A. BARTLETT GIAMATTI 1938--1989 : Baseball World Is Stunned by Death : Brewers’ Owner Loses More Than Associate

Bud Selig of the Milwaukee Brewers was probably one of the last major league baseball owners to talk to Bart Giamatti before the commissioner’s death Friday. Perhaps that was fitting, since Selig had also been the first owner to discuss with Giamatti the possibility of a career in baseball.

Their first discussion occurred in June 1983, their last early Friday.

“I’d been out to dinner Thursday night with my wife, and the phone rang shortly after I got home,� Selig said. “It was quarter to 12, and it was Bart.

“When I answered the phone, he just started out by asking if I was all right. I said I was fine, very good, as a matter of fact. Then he reminded me that we had talked earlier in the day and that he thought I had sounded kind of down, so he was just calling to make sure everything was all right with me and my family.

“That’s the kind of person he was. We ended up talking for almost an hour.�

Selig said he considered Giamatti one of his best friends, adding that friendship had taken hold almost immediately after they met.

“I’ll never forget it,� Selig said. “It was June 1983, and I was heading baseball’s commissioner’s search committee. I went to New York City, we had dinner, and what transpired was really a precursor of what was to come in the next six years.

“I remember it so vividly. After dinner, I called Milwaukee and found out we had just lost to the Orioles again. We just had a terrible time beating them in those days. And I was grumbling around a lot, like I always do when we lose, and so Bart and I just kind of went for a walk.

“Well, we walked and walked for hours, just circling and talking. And we ended up having a wonderful time, out there until something like 2 in the morning. Here’s a man I met just hours before, walking the streets of New York with me and making me feel so much better about everything. I’ll never forget it.�

The search by Selig and his committee for a commissioner to replace the ousted Bowie Kuhn ended with the selection of Peter Ueberroth in the spring of 1984. That was shortly before Ueberroth dazzled the world with his aesthetically and financially successful Los Angeles Olympics. At the time, according to Selig, Giamatti remained strongly committed to continuing in his position as president of Yale University.

But Giamatti never faded far from the minds of Selig and his fellow owners. Late in 1986, when his commitment to Yale had softened, he moved easily into the chair of National League president and quickly became chief confidant to Ueberroth. And when Ueberroth stepped down this spring, Giamatti moved just as easily into the commissioner’s chair.

Selig, still head of the baseball commissioner’s search committee, said, “We didn’t have to search much.�

Nor did Giamatti have to wait long for the demands of this pressure-packed job to kick in. Immediately, the Pete Rose case took on a high, almost daily, public profile. Giamatti was baseball’s man in the center ring of the circus, the case culminating with his recent lifetime suspension of one of baseball’s most famous and popular players.

“I can’t guess if the Rose thing had anything to do with his heart attack,� Selig said. “I just don’t know. I’m not a doctor.

“I do know that I was so very proud of the way he handled the situation. After it was over, I called him up and told him so.

“What he did in the Rose case is send a great message. It said that baseball is far bigger than any one of us; that no matter what, we are going to play the game by the rules.

“He handled the Pete Rose thing like he handled everything else, with great care. He was a wonderfully decent man, sensitive and caring. He loved baseball and he understood, better than anyone, the sociological ramifications of the game.�

Selig said Giamatti friend also had a great sense of humor and, like Selig, loved the sharp edges of sarcastic give and take.

“When he really got deep and introspective in conversations, I used to tell him that I just couldn’t keep up with a Yale person, since I had been terribly encumbered with an education from the University of Wisconsin,� Selig said.

“He loved that. He never disagreed, either.�

Selig said he considered Giamatti’s loss much more personal than professional.

“This hit me bad,� he said. “This I really feel.�