A. Bartlett Giamatti | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 7th Commissioner of Baseball | |
| In office April 1, 1989 – September 1, 1989 | |
| Preceded by | Peter Ueberroth |
| Succeeded by | Fay Vincent |
| 14thPresident of the National League | |
| In office June 10, 1986 – April 1, 1989 | |
| Commissioner | Peter Ueberroth |
| Preceded by | Chub Feeney |
| Succeeded by | Bill White |
| 19thPresident ofYale University | |
| In office December 20, 1978 – June 10, 1986 | |
| Preceded by | Hanna Holborn Gray (Acting) |
| Succeeded by | Benno C. Schmidt Jr. |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Angelo Bartlett Giamatti (1938-04-04)April 4, 1938 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | September 1, 1989(1989-09-01) (aged 51) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3, includingPaul andMarcus |
| Education | Yale University (BA,PhD) |
Angelo Bartlett "Bart"Giamatti (/ˌdʒiːəˈmɑːti/JEE-ə-MAH-tee; April 4, 1938 – September 1, 1989) was an American professor ofEnglish Renaissance literature, the president ofYale University, and the seventhcommissioner of Major League Baseball.
Giamatti served as Commissioner for only five months before dying suddenly of a heart attack. He is the shortest-tenured baseball commissioner in the sport's history and the only holder of the office not to preside over a full Major League Baseball season. Giamatti's most notable act as Commissioner was to negotiate the agreement resolving thePete Rosebetting scandal in which Rose was permitted to voluntarily withdraw from the sport to avoid further punishment.[1]
Giamatti was born inBoston and grew up inSouth Hadley, Massachusetts, the son of Mary Claybaugh Walton (Smith College, 1935) and Valentine John Giamatti.[2] His father was professor and chairman of the Department of Italian Language and Literature atMount Holyoke College.[3] Giamatti's paternal grandparents were Italian immigrants Angelo Giammattei (Italian pronunciation:[dʒammatˈtɛi]) and Maria Lavorgna (Italian pronunciation:[laˈvɔrɲa;-orɲa]): his grandfather Angelo emigrated to the United States fromTelese, nearBenevento, Italy, around 1900.[4] Giamatti's maternal grandparents, fromWakefield, Massachusetts, were Helen Buffum (Davidson) and Bartlett Walton, who graduated fromPhillips Academy Andover andHarvard College.[2] Giamatti attended South Hadley High School, spent his junior year at theAmerican Overseas School of Rome, and graduated fromPhillips Academy in 1956.[2] AtYale College, he was a member ofDelta Kappa Epsilon (Phi chapter) and as a junior in 1960 was tapped byScroll and Key,[5] a senior secret society. He graduatedmagna cum laude in 1960.[2]
In 1960, he married Toni Marilyn Smith, who taught English for more than 20 years at theHopkins School inNew Haven, Connecticut, until her death in 2004.[6] Together the couple had three children: actorsPaul[7] andMarcus and jewelry designer Elena.
Giamatti stayed in New Haven to receive his doctorate in 1964, when he also published a volume of essays byThomas G. Bergin he had co-edited with a philosophy graduate student,T. K. Seung. He became a professor of comparative literature at Yale University, an author, and master ofEzra Stiles College at Yale, a post to which he was appointed by his predecessor as Yale president,Kingman Brewster Jr.[2]
Giamatti taught briefly atPrinceton but spent most of his academic life at Yale. His scholarly work focused onEnglish Renaissance literature, particularlyEdmund Spenser, and relationships between English andItalian Renaissance poets. His tenure as Stiles master ended in 1972.[2]
Giamatti served as president of Yale University from 1978 to 1986.[8] He was the youngest president of the university in its history and presided over the university during a bitter strike by itsclerical and technical workers in 1984–1985. As university president, he refused student, faculty, and community demands todivest fromapartheid South Africa. Giamatti prohibited students from playingBladderball on campus after years of increasingly strange pranks and several student hospitalizations in 1982. He also served on the board of trustees ofMount Holyoke College for many years. Giamatti was elected a fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1980[9] and a member of theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1982.[10]
Giamatti had a lifelong interest in baseball and was a notedBoston Red Sox fan. In 1978, when he was first rumored to be a candidate for the presidency of Yale, he had deflected questions by observing that "The only thing I ever wanted to be president of was theAmerican League." He also wrote several noteworthy essays about baseball, including "The Green Fields of the Mind", published in theYale Alumni Magazine in November 1977; "Tom Seaver's Farewell", published inHarper's Magazine in September 1977; and "Baseball and the American Character," published inHarper's in October 1986.
Giamatti was named president of theNational League in1986. During his stint in that position, he placed an emphasis on the need to improve the environment for the fan in the ballparks. He also decided to make umpires strictly enforce thebalk rule and citedaffirmative action as a remedy for the lack of minority managers, coaches, or executives in the major leagues.[12]
While still serving as National League president, Giamatti suspendedPete Rose for 30 games after Rose shoved umpireDave Pallone on April 30, 1988. Later that year, Giamatti also suspendedLos Angeles Dodgers pitcherJay Howell for three days, after Howell was caught usingpine tar during theNational League Championship Series.
Giamatti, whose tough dealing with Yale's union favorably impressed Major League Baseball owners, was unanimously elected to succeedPeter Ueberroth as commissioner on September 8,1988.[13] He formally took office on April 1,1989. Determined to maintain the integrity of the game, on August 24, 1989, Giamatti prevailed upon Pete Rose to agree voluntarily to remain permanently ineligible to play baseball.[14][1]
While at his vacation home inEdgartown onMartha's Vineyard, Giamatti, a heavysmoker for many years, died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 51, eight days after banishingPete Rose and 154 days into his tenure as commissioner.[15] He was interred atGrove Street Cemetery in New Haven, Connecticut.[16] He became the second baseball commissioner to die in office, the first beingKenesaw Mountain Landis in 1944.
Fay Vincent, Giamatti's close friend and baseball's first deputy commissioner, became acting commissioner upon Giamatti's death, and was quickly elected by MLB owners to succeed Giamatti as the new commissioner. On October 14, 1989, before Game 1 at theWorld Series, Giamatti—to whom this World Series was dedicated—was memorialized with amoment of silence.[17] SonMarcus Giamatti threw out the first pitch before the game.[17] Also before Game One, theYale Whiffenpoofs sang the national anthem,[17] a blend of "The Star-Spangled Banner" with "America the Beautiful" that has been since repeated by other a cappella groups.
TheLittle League Eastern Regional Headquarters inBristol, Connecticut is named after Giamatti.[18] One of the three awards given annually by Major League Baseball's Baseball Assistance Program is named the "Bart Giamatti Award".
Giamatti was inducted into theNational Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in 1992.[19]
James Reston Jr. notes in his bookCollision at Home Plate: The Lives of Pete Rose and Bart Giamatti that Giamatti suffered fromCharcot-Marie-Tooth disease, an inherited neuromuscular disease affecting peripheral nerves.[20]
Neil Thomas Proto argues in his bookFearless: A. Bartlett Giamatti and the Battle for Fairness that Giamatti's early life with his parents and family in New Haven established the code of conduct about fairness that tempered his decision about Pete Rose. Proto also states that as president of Yale, Giamatti was a consequential force in changing Yale's once-harmful relationship with New Haven; in reintroducing Sterling Scholarships for New Haven high school students, which had been discontinued by his predecessors; in challenging the eugenics culture at Yale, which had spread nationally and affected Yale's view of urban renewal; and in challenging an admissions system that excluded applicants on the basis of race and religion. According to Proto, Giamatti believed the university's duty was to educate students in the civic responsibility of good citizenship, not the elitist imperative of creating "leaders."[2]
The research library at theNational Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is named in his honor.
| Academic offices | ||
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| Preceded by Hanna Holborn Gray,acting | President ofYale University 1977–1986 | Succeeded by |
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| National | |
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