Kuhn, Bowie 1926-2007 (Bowie Kent Kuhn)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born October 28, 1926, in Takoma Park, MD; died of complications from pneumonia, March 15, 2007, in Jacksonville, FL. Attorney and author. Kuhn was best remembered for his years as the commissioner of baseball from 1969 to 1984. A 1947 Princeton graduate who earned his law degree from the University of Virginia in 1950, he worked for the law firm of Wilkie Farr & Gallagher in New York City during the 1950s and 1960s. His law firm, where he was made partner in 1961, was the official firm of the National League, and his work on a 1966 antitrust case involving the Braves drew attention to him. He was selected to succeed William D. Eckert as baseball commissioner in 1969. The next fifteen years proved to be a significant time of transition in professional baseball. Many changes involving players' contracts and negotiating rights, the reorganization of the league, and the influence of broadcast television on the sport meant that Eckert's decisions were closely scrutinized by critics. Eckert would maintain that it was always his intention to retain the integrity of the sport, but his detractors would charge him with everything from being too harsh on players and too willing to bow to team owners, to being too lenient on players and too willing to fine owners. During his two seven-year terms, he oversaw the addition of many expansion teams to the league, the introduction of nighttime games, the reorganization of the league into divisions, and the enormous increase in players' salaries along with their right to become free agents. Many of his decisions evoked both positive and negative reactions. For example, when he initiated night games in 1971, many were appalled by the violation of tradition, but at the same time this brought in considerably more revenue because it allowed for more television and radio coverage. Kuhn could anger players and owners alike. In one incident, he offended Oakland Athletics owner Charles O. Finley by preventing him from trading three players to the Yankees for 2.5 million dollars in a move Finley designed to earn money before the players became free agents. Kuhn also upset slugger Hank Aaron by not showing up to the game where Aaron broke Babe Ruth's home-run record. Adamant that baseball should not be associated with gambling, Kuhn barred Hall of Famers Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays from being associated with the league because they had been hired to promote casinos. Mantle and Mays were later reinstated after Kuhn was replaced by Peter Ueberroth. Kuhn was often distraught by the escalating salaries of baseball players, which he felt would eventually ruin the game, but it was one battle he did not win. After failing to be reelected commissioner, he returned to his old law firm in 1984. He left in 1987 to be a partner with Myerson & Kuhn, but the firm went bankrupt a year later. Moving to Florida, he was president of the Kent Group, Inc., and then of the consulting firm Sports Franchises, Inc., in Connecticut. He wrote about his years as commissioner in Hardball: The Education of a Baseball Commissioner (1987).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

BOOKS

Kuhn, Bowie, Hardball: The Education of a Baseball Commissioner, Times Books, 1987.

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, March 16, 2007, p. B8.

New York Times, March 16, 2007, p. A25.

Times (London, England), April 2, 2007, p. 50.