Vincent Will Be Elected Commissioner, Source Says

Fay Vincent will be elected to succeed Bart Giamatti as baseball commissioner on Thursday, a source familiar with the owners’ plans told Associated Press Monday.

Vincent, the deputy commissioner under Giamatti, probably will be elected to serve a 4 1/2-year term, until April 1, 1994, said the source, who declined to be identified.

“It will be smooth, simple. No opposition,” the source said.

A quarterly meeting of owners is scheduled for Thursday at Milwaukee. Baseball’s nine-man executive committee, which has been running the sport since Giamatti’s death on Sept. 1, is scheduled to meet today at Milwaukee and the owners from each league will meet separately Wednesday.

A commissioner can be elected only at a joint meeting of the leagues and must receive three-quarters of the votes, including at least five from each league.

Peter O’Malley, Dodger president, and Fred Wilpon, New York Met president, praised Vincent on Monday but declined to predict what the owners would do.

“Although a lot of us have known him only nine months, he has impressed us more and more as we’ve gotten to know him,” said O’Malley, who is on the executive council. “He’s a very able, proven executive. He seems to be very frank, very honest, very open.”

Wilpon, who owns 50% of the Mets, said he first was introduced to Vincent by Giamatti several years ago at a Mets game.

“I’m certainly very much in support of Fay Vincent as a person and as one who had the qualifications and qualities a commissioner should have,” Wilpon said. “He’s a very impressive guy and has an impressive background. He’s intuitive, has very high integrity. He’s thoughtful and very bright. He’s a nice person. Sometime’s it’s very hard to find a person who’s both good and nice.”