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2025 – Fay Vincent Jr., the eighth commissioner of baseball, died at the age of 86. Vincent, who held his position in baseball for just three years from 1989 to 1992, is often referred to as “the last commissioner,” given his attempts to serve as a neutral arbiter in the game’s many internal disputes. In the three decades since Vincent was forced out, MLB’s two commissioners have served explicitly as representatives of the owners’ interests.
Vincent is perhaps more accurately remembered as the accidental commissioner. His long friendship with the president of Yale, A. Bartlett Giamatti, was his primary qualification for the role of deputy commissioner under Giamatti. The academic, who first served as National League president, ascended to the commissionership in April 1989, only to die of a heart attack five months later. Vincent was quickly approved as his successor and almost immediately faced a crisis when the Loma Prieta earthquake interrupted the 1989 World Series.