Peter Ueberroth

“The next Olympic Games must not have the same character. They must be kept more purely athletic, they must be more dignified, more discreet and more in accordance with the classic artistic requirements. The Games must be more intimate, and, above all, the Games must be less expensive.”1 — Baron Pierre de Coubertin

As of 2023, the Baseball Hall of Fame includes most former commissioners. Of those not inducted, William Eckert presided over the sea change that saw the player’s union begin a successful fight for free agency, stripping owners of the all-out power they enjoyed for nearly a century. Bart Giamatti died just months into a term tangled in the drama surrounding Pete Rose’s gambling ban. Fay Vincent clashed with owners over the powers of his office and resigned under fire, unable to complete his term. The longest-tenured of the four outside the Hall was Peter Ueberroth, who came to the job in 1984 with arguably the best reputation of any American at the time. He saved the Olympic games by pulling off a profitable Los Angeles event. He had just been named Time’s Man of the Year. However, he was also known as a “miser with a Midas touch.”2 The perception that Ueberroth spent more time trying to turn the Olympics into exclusively a business, taking its soul, marred his success. The reputation followed him into baseball.

On September 2, 1937, Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the International Olympic Committee and known as the father of the modern Olympic Games, died while on a walk in Geneva, Switzerland. On the same day, over 4,300 miles away in Evanston, Illinois, the man who “saved” and “revolutionized” the Olympics was born.3 Peter Victor Ueberroth was the only son (and second child) of Victor Ueberroth and Laura (Larson) Ueberroth.

Victor, of German and Austrian descent, was an aluminum siding salesman who dropped out of school after the eighth grade. He always had an encyclopedia with him to expand his knowledge and satiate his “curious mind.” Ueberroth credited his dad with being the biggest influence in his life. “My father never graduated from grammar school, but he was a brilliant individual, very well-read,” Ueberroth said. “A student of world trade who had street smarts.”4 Laura, who came from Irish and Swedish bloodlines, was sick from nearly the moment Peter was born and died when her son was four years old. Within a year of Laura’s death, Victor married an accountant named Nancy. As Ueberroth’s stepmother worked to clear Victor’s debts, Peter struggled to gain her approval. Before settling in Northern California, the family moved between four states, including stops in Iowa and Wisconsin, throughout Peter’s youth. In 1948, Victor and Nancy welcomed another boy, John, whom Peter felt was favored. The experience instilled in him a drive to achieve.5

Ueberroth was a sports-obsessed kid who, by age 15, held several jobs – including at gas stations, shopping centers, and Christmas tree lots – and paid his own bills. He got his first taste of the juncture of the elite business world and sports when he caddied for professionals and businessmen at Sunset Ridge Country Club in Northfield, Illinois.6 “My dad would get settled somewhere, and we’d have to move. I could apply to a country club, and I had experience,” Ueberroth recalled. “You are meeting people, and it paid well. I liked the work.”7 Ueberroth liked being in control. A childhood friend recalled, “Ueberroth always knew where the parties were, where to get a car. And he would usually set up the dates.” “If the gang was unable to pick a movie,” said another friend, “Pete would quickly make the choice.”8

He attended Burlingame High School in the San Francisco Bay Area until his sophomore year, when he moved to Fremont High School in Sunnyvale, California. At Fremont, Ueberroth starred in baseball, football, and swimming. As reported in Ueberroth’s Time magazine profile in 1984, “Two years before finishing high school, he moved into Twelveacres, an orphanage for kids from broken homes.” He became the recreation director, collecting a salary of $125 per month, and received the nickname “Daddy Pete” from the other kids. After graduation in 1955, he received a small athletic grant from San Jose State to play water polo. He worked tirelessly to make the 1956 United States Olympic water polo team but was left off the final squad. In 1959, Ueberroth married his college sweetheart, Virginia “Ginny” Nicolaus.

After graduating with a business degree, Ueberroth went on a job hunt that led him to Trans International Airlines. This service, in which Ueberroth worked as the Operations Manager, brought passengers between California and Hawaii. So successful was Ueberroth in the role that the owner, entrepreneur Kirk Kerkorian, promoted him to run the whole business. Before accepting his new role, Ueberroth demanded a 3% stake in the company. Soon after, he set up an air shuttle between Los Angeles and Seattle (for 1962’s World’s Fair), but market changes caused him to go into severe debt. He changed course, starting a reservation service called Transportation Consultants to help small hotels and airlines manage reservations. The company was a huge success, going public in the early 1970s, buying up hotels, and employing 1,500 people. By the time Ueberroth was 28 years old, the Young Presidents’ Organization for successful executives invited him to join.9

Ueberroth’s first brush with sports management came in 1973. It didn’t end well. Interested in buying a franchise in the startup International Volleyball Association, Ueberroth was turned off by the business practices of mostly showbiz-related team owners, including movie producer and league president David Wolper. Wolper recalled Ueberroth saying, “I’m not going to buy a franchise in this league. You guys don’t know what the hell you’re doing.” “He said all us ‘Hollywood types’ were spending too much money and ought to cut things down.”10 But the connection helped change the course of Ueberroth’s life.

Five years later, Wolper sat on the mayor’s committee to find someone to run the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. The list of six finalists had little name recognition, but Wolper noticed one. “Peter Ueberroth!” Wolper announced. “He’s the guy who tried to tell us how to run our damn volleyball league. And he was right. We went broke. That’s the guy we need. If anyone can run a Spartan Olympics, the cheap son-of-a-bitch can!”11 Given that the role meant a 70% pay cut, Ueberroth initially declined but, after some thought, said, “I was between the ages of 40 and 55. I did live in the Los Angeles area. I loved sports. I was chairman of a company with revenues of more than $100 million. I was fiscally conservative. I had international experience, had traveled widely, and met with heads of state.” He thought the role was sort of like him. His wife said, “No…it was him.”12 He accepted the challenge.

The Olympics were in the midst of a decade of turmoil when Ueberroth inherited them. The 1972 Olympics were marred by a terrorist attack in Munich, the 1976 Games sank Montreal into massive debt,13 and President Jimmy Carter ordered an American boycott of the Moscow event in 1980. Ueberroth tackled the job, intent on making it profitable and inviting. He relied heavily on media rights and corporate sponsorship, often playing one company against another in bidding wars. “Without Peter Ueberroth, without the ’84 Games being as successful as they were, I believe it’s very likely that the Games could have sputtered and, like a match, gone out,” said Olympic swimmer John Naber.14

Ueberroth’s approach was not without critics who felt his relentless focus on keeping the Games financially successful took a portion of the original intent out of the Olympics. Maureen A. Kindel was president of the Los Angeles Public Works Commission and head of an LAOOC committee that planned the Games’ cultural events. She was a “friendly critic” of Ueberroth’s cold approach. She said before the event, “I worry about the soul of the Olympics, worry that the citizens of Los Angeles will really feel a great commitment to the Olympic Games and that they will enjoy the magic of them. I worry that all we hear about is the positive balance on our ledger sheet. Are we failing to make some humanistic decisions now because of the desire for a large profit just for profit’s sake?”15

Ultimately, the Games were a success in all the ways Ueberroth hoped. None of the boycotts made an impact, and Ueberroth didn’t encounter debt but turned a $225 million profit. Having become a well-known personality across America, Ueberroth was even celebrated at the White House with President Reagan. He was named Time Magazine’s Man of the Year in 1984. When asked if Ueberroth saved the Olympics, nine-time gold medalist Mark Spitz said, “I think that’s a true statement…He created a financial model they’re desperately trying to emulate.”16

With the Olympic Games, Ueberroth developed the kind of thick skin that prepared him for his next endeavor as the commissioner of Major League Baseball. “For five years [with LAOOC], we got nothing but criticism,” Ueberroth said. “I said to everybody, and I believed it: ‘We will be remembered by how well our event does…and by almost nothing else.”17

For 16 months, Milwaukee Brewers owner Bud Selig led a committee of owners through an exhaustive search to replace outgoing commissioner Bowie Kuhn. Ueberroth’s friend Bob Lurie, then the San Francisco Giants owner, nominated him for the role.18 If elected, Ueberroth insisted on changes to the sport’s bylaws, including strengthening the commissioner’s power by bestowing the title of chief executive officer and increasing the amount he could fine clubs from $5,000 to $25,000. On March 3, 1984, the owners met in Tampa and unanimously elected Ueberroth. “I flew here not knowing if they would agree to my suggestions,” Ueberroth said. With the Olympic Games imminent, he wouldn’t take over until October 1. “In the next 22 weeks, the eyes of the world, even world politics, will focus on Los Angeles and the Olympic Games. So, I don’t think it proper for me even to comment on baseball matters.”19

Ueberroth’s first challenge came two days into his tenure. On October 3, the Umpires’ Union went on strike, leaving college umpires to call the beginning of the playoffs. Both sides agreed to have Ueberroth arbitrate the deal, allowing the umpires to return to work in a matter of days. In a “stunning initial impression,” Ueberroth had earned credibility from owners, players, and umps. “Peter Ueberroth is a man I can trust,” said Richie Phillips, the head of the Umpires’ Union.20

When Ueberroth took the commissioner’s position, 21 out of 26 teams were losing money. He went to work trying to pry open the owner’s books to see their actual revenue numbers. “I’ll get ’em open,” Ueberroth assured. An owner reportedly called him a “Gorilla [who gets anything he wants].” Ueberroth responded, “I don’t think that’s very descriptive, and I’m not very pleased by it, but I can’t do anything about it.”21

In March 1985, Ueberroth reinstated Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle, who had each been banned from working in baseball by Kuhn (in 1979 and 1983, respectively) because of their roles as goodwill ambassadors for Atlantic City casinos. “The world changes,” Ueberroth said. “We are going to look at the situation for very strong, broad guidelines to keep baseball and gambling apart.”22 Given the strife among players, owners, and fans, the move may have been a peace offering by the commissioner to get two nostalgic idols back to the front of the game. “I didn’t think that was fair to these two gentlemen,” Ueberroth said. “It’s also spring training, and I wanted them back in baseball.”23

Ueberroth’s next order of business was to clear up what he perceived as a rampant and detrimental drug problem among the players. As a grand jury in Pittsburgh investigated drug use in the game, Ueberroth decreed, “We’ve got to stop drugs in baseball. We flat out have to do it.”24 By May 1985, he had the owners’ support for mandatory drug testing for all baseball personnel, and some players were coming aboard. “They should test everybody,” Pirates catcher Tony Peña said. “I love baseball, and I don’t want anything to happen to it.” Others, like Don Baylor, stated he didn’t “have anything to hide” but declared, “the privacy aspect bothers me.” As the head of the player’s union, Marvin Miller’s successor, Donald Fehr, agreed, “Everyone involved in baseball is opposed in a general sense to the use of drugs.” However, he believed the system in place was working and confirmed: “testing remained an item of serious contention.”25

In the summer of 1985, a potential work stoppage lay on the horizon. A 1983 TV deal worth $1 billion had quadrupled MLB’s revenue, yet owners were still losing money. Before the deal, player pensions received one-third of television revenue but got only 18% from the new deal. Owners wanted to install an arbitration cap. According to the New York Times, “The owners had proposed an average payroll plan that would have served as a salary cap, as well as proposing the arbitration cap.”26 Neither happened. Instead, the owners took an additional hit by raising the league minimum from $40,000 to $60,000. The players went on strike for just two days, August 6 and 7, before a deal was reached. As of 2023, it remained the shortest work stoppage in MLB history.

However, many owners did not care for Ueberroth’s approach. About the commissioner, one anonymous owner said, “He’s a no-good s.o.b… We could have gotten the whole thing, but Ueberroth forced the settlement for his personal benefit. All he cares about is making a big reputation himself.”27 For his part in the negotiations, Ueberroth was uncharacteristically coy, saying, “My role was no role.”28 The owners’ insistence on pushing for a salary cap came to fruition during the work stoppage in 1994, which resulted in the cancellation of the season and, ultimately, no cap instituted.

Some applauded Ueberroth’s swift resolution of the fifth work stoppage in 15 years. Sportswriter Maury Allen compared Ueberroth to the first commissioner of MLB, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, and even suggested he might have a higher calling. “He is another Judge Landis. He acts first and fast,” Allen wrote. “Baseball will be lucky to hold him past 1988. That’s when a California governor, a senator, and a new President of the United States will be elected.”29 Once asked about running for higher office, Ueberroth quipped, “I want to run things. In politics, you don’t run anything.”30

Following a 1985 season in which he hit .287 with 29 home runs, Detroit’s Kirk Gibson was expected to be one of the most sought-after free agents on the market. However, despite initial interest from the Royals, Gibson didn’t receive a single offer from any team but Detroit. The same story happened for most other available players. During the winter meetings that same offseason, Ueberroth reportedly told the owners, “Let’s say I sat each of you down in front of a red button and a black button…Push the red button, and you’d win the World Series but lose $10 million. Push the black button, and you would make $4 million and finish somewhere in the middle…the problem is, most of you would push the red one.” He reportedly capped his point by remarking, “You are so damned dumb.”31

Owners also committed to reducing the roster sizes from 25 to 24. Ueberroth stayed mum about collusion, but “baseball players and agents [swore] they [saw] the tracks of Peter Ueberroth in the free agent non-policy.”32 In February, after numerous stars, including future Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk, were not offered contracts, the MLBPA filed a grievance against the owners.

Focused beyond salary disputes, Ueberroth announced drug-related punishment for over 20 MLB players before the 1986 season. Players included former MVPs Keith Hernandez (for his admitted cocaine use from July 1980 to June 1983), Dave Parker (for confessing to use of cocaine and amphetamines), and Tim Raines (who entered a drug treatment program after admitting to cocaine use in 1982).33 Ueberroth expressed that his focus was not only on drugs in baseball but in America. “Call it an anger, a deep, burning anger, and you’ll be closest to my true feelings,” he said.34 Later in 1986, recent top NBA draft pick, Len Bias, became a poster child for drug abuse in sports when he died of an overdose. In September, First Lady Nancy Reagan, whose husband invited Ueberroth to the White House to praise his Olympics success, launched her “Just Say No” campaign against drug use.

After the 1986 season, free agents again faced stonewalling from the owners. The average free agent salary dropped 16 percent, and for the first time since free agency started a decade earlier, the overall salary of major-league players declined. Ueberroth said he “made inquiries” during the winter meetings to assure there was no evidence of conspiracy not to sign players. “I wanted to know if there were negotiations ongoing,” Ueberroth said. “There seems to be, and I hope they are fruitful.”35 Three-quarters of the free agents signed one-year deals. Star Andre Dawson took over a 30-percent pay cut to move from the Montreal Expos to the Chicago Cubs.36 On February 20, 1987, the MLBPA filed a second grievance against the owners.

In April, Dodgers Vice President Al Campanis was asked on ABC’s Nightline about the lack of Black managers, owners, and general managers and replied, “I truly believe they may not have some of the necessities to be, let’s say, a field manager or perhaps a general manager.” He likened the disparity to Blacks not being quarterbacks, or pitchers, or very good swimmers.37 Campanis’ comments sparked outrage about the lack of diversity in front office across the game, prompted Ueberroth to act. He met with Reverend Joseph Lowery of the Southern Christian Leadership group to discuss his efforts to bring more minorities into the game. Lowery was encouraged by baseball’s efforts, stating that “the commissioner is sensitive to the situation.”38 “I don’t have a reputation for lip service,” Ueberroth said, but the commissioner was called out for hypocrisy by some media outlets. The New York Post’s acerbic columnist Dick Young asked, “Ubie, how many Black employees do you have in your office? Zero.”39

By the end of his third year as commissioner in 1987, his popularity was so low that it was clear to Ueberroth he would not get a second term. “No chance…” Ueberroth said of his odds of re-election. “I have no chance to get double digit votes. I’d need a bunch.” He was characteristically “sure of himself.”40 “I can say that the owners are in pretty damned good financial shape today,” Ueberroth said. “As long as I’m living and breathing, they will be in good financial shape.” Ueberroth explained why his efforts didn’t help his reputation with the owners: “My attitude – as the owners have seen very clearly – is that I don’t report to them.”41 Despite rumors he might leave his post early for an executive role at a major corporation or run for elected office, Ueberroth planned to stick out his time.

Ueberroth negotiated two TV deals that reverberated for several decades. In December 1988, he signed a four-year pact with CBS worth $1.1 billion. The deal offered CBS the rights to the World Series, both Championship Series, the All-Star Game, and 12 regular-season games. It moved baseball off NBC for the first time since 1947. The following year, Ueberroth brokered a four-year national cable deal with ESPN worth $400 million, giving the network 175 regular-season games, including Sunday Night Baseball, which remained a staple as of 2023. Much as he did for the Olympics, Ueberroth’s focus on big media deals transformed how Americans consumed the sport.

Like his approach to the Olympics, Ueberroth’s approach to baseball as a business first was widely criticized. “Baseball, through these new contracts,” Curt Smith wrote in Voices of the Game, “becomes the first sports to voluntarily reduce the number of networks televising its games.” Ueberroth’s TV deals came under fire as prioritizing the short-term profits of the owners, while leaving many fans without a place to watch games. “Nearly fifty percent of America depends solely on network TV for baseball and these people will go from 40 games a season to 12.”42 Ueberroth responded by saying at least the Championship Series would still be free. “We were not confident that we could achieve the revenues we felt necessary without having to take the league championships to cable. In fact, I had predicted that might happen,” the commissioner said.43 Ueberroth’s focus on large network and cable packages presaged the direction every sport went, as the NFL, the NBA, and the NHL all have signed large exclusive TV deals that, as of 2023, include streaming rights.

In September 1987, the first collusion grievance came before arbitrator Thomas Roberts, who ruled that owners violated the Collective Bargaining Agreement by conspiring to hamper player movement and higher salaries. Nonetheless, the owners continued their efforts that offseason, by creating an “information bank” that internally shared information about what offers were out to players. As a response, the MLBPA filed a third grievance in as many years against the owners. On August 29, 1989, Roberts ordered owners to pay $10.5 million to players affected by 1985’s collusion. Seven former free agents, including Kirk Gibson, were put back on the market to look for better offers. The second and third grievances were also ruled in favor of the players, causing the owners to pay $38 million and $64.5 million, respectively, in damages. The final settlement for all three years of collusion came in December 1990, with the owners agreeing to pay the MLBPA $280 million and allowing the union to distribute the money as it saw fit.

By the end of the 1988 season, every team was breaking even or profitable. In the year prior, Major League Baseball had its most profitable year since 1973, with a net profit of $21.3 million.44 However, Ueberroth’s approach to focusing on baseball wholly as a business attracted critics as well. As Marc Normandin wrote in 2018, “These initial instances of collusion in Major League Baseball taught ownership and MLB’s commissioners valuable lessons about effectively and legally hoarding profits.”45

Despite their poor relationship just a year earlier, the owners asked Ueberroth to stay on as commissioner for another term. He turned the owners down. Twins owner Carl Pohlad said, “I’m just devastated… there was no one in the room who didn’t want him back.”46 Ueberroth’s final day in office was March 31, 1989. His successor was Bart Giamatti. “The institution [baseball]…was a disaster in all ways when I arrived,” Ueberroth said. “It was a scandal-ridden, drug-ridden thing…Every labor negotiation had a labor stoppage…now we’ve gone on and there have been three [labor situations] with no meaningful interruptions.” He felt, “The economics and moral fiber of the game are getting up to date.” And of his legacy, he believed, “That’s what will be judged or not judged.”47

Ueberroth didn’t stay away from the game for long. He headed groups in the mid-’90s that attempted to purchase the California Angels and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Both bids were unsuccessful. In 1986, Ueberroth joined the Coca-Cola Company’s Board of Directors (Fay Vincent happened to be a senior executive with Coke at the time). He was named to many other corporate boards, such as those of Hilton Hotels and The Contrarian Group. In 1999, Ueberroth joined Clint Eastwood and Arnold Palmer in purchasing the famed Pebble Beach golf course. Coming full circle, 19 years later, the Western Golf Association inducted him into the Caddie Hall of Fame for his work as a teenager at Sunset Ridge. “I’ve gotten some important global honors for things I’ve done in my life, but I didn’t think I’d be eligible [for the Caddie Hall of Fame],” Ueberroth said. “It completely stunned me.”48 In 2010, Ueberroth was inducted into the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame. The following year, UCLA gave him the John Wooden Global Leadership Award, and he was inducted into the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame. He was the chairman of the U.S. Olympic committee from 2004-2008, helping to pull off the games in Athens and Torino. In 2022, Ueberroth was given a plaque right next to one for Pierre de Coubertin in the Court of Honor at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Since the early 1970s, Peter and Ginny have made their main home in Laguna Beach, California. They have four children: Vicky, Heidi, Keri, and Joseph. Even in the height of his intense business work. Ueberroth made a rule of never working on weekends and prioritizing his family, even taking phone calls from his wife during important meetings.49 “He didn’t have much of family life growing up,” a friend said, “and he is eager to extend his relationship to his children.”50

Last revised: September 26, 2023

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Rory Costello and Jan Finkel and fact-checked by Larry DeFillipo.

Photo credit: National Baseball Hall of Fame Library.

Additional reading

Peter Ueberroth with Richard Levin and Amy Quinn, Made in America: His Own Story, New York: William Morrow (1985).

Notes

1 Ray Kennedy, “Miser with a Midas Touch,” Sports Illustrated, November 22, 1982.

2 Kennedy, “Miser with a Midas Touch.”

3 Helene Elliot, “How Peter Ueberroth saved the Olympics and revolutionized the Games,” Los Angeles Times, October 3, 2022, https://www.latimes.com/sports/olympics/story/2022-10-03/la84-peter-ueberroth-coliseum-100 (last accessed September 1, 2023).

4 Kennedy, “Miser with a Midas Touch.”

5 Robert Ajemian, “Master of the Games,” Time Magazine, January 7, 1985.

6 Jon J. Kerr, “Evanston native, former MLB commissioner Peter Ueberroth Joins Caddie Hall of Fame, Chicago Tribune, August 2, 2018, https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/winnetka/sports/ct-evr-peter-ueberroth-wga-caddie-hall-of-fame-tl-0809-story.html (last accessed September 1, 2023).

7 Kerr, “Evanston native, former MLB commissioner Peter Ueberroth Joins Caddie Hall of Fame.”

8 Ajemian, “Master of the Games.”

9 Ajemian, “Master of the Games.”

10 Kennedy, “Miser with a Midas Touch.”

11 Kennedy, “Miser with a Midas Touch.”

12 Kennedy, “Miser with a Midas Touch.”

13 See SABR’s history of Olympic Stadium (Montreal).

14 Elliot, “How Peter Ueberroth saved the Olympics and revolutionized the Games.”

15 Kennedy, “Miser with a Midas Touch.”

16 Elliot, “How Peter Ueberroth saved the Olympics and revolutionized the Games.”

17 Dave Nightingale, “Ueberroth a 1-term commissioner,” The Sporting News, December 21, 1987; 44.

18 Mark Heisler, “After eight months as baseball commissioner, Peter Ueberroth has gained a reputation as a problem solver,” Los Angeles Times, June 3, 1985, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-06-03-sp-5685-story.html (last accessed September 1, 2023).

19 Joseph Durso, “Baseball Names Ueberroth to Replace Kuhn Oct. 1,” The New York Times, March 4, 1984: S1.

20 Jim Kaplan, “A Promising Entry into a Tough New Arena,” Sports Illustrated, October 22, 1984.

21 “Ueberroth doesn’t monkey around,” The San Bernadino County Sun, March 12, 1985: 36.

22 Hal Bock, “Mantle, Mays back in baseball,” The Gettysburg Times, March 19, 1985: 6.

23 Bock, “Mantle, Mays back in baseball.”

24 “Grand jury’s findings could be damaging,” Santa Cruz Sentinel, May 9, 1985: 13.

25 “Major-league players clash on drug testing issue.”

26 Murray Chass, “Baseball Strike Is Settled; Games to Resume Today,” New York Times, August 8, 1985; 1.

27 Erick Fernandez, “The Shortest Labor Stoppage in U.S. Sports History,” Vice, August 7, 2015, https://www.vice.com/en/article/wn3v5n/the-shortest-labor-stoppage-in-us-sports-history (last accessed July 3, 2023).

28 Maury Allen, “Kenesaw would have loved Ubie,” New York Post, August 9, 1985: 101.

29 Allen, “Kenesaw would have loved Ubie.”

30 Pat Calabria, “The Ueberroth Years,” Newsday (Long Island, NY), October 16, 1988: 29.

31 John Helyar, Lords of the Realm (e-book edition), New York: Ballantine Books (1995): 365.

32 George Vecsey, “Owners cash in on baseball’s hard times,” The Salina Journal (Kansas), April 7, 1986: 9.

33 “Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth Friday punished 21 players,” UPI, February 28, 1986.

34 Bill Dwyre, “Ueberroth’s National Passion: In War on Drugs, Commissioner Moves Beyond Baseball,” Los Angeles Times, May 19, 1986.

35 “Chiles says collusion complaint by players ‘a bunch of garbage’,” New Braunfels (Texas) Herald-Zeitung, February 27, 1987: 10.

36 Dawson offered the Cubs a “blank check,” to sign for any amount they offered. They agreed to a contract worth $500,000 plus bonuses. Less than the $1,047,000 he received from the Expos the year prior.

37 Murray Chass, “Campanis is Out; Racial Remarks Cited by Dodgers,” The New York Times, April 9, 1987.

38 “Ueberroth ‘sensitive’ to minorities,” USA Today, April 22, 1987; B13.

39 Dick Young, “’Commissioner’ Ubie leaves Blacks out of cleanup spots,” New York Post, April 10, 1987: 118.

40 Nightingale, “Ueberroth a 1-term commissioner.”

41 Nightingale, “Ueberroth a 1-term commissioner.”

42 Phil Mushnick, “Ueberroth makes dollars, no sense,” New York Post, January 11, 1989: 57.

43 Richard Justice, “Baseball Signs with CBS for $1 Billion Over Four Years,” The Washington Post, December 15, 1988.

44 “Peter Victor Ueberroth,” MLB.com, https://www.mlb.com/official-information/about-mlb/commissioners/peter-ueberroth (last accessed July 5, 2023).

45 Marc Normandin, “The past, present, and future of MLB collusion, SB Nation, January 10, 2018, https://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2018/1/10/16863052/mlb-collusion-history-bud-selig-free-agency (last accessed July 5, 2023).

46 Calabria, “Goodbye, Commissioner”: 25.

47 Nightingale, “Ueberroth a 1-term commissioner.”

48 Kerr, “Evanston native, former MLB commissioner Peter Ueberroth Joins Caddie Hall of Fame.”

49 Ajemian, “Master of the Games.”

50 Robert McG. Thomas Jr, “The Man at the Center of it All,” The New York Times, July 22, 1984; S9.