Discussion of Best Baseball Commissioners Includes Frick
- Chad Gramling
- Mar 18
- 2 min read
By Chad Gramling - Originally published in the NEIBA Line Drives June 2008 Newsletter
During the recent Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, a panel of scholars discussed the games Commissioners. Robert Lewis of the University of New Mexico, placed Commissioners into categories of hard power and soft power. He cited Bowie Kuhn as a “lawyer who viewed the owners who hired him as clients who he saluted and billed…he was hyper-sensitive to the owners, whereas someone like Ford Frick was able to soften that relationship to owners.”
He then asserted that Selig uses a “smart power” which he described as a blend of hard and soft leadership. “He is the most balanced,” Lewis said of Selig. Another panelist, David Bohmer, of DePaul University, offered a reassessment of Frick’s years in office, which spanned from 1951 to 1965, he noted that he was the only Commissioner to retire on his own volition while most others were either dismissed or forced out. During Frick’s term, MLB expanded to 20 teams in 17 cities from 16 teams in 10 cities. In addition, Frick helped to stabilize the Minor Leagues, pushed for the First-Year Player Draft and eliminated the bonus baby rule, and more.
Yet both panelists cited the records of labor as a determining factor between Selig and Frick. Whereas Frick’s record in labor relations is seen by many as a black mark; Selig eventually reached an accord with the union and has now enjoyed more than a decade without a work stoppage.
Ford Christopher Frick (1894-1978) was a Noble County native who later attended Fort Wayne’s International Business College and lived there while on the staff of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette as an office boy and police reporter. He attended DePauw University, where he played baseball and ran track. Following a stint as a school teacher, he turned to journalism and broadcasting in New York, where he soon befriended (and later became a ghostwriter for) Babe Ruth.
As president of the National League, Frick came up with the idea for a national baseball museum and suggested that it should also include a Hall Of Fame to honor the games greats. Cooperstown, NY took Frick’s suggestion and established the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in 1939.
With roots back to the 1940's, the Northeast Indiana Baseball Association (NEIBA) works to celebrate baseball in Fort Wayne. The organization hosts an annual Hall of Fame and Awards Banquet and publishes a quarterly publication, Line Drives. Learn more about the Northeast Indiana Baseball Association on their website.
