1990 Brewers Program on Commissioner Fay Vincent

This is but one page from a wildly entertaining bit of merchandise I purchased while in Minneapolis for SABR 42: a 1990 Milwaukee Brewers game program. It’s a fluff piece on then-new commissioner of baseball Fay Vincent. I’m sure many similar pieces appeared in programs across the league and across the country, but I found it interesting for one paragraph in particular:

Many say that he is a perfect blend of former commissioners Peter Ueberroth and Bart Giamatti. If that is the case, then Francis T. “Fay” Vincent, baseball’s eighth commissioner, will help lead the game into a new era of prosperity this decade — a decade in which the business of the sport will be greater than ever before.”

Vincent would receive an 18-9 vote of no confidence from the owners in 1992 and resign his post to current commissioner and then-Brewers owner Bud Selig. 1994, of course, saw the strike, and many would argue that baseball wasn’t fully revived until the 1998 home run chase between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. And, of course, this was the beginning of that whole “steroids era” thing. A great new era of prosperity this decade indeed.

Whoops!