Former baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn died last week. Some of us will remember Kuhn’s tenure as baseball’s commissioner from 1969 to 1984. According to his NY Time obituary, during this period attendance, the value of baseball's salaries, television revenue and franchise values soared, the major leagues expanded into Canada and realigned into divisional play, the World Series became a night-time spectacle, and players won the right to free agency and staged their first strikes. He fined or suspended baseball famous and infamous owners like the Yankees’ George Steinbrenner, the Oakland Athletics’ Charles O. Finley and the Atlanta Braves’ Ted Turner. Bowie Kuhn was known, admired and disliked for killing million-dollar sales of star players, fighting against the players’ union leader, Marvin Miller, and fending off threats to his job.

You can read more about this influential man in the library's Hardball: the education of a baseball commissioner by Bowie Kuhn; editorial assistant, Martin Appel. And check out more about Bowie Kuhn on the web at Baseball Almanac's Bowe Kuhn Biography or The Biz of Baseball - Bowie Kuhn - Former Commissioner (you will need to scroll down to begin the article). Or you may wish to view a somewhat opposite opinion of Bowie Kuhn's achievements in Murray Chase's New York Times column Kuhn’s Achievements Are Not All That They Seem.

You may also be interested in Curt Flood, the player who rebelled against the baseball establishment during Bowie Kuhn’s reign to make free agency a reality. Find out more about this courageous player in NPL’s Bunts: Curt Flood, Camden Yards, Pete Rose, and other reflections on baseball by George F. Will and The way it is by Curt Flood, with Richard Carter.

Bowie Kuhn played a large part in turning baseball into the "big business" it is today. Baseball season is only about a week away!