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No day at the park
Commissioner's job is fraught with danger
Posted: Friday December 13, 2002 11:12 AM
If you think a sports commissioner enjoys the ultimate cushy gig, you’re fooling yourself. Far too often, it’s tedious hours wrestling with labor issues and disciplining players for their indiscretions.
And brushing aside death threats.
Yes, death threats.
Now that Pete Rose is negotiating for reinstatement to baseball, we can tell you of the threats weighing on then-commissioner Bart Giamatti in 1989 as he prepared to impose a lifetime ban on the all-time hit king. One of the more chilling threats is detailed in FBI files obtained by CNNSI.com through the Freedom of Information Act.
The following is a typewritten letter dated March 22, 1989 and postmarked from Louisville, Ky.:
| From FBI files |
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| To whom it may concern, In the last few days, the Pete Rose/gambling deal has gotten entirely out of hand. The Cincinnati Reds have finished second four consecutive years and do not need this hanging over their collective heads. Having been a fan of Mr. Rose for many years and having talked to him on a couple of occasions, I know personally he would not do anything to incriminate himself or the game of baseball. His love and devotion to the game is world renown, any and all gambling he has done was not ment to hurt himself or the game in any way. Therefore, if any action is taken, whether it be a suspension or a ban from the game on Peter Edward Rose, my associates and I shall make an attempt on the commissioner’s life. Mr. Giamatti showed poor judgement last year in suspending Mr. Rose, it is very obvious he has no feel for the real world outside the Ivy League. Mr. Giamatti also has a private life, and my contacts in New Jersey would gladly tell all they know. Again, death is a mean, cruel way to solve one’s problems, but so is suspending/banning the great Pete Rose who has carried the game on his back for over 28 years. Signed, Xxxxxxx & xxxxxxx |
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Fay Vincent, who succeeded Giamatti, said, he, too, received death threats. Longtime commissioner Bowie Kuhn also told us of threats on his life.
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FBI files on
Bart Giamatti |
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Obtained through the Freedom of Information Act
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Date: May 6, 1980
File Number: 161-14811 Issue: Patrick Apodaca, associate counsel to President Carter, requested an investigation of Angelo Bartlett Giamatti who was being considered for a presidential appointment. The FBI interviewed at least 34 individuals and also reviewed CIA files as well as running credit and criminal background checks. Giamatti is described as being of the highest character, a team player and enjoying a fine sense of humor. Outcome: In September, the Yale University president is appointed to a six-year term on the National Council of the Humanities. |
Date: May 23, 1983
File Number: 9-67460 Issue: Possible extortion. The FBI is alerted to at least two threatening handwritten letters addressed to his office at Yale, with the writer protesting mistreatment by the Soviet regimen and accusing Giamatti of being "pro-Soviet." In a letter received May 1, it is written: "There is only one thing we can do about you. We are going to kill you and all your loved ones." Outcome: There is no indication of an arrest being made. |
Date: July 14, 1986
File Number: 63-0-78480 Issue: FBI director William Webster sends a congratulatory note upon Giamatti’s being named National League president. He writes: "I know you will enjoy working with [then commissioner] Peter Ueberroth. The Bureau worked closely with him during the 1984 Summer Olympics. You should make good allies." Outcome: Giamatti succeeded Ueberroth as commissioner of Major League Baseball in 1989. |
Date: March 23, 1989
File Number: 9-71518 Issue: Possible extortion. The FBI investigates a typewritten letter to Giamatti, postmarked from Louisville, Ky., threatening harm to the commissioner if he suspends Pete Rose. The letter is written after the commissioner’s office announced its was investigating "serious allegations against Rose" and two days following a Sports Illustrated story that tied Rose to betting on baseball. Outcome: There is no indication of an arrest being made. On Aug. 24, Giamatti announced that Rose is banned for life from baseball for gambling. The commissioner died of a massive heart attack Sept. 1. |
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The 1989 threat against Giamatti is among three contained in his FBI file, including two during his tenure as president of Yale University. Federal records indicate authorities went to great length investigating each, but there is no mention of anyone ever having been charged.
In each instance, the FBI alerted its Violent Crimes Unit and labeled the threat possible extortion.
The one-page threat Giamatti received as baseball commission was mailed to Major League Baseball’s Park Avenue office in New York. Experts matched the type to a Smith-Corona style. A search of the FBI’s Anonymous Letter File produced negative results, however.
Giamatti was the National League president in 1988 when he first made headlines as a disciplinarian by suspending Rose for 30 days after the Reds manager shoved umpire Dave Pallone. Giamatti was selected on Sept. 8, 1988, to succeed Peter Ueberroth as baseball commissioner, and the Rose gambling investigation landed in his lap when he took over the following spring.
On Aug. 24, 1989, Giamatti announced that Rose was banned for life from baseball for gambling. Eight days later, the commissioner, 51, died of a massive heart attack at his summer home on Martha’s Vineyard.
"There were death threats on Bart and then on me," recalls Vincent, a close friend to Giamatti. "Bart took the one that had to do with Rose very seriously, and worried about it a lot. I tended to take things less seriously. He used to say he was a Latin, and he’d get emotional about things.
"I recall the police really took it seriously for a while. And I know he was very worried about his kids."
The Giamatti children are grown now and the youngest, 35-year-old Paul, is a character actor who’s appeared on screen in The Truman Show and Saving Private Ryan. Older brother Marcus has appeared on the CBS series Judging Amy, and Elena is a jewelry designer.
"They were young, just out of college in those days," Vincent recalls.
The sad fact is sports figures, celebrities and their families have long been victims of threats from overzealous fans and lunatics.
Kuhn recalls threats against various major league players being turned over to the FBI three decades ago when he was commissioner. He himself became a target in the late 1970s after suggesting baseball consider the possibility of playing exhibition games against the Cuban national team.
"I actually had guards posted at my house for a while," Kuhn recalls.
During his tenure, Vincent recalls his handling of three subjects having attracted threats: Rose, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and baseball labor problems.
He remembers most clearly a death threat in 1991, called in while he was attending a regular-season game at Shea Stadium in New York. "The police just surrounded me and when the game was over, we left very quickly," he recalls. "I don’t think my feet touched the ground."
Mike Fish is a senior writer for CNNSI.com.
Comments? To e-mail Fish, click here.
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