Vincent Proposal Blasts Baseball Hierarchy

Former baseball commissioner Fay Vincent assails several owners and a former league president in a proposal for a book he plans to write.

Excepts from the proposal for “And the Horse They Rode In On: My Tumultuous Years as Baseball Commissioner,” were published in today’s editions of the New York Times.

Vincent, who was forced to resign in 1992, makes the following comments, his strongest remarks on baseball’s hierarchy:

--Bill White, the former National League president: a “good man” but “incompetent.”

--Bud Selig, the acting commissioner and Milwaukee Brewer owner: a “small-town schlepper” who is the “emblem of baseball’s decline.”

--New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner: “the most hated man in baseball.”

--Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf: “dangerous” and more to blame for the “poor state of baseball than anyone else.”

--Dodger owner Peter O’Malley: a “nitwit” and “bigot.”

--Cincinnati Red owner Marge Schott: the owner who “does the dumbest things.”

--Jackie Autry, the Angels’ executive vice president and wife of owner Gene Autry: “mean-spirited and not bright.”

Vincent said he “wouldn’t put much stock in the tone” of the proposal, contending it was not in keeping with his style. When informed the excerpts would be published in the newspaper, he told the Times he would no longer write the book.

The Times said the 40-page proposal is being shopped to publishing houses by the William Morris Agency. After publishing rights are auctioned, the book would be written by Vincent and David Kaplan of Newsweek.