during their championship 2017 season, using a video feed from a center-field camera at Minute Maid Park as a means of stealing the opposing catcher's signs to the pitcher.
Opinion | What the Houston Astros are accused of isn’t gamesmanship. It’s flat-out cheating.
Fay Vincent was commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1989 to 1992. For several days, we have been reading about the Houston Astros, during their championship 2017 season, using a video feed from a center-field camera at Minute Maid Park as a means of stealing the opposing catcher’s signs to the pitcher.
Opinion | Don’t Take Walking for Granted
By Fay Vincent Nov. 6, 2019 6:55 pm ET As I gaze on the busy world from my wheelchair, I tend to notice the way people walk. My father, who was nearly bald, noticed men with a full head of hair. My envy is not that many walk easily and sturdily, as I did after recovering from a fall in college that left me partly paralyzed, but rather that they can take walking for granted, as I did before aging took a tight grip of me.
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