135-131

One would think that a prerequisite for being the Commissioner of Major League Baseball would be actually loving the sport. Not just enjoying it or interested in it or happy to attend a few games here or there.

For the single most powerful figure in the sport, there should be no question that the person who loves the game the most is the Commissioner.

Right now, we have the polar opposite of that in Rob Manfred – and it sucks.

Before that we had Bud Selig, a fellow who didn’t inspire the masses. What Manfred has done during his tenure, though, has fans pining for the days of good ol’ Bud.

If you’re old enough to have been a baseball fan in the late 1980s, you were lucky enough to enjoy the brief, but impactful tenure of A. Bartlett Giamatti. Giamatti’s tenure as commissioner tragically lasted just five months so it is tough to evaluate just how effective he would have been if he was in that position long term. But there is one thing clear about Bart Giamatti: the man unabashedly loved baseball.

He reveled in its history, lamented the winter months when there was no baseball and lived and died with his Boston Red Sox.

His writings about the sport reveal someone who holds a deep love of the game, an appreciation for its beautiful history and an unmatched reverence for every fabric of the sport of baseball.

In short, Bart Giamatti was never going to pluck an imaginary runner out of thin air and put him on second base to start the 10^th inning.

It’s a real shame that Giamatti didn’t have the long, fruitful tenure as the top dog in Major League Baseball. Giamatti’s tenure began on April 1, 1989 and ended when he passed away five months later on September 1, 1989.

We play a lot of “what if” when it comes to baseball history, so let’s consider what might have happened if Bart Giamatti had a 20-year run as Commissioner of MLB. That would have put him squarely in charge during the Steroid Era. Knowing Giamatti’s stance on preserving honor in baseball, what would have been done differently during that time? There were two rounds of expansion and two work stoppages, including the damaging 1994 strike. How would that have changed under Giamatti’s leadership?

There is so much to consider when you ponder how baseball would have differed if Giamatti was the giant figure he seemed destined to be. He still had a huge impact on the game through the Pete Rose scandal, but it would have been wonderful if we could have also attached some major positive developments to Giamatti’s commissioner legacy as well.

His death shocked the sports world and left a void in the commissioner’s seat that hasn’t been filled in the 35 years since his passing. Baseball needs a commissioner that loved the game as much as Giamatti did, and Rob Manfred ain’t it.

Before we move on to this week’s edition of The Stud 400, here’s a look at the last five entries as we count down the 400 greatest moments in Major League Baseball history:

140: Rick Monday: First ever #1 Draft Pick (1965)

139: Yankees release Babe Ruth (1935)

138: Pittsburgh drug trials (1985)

137: The race to pass Walter Johnson (1984)

136: The double no-hitter (1917)

And now, here’s Episode LXI of The Stud 400.

135. Jim Bunning’s perfect game (1964)

Seeing that there have only been 24 perfect games pitched in Major League history, each one of them carries historical context.

Take for instance, Jim Bunning’s perfecto on June 21, 1964. When Bunning turned the trick against the Mets on that day, he became just the seventh person to complete a perfect game and the first to do so in the modern era in the National League. It was also the first regular season perfect game since Charlie Robertson’s on April 30, 1922, although Don Larsen pitched his famous World Series perfect game in 1956. The 42-year stretch between Robertson’s and Bunning’s perfect games is by far the longest drought in Major League history.

Bunning’s Perfect Game came on Father’s Day, which was appropriate considering that he had seven children at the time. His wife and one of his daughters was in attendance for the game. As for the game itself, Bunning made quick work of the Mets, tying up the perfecto in a neat 2:19. The Hall of Fame righty needed just 90 pitches to complete the gem. The only two pitchers who threw less pitches in their perfect games were David Cone, who needed 88 in 1999 and Addie Joss who threw 74 pitches in his 1908 perfect game. The perfect game was the first no-hitter of any kind for the Phillies since 1906 and it made Bunning the second pitcher to throw no-hitters in both leagues. He joined Cy Young in that club, with Bunning having previously thrown a no-hitter in 1958 with the Tigers. Bunning’s catcher for his perfect game was Gus Triandos, who became the first catcher to catch a no-hitter in each league as well.

134. Bart Giamatti dies (1989)

Bart Giamatti had the shortest commissioner tenure in the history of baseball, but he left a lasting legacy and will forever be tied to Pete Rose and one of the game’s greatest scandals. Giamatti was in a tough spot with the investigation considering just how popular Rose was in the sport. Rose was combative and rough around the edges, but for over two decades, he was the image about the way the sport was supposed to be played. He was a win-at-all-costs player and Giamatti was a staunchly fair Ivy Leaguer.

Both loved baseball immensely, but Rose’s gambling compromised the integrity of the sport and violated the gambling rule, which was universally known as the #1 rule in clubhouses across baseball. Attorney John Dowd, who spearheaded multiple investigations in Major League Baseball, led the probe on Rose and submitted his report in May of 1989. In light of the Dowd Report, Giamatti oversaw Rose’s voluntarily placement on baseball’s permanently ineligible list on August 24, 1989. Eight days later on September 1, Giamatti shockingly passed away at the age of 51 from a heart attack. His name, and the Rose case, had been in the news seemingly every day of the baseball season and had dominated headlines as it drew to a close. The news that Giamatti had died was hard to process and left a void in the commissioner’s office that has yet to be properly filled.

133. The Mitchell Report (2007)

On March 30, 2006, Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell was tasked by Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig with investigating the use of performance enhancing drugs in the sport as the spokes of baseball’s Steroid Era started to pop off the wheels.

Mitchell’s investigation focused on players and didn’t do much of a dive into the roles that teams and front offices played in the Steroid Era. Mitchell noted that the MLBPA was “largely uncooperative,” no surprise there. The league focused on former players as just five requests were made to active players to participate. In the end, only Frank Thomas was willing to be interviewed among that group. The Mitchell Report itself was published on December 13, 2007 and if fans wanted names, they got names. The Mitchell Report named 89 former and current players, many of them connected to Mets clubhouse employee Kirk Radomski and Yankees personal trainer Brian McNamee.

When the report was released, names like Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, Eric Gagne, Lenny Dykstra and Andy Pettitte stood out among the 89 players mentioned, complete with details that Mitchell found out about their use and purchases. A recommendation was made to Major League Baseball to institute testing for performance enhancing drugs in the next collective bargaining agreement. Bud Selig said about the report, “[This is] a call to action, and I will act.” Even President George Bush commented on the Mitchell Report, the former owner of the Texas Rangers said, “My hope is a part of putting the steroid era of baseball behind us.”

132. Kirby Puckett and the 1991 World Series (1991)

Many Hall of Famer have signature moments you could point to.

Reggie Jackson has his three-homer game in the World Series, Willie Mays has The Catch and Hank Aaron has #715. Joe DiMaggio has his hitting streak, Ted Williams has .406 and Rickey Henderson has his “Greatest of All Time” speech. For Kirby Puckett, his signature “moment” was more like a signature week and a half. Luckily for Twins fans, that magical nine-day stretch came in the 1991 World Series, one of the most exciting to ever be played. The Twins and Braves finished in last place in 1990, but each team had miraculous turnarounds in 1991, capturing their division titles on the way to the postseason.

In the ALCS, Puckett was damn near unstoppable. He batted .429 with two home runs, capturing ALCS MVP honors as the Twins steamrolled the Blue Jays. Puckett actually went hitless in his first 10 World Series at bats, but broke out of that mini-slump with a seventh inning home run in Game 3; it didn’t help, however, as the Braves won that game and the next two and were on the precipice of their first World Series win since 1957.

Puckett wouldn’t let that happen, though. He gave the Twins a 1-0 lead in the first inning with a triple and then came one of those signature moments we talked about earlier. With the Twins up 2-0 in the third, Ron Gant drove a pitch to deep left center field. Puckett gave chase and leapt as he was coming close to the iconic “baggie” outfield fence in the Metrodome. The airborne Puckett reached high as he crashed into the plexiglass that extended up above the outfield fence, corralling Gant’s drive and nearly doubling up Terry Pendleton on the bases. Pendleton would homer in his next at bat to tie the game 2-2, but Puckett broke that tie with a sacrifice fly in the fifth. The teams traded runs and each team went down in order in the ninth to send the game to extra innings.

That’s when it was Puckett’s time once again.

Puckett led off the bottom of the 11^th with the game still tied and allegedly told teammate Chili Davis he was thinking of bunting for a hit. Davis responded, “Bunt my ass. Hit it out and let’s go home.” Who was anybody to question Chili Davis? After taking three pitches from Charlie Leibrandt, Puckett blasted his fourth offering into the left-centerfield seats, setting off a wild celebration. The images of Puckett rounding the bases, excitedly pumping his fists and screaming, are perhaps the most enduring images of the Hall of Famer’s career. The moment is so iconic it is captured in a statue outside of Target Field. The Twins also replaced the seat where the ball landed with a new seat that showed Puckett’s number 34.

The Kirby Puckett Game also set the stage for another Hall of Famer to enjoy his own signature moment in Game 7, but we’ll get to that later on in The Stud 400.

131. First MLB night game (1935)

Night baseball has been around almost as long as the light bulb itself, but it took Major League Baseball quite some time to catch up. The first attempt at night baseball is traced back as early as 1880, just one year after the light bulb was invented, but it took a lot of perseverance and innovation before the concept made it to the biggest stage.

The lights were turned on for the first time at a Major League Baseball game on May 24, 1935. President Franklin Roosevelt threw out the first pitch and Hall of Famer Red Barber was on the call as the Reds took on the Phillies at Crosley Field for an 8:30 game. The idea of night baseball wasn’t a slam dunk as commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis and Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith were outspoken opponents. However, with the Reds in a dire financial situation, general manager Larry MacPhail turned to night baseball in hopes that the novelty, as well as the opportunity to draw fans who worked during the day, would boost attendance. MacPhail’s hunch was right and Barber knew he was watching something historic right from the start. He said, “As soon as I saw the lights come on, I knew they were there to stay.” By the time the United States entered World War II, 11 of the 16 teams had lights and were playing night baseball.

Stay tuned for next week’s episode of The Stud 400 when we wonder how old we would be if we didn’t know how old we were. We’re grabbing a ring for the other thumb with one of the most beloved baseball people of all time and are going to be perfect with Denton. Be sure there are no schemes out there to keep you from joining us for next week’s installment of The Stud 400.