Francis T Jr Fay Vincent

The Chicago Cubs on Thursday won the first round of a legal fight with Commissioner Fay Vincent to block his mandated realignment of the National League. U.S. District Judge Suzanne B. Conlon, in Chicago, approved the Cubs' request for a preliminary injunction that temporarily halts the realignment process and ruled that Vincent exceeded his authority in ordering the Cubs into the West Division after the club had exercised its rights under the National League constitution and vetoed the move.

There are few achievements in sports that can match what Barry Bonds has just done. With one tight and compact swing he has broken Hank Aaron's record for most career home runs and simultaneously set off a massive debate over whether he deserves to be praised or condemned. I say some of both. Who can deny the majesty of what he has done. Baseball has become a game of home runs. The ballparks are now built smaller to encourage homers.

Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent announced Friday that he was rejecting an appeal by Boston Red Sox pitcher Roger Clemens and upholding Clemens' five-game suspension and $10,000 fine. Those were Clemens' penalties for shoving an umpire and threatening another after he was ejected from Game 4 of the American League playoffs with the Oakland Athletics last October.

Watching baseball's latest labor conflagration from the safe haven of his Connecticut home, former commissioner Fay Vincent said Thursday he suspects that Commissioner Bud Selig is so committed to "total victory" that he will miss the opportunity that the players union has provided to avoid another work stoppage. "You can't get back 25 years of mistakes all at once," Vincent said, adding that he tried to approach labor relations during his own tenure as an "incrementalist."

Saying that resignation and not litigation should be his final act, an embattled Fay Vincent quit Monday after three years as commissioner of baseball rather than face a probable legal fight by team owners to fire him. Vincent had vowed on Aug. 20, "I will not resign--ever." But last Thursday the owners voted, 18-9 with one abstention, urging him to quit, and he decided to resign effective immediately after a weekend of reflection at his vacation home in Harwich Port, Mass.

A U.S. district judge in Chicago Thursday received agreement from the Chicago Cubs and Commissioner Fay Vincent to expedite the judicial procedure that could produce a final determination in the Cubs' attempt to block National League realignment. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, responding to Vincent's appeal of the preliminary injunction granted the Cubs by district court judge Suzanne Conlon, is scheduled to receive final briefs on Aug. 14.

Watching baseball's latest labor conflagration from the safe haven of his Connecticut home, former commissioner Fay Vincent said Thursday he suspects that Commissioner Bud Selig is so committed to "total victory" that he will miss the opportunity that the players union has provided to avoid another work stoppage. "You can't get back 25 years of mistakes all at once," Vincent said, adding that he tried to approach labor relations during his own tenure as an "incrementalist."

Dodger President Peter O'Malley said Sunday that Commissioner Fay Vincent lacks the support of a majority of the 28 clubs and needs to recognize that a meeting is imperative to clear the air. With or without Vincent, American League President Bobby Brown and National League counterpart Bill White are expected to announce today that they have scheduled a joint owners meeting--possibly in Chicago on Sept. 3. There could be an attempt at that meeting to do more than clear the air.

I've never been able to figure out why baseball felt it had to have a commissioner. I've never been able to figure out why England has to have a king. They don't let either of them do anything except ride around in carriages and look important. At least the baseball commissioner doesn't have to wear a plumed hat. Baseball is run by a bunch of tough-minded characters who bought baseball teams for the same reasons other men buy old Greek coins or pretty yachts or polo ponies. It's a hobby.

Banks that gave nine baseball teams a $260-million line of credit said Wednesday that major league clubs will not soon be getting an additional $140 million because of attempts to remove Commissioner Fay Vincent. Twelve banks established the credit line in May, securing the loans with the teams' shares of the major leagues' national TV contracts. Some clubs, looking ahead to a winter of more expensive free agents, are seeking additional cash.

Former baseball commissioner Fay Vincent assails several owners and a former league president in a proposal for a book he plans to write. Excepts from the proposal for "And the Horse They Rode In On: My Tumultuous Years as Baseball Commissioner," were published in today's editions of the New York Times.

Former Commissioner Fay Vincent said baseball owners lack a "passionate commitment" to minority hiring and that he wasn't "totally surprised" by the Marge Schott investigation. Vincent, speaking during a taping of NBC's "Later with Bob Costas" that will be shown Monday night, said, "Baseball is about as racist as the country."

Former baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent was in stable condition Thursday night after spinal surgery. Vincent, 54, had the operation at the Hospital for Special Surgery to relieve pressure on spinal nerves. An accident during college left him unable to walk without a cane, and the operation was scheduled in attempt to alleviate pain in his back. Vincent became commissioner in September 1989 after the death of A. Bartlett Giamatti. Vincent resigned under pressure on Sept.

Fay Vincent was too good for major league baseball. If that sounds like a backhanded compliment, apologies are herewith extended. Vincent was a rare visitor on the deck of this ship of fools--principled, uncompromising, selfless, decisive, a man of vision and introspection who truly believed in what he was saying when he claimed he was acting in "the best interests of baseball," rather than simply hiding behind it as some Nixonian shield against the barbs and the arrows.

George W. Bush, managing partner of the Texas Rangers and the most outspoken of commissioner Fay Vincent's supporters, said Monday that he was totally surprised by Vincent's decision to resign rather than fight a potential firing.

Questioning whether the owners know what they want in a commissioner or how they want to restructure the office, Fay Vincent resigned Monday rather than forcing the owners to fire him and begin a protracted legal fight. Reached at his vacation home on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, Vincent said he would have gone to court confident of winning and gleaned "great personal satisfaction" from that victory, "but what may have been right for me wasn't right for baseball.

The Major League Baseball Players Assn. and baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent have settled the union's grievance against Vincent as well as the charges of unfair labor practices that the union filed last month in connection with Vincent's conduct during Steve Howe's grievance hearing. In the settlement, Vincent said he regrets possibly compromising the integrity of the grievance procedure and subsequent testimony.

Saying that resignation and not litigation should be his final act, an embattled Fay Vincent quit Monday after three years as commissioner of baseball rather than face a probable legal fight by team owners to fire him. Vincent had vowed on Aug. 20, "I will not resign--ever." But last Thursday the owners voted, 18-9 with one abstention, urging him to quit, and he decided to resign effective immediately after a weekend of reflection at his vacation home in Harwich Port, Mass.

As he spends the holiday weekend at his vacation home on Cape Cod, Mass., family friends and baseball owners allied with Fay Vincent will try to talk the besieged baseball commissioner into accepting the inevitable and resigning. It is not clear how many of the nine owners who voted against the resolution requesting his resignation Thursday in Chicago plan to call or visit Vincent this weekend, but a National League owner said Friday there is reason to believe Vincent will listen and step down.