Here’s the View From the Top : Pete Rose Situation Has Giamatti Down but Not Out

Despite what most people have come to imagine, A. Bartlett Giamatti is not the commissioner of Pete Rose, but rather the commissioner of Major League Baseball.

And, Giamatti is happy to say, the commissioner’s office and the man who resides in it are both functioning quite well despite “it” -- as Giamatti often refers to the ongoing court drama concerning his investigation of Rose’s alleged gambling.

Giamatti was quite relaxed throughout the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies here. Though he’s constantly asked if there is terrible pressure dealing with the Rose issue, he says no. To define pressure, he harkens back to his days as president of Yale University and a prolonged, bitter strike that divided that New Haven, Conn., campus. There, Giamatti said, “plenty of things happened in a very concentrated community that aren’t necessarily cakes and ale.”

The Rose situation “is not pleasant,” he said. “Nobody pretends it is. But this is not the worst pressure I’ve ever felt. The whole situation is more sorrowful than angry, more unpleasant than hard. The choices aren’t hard, such as what to do if you’re going to end up being taken to court. You get good advice, listen to it and make up your mind.”

What Giamatti does not do is angrily blame former Commissioner Peter Ueberroth for leaving office during the investigation.

“I have never complained about timing and I’m not going to start now,” Giamatti said. “I have no complaints about Mr. Ueberroth.

“Nobody wants to start off a new job that one has been looking forward to for six months with this sadness. And it is a sadness -- human, institutional, cultural sadness. But it’s also a fact of life. So you go with it.”

While he waits, Giamatti also works, disputing the notion of a bunker mentality he feels was created by television cameras camped outside his office.

“You don’t sit there and worry about ‘it’ every day,” he said. “How could you? When I have a hearing and have to reach a judgment, then I’m going to have to spend a lot of time on it. But in the meantime, I’m not.”

So what else has he been doing since taking office April 1?

First, Giamatti reshaped the commissioner’s office to better deal with other pressing matters, he said. And in a primary move, brought in deputy commissioner Francis “Fay” Vincent of Greenwich, Conn., who had previously been chief executive officer at Columbia Pictures.

Giamatti and Vincent, longtime friends from their college days in Connecticut, began mapping out a five-year strategy on other baseball issues as long ago as September -- before Giamatti was elected by major-league owners but thought that he might be, the commissioner said. That forethought he now considers a godsend, “because we wouldn’t have been able to start on April 1 in that strategic mode and do this, too,” he said, referring to Rose.

As it is, he says there is ample time for other issues, such as labor, international baseball, equal employment, ballpark environment, new-found relationships with network affiliates and drug testing.

“Labor is not my sole reponsibility, but it has been something I am working to learn and absorb,” Giamatti said.

The basic agreement between the players’ union and management expires at the end of the season. But, cautions Giamatti, “If there’s a lockout or a work stoppage or a strike, don’t come running to the commissioner because I’m not going to stand around pretending to have a power that I don’t have. We (in the commissioner’s office) are not the PRC (Player Relations Committee, the management negotiating team).”

Giamatti does stay in touch with all parties, however, because he believes that will help keep the outlook positive.

International baseball also occupies a great deal of Giamatti’s time, especially since the game is to become a medal sport at the 1992 Olympics. He requested that no international television rights be awarded during the winter, when contracts with CBS-TV and ESPN were settled. “I wanted to aggregate as much of the rights and the licensing because it was obvious to me that baseball is going to grow in places it had not grown before,” Giamatti said.

Also included in the international plan: promotion of amateur baseball worldwide. Why? “Whatever one learns about bringing amateur baseball worldwide can be reapplied at home,” Giamatti said. “One of the things that concerns me the most is the refurbishment of talent in the face of competition from other sports.”

As for equal opportunity, Giamatti has implemented a plan requiring all clubs to turn in forms pertaining to hires, on the field and off. “I want to know who the finalists are for the jobs of senior significance,” he said. “So that information comes to me. I’ll be monitoring the forms and making my own judgments.”

Giamatti’s office also monitors minor-league random drug testing. By year’s end, 1,800 to 2,000 tests will have been administered. As for testing at the major-league level, Giamatti said he’s always found the players union willing to talk, yet doesn’t see it as a negotiating issue. “I do hope we can talk about it and hopefully sometime reach an agreement,” Giamatti said.

One issue Giamatti can and will force is that of environment. Giamatti says he sensed a deterioration in public arenas the past eight to 10 years. “Baseball and every other public place for public pleasure had better start paying attention to parking lots, restrooms, quality of ushering, scoreboard noise and, at the core, alcohol,” he said. “I construe this as the most serious, long-term business problem.”

Other duties include the ceremonial sort, such as attending everything from the celebration of Little League baseball’s 50th anniversary to the Hall of Fame inductions.