Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 31, 1990 TAG: 9007310205
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: CLAIRE SMITH THE NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
For his reading interests, he had the first article in what would soon be a daily litany of accounts concerning New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner's payment of $40,000 to Howard Spira.
"I've been around long enough to know to hold any comment until I know something other than what I read in a newspaper," Vincent said at the time. "I certainly am going to try to get more information."
Two days later, the commissioner was informed enough to know that the first cursory bits of information compiled did not pass what Vincent refers to often as a "smell test."
With that, Vincent informed Steinbrenner that an investigation into the circumstances of the payment was about to be started.
From March 20 until Monday, Vincent, in his still-young term as commissioner, has been preoccupied if not consumed with that investigation.
Vincent, the 52-year-old Yale Law School graduate who came to baseball hoping not to be surrounded by such controversies, litigation and litigators, nevertheless said all along he was prepared.
And through the months, Vincent has shown fair amounts of patience, humor and drive in his effort to satisfy not only baseball but Steinbrenner, too.
As he showed Steinbrenner in March, Vincent did not shy away from acting as he is empowered to do by the Major League Agreement, the contract that binds the leagues and teams.
Specifically, as commissioner, Vincent is mandated to investigate any act believed "not in the best interests of baseball."
To do so, Vincent culled through baseball's history, going back to the origin of the powers and to the man who wrote them in 1921, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the first commissioner.
Vincent also called upon a lot of personal experience gathered as a lawyer in private practice defending people under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
When Vincent moved to the SEC, he further honed skills drawing up consent decrees in which clients neither confirmed nor denied wrongdoing before accepting some sort of sanction.
It was a background he was called upon to use immediately when he entered baseball in April 1989 as deputy commissioner. Vincent's handling of the legal dealings in the investigation of Pete Rose's gambling habits resulted in Rose signing such a decree and accepting a lifetime ban.
In using that SEC background, the commissioner saw himself as a one-man variation of an empaneled commission in that government agency. Therefore, he set up others to carry on the Steinbrenner investigation, appointing the lawyer John Dowd as investigator.
To monitor that investigation, Vincent called upon Steve Greenberg, the deputy commissioner, and Harold Tyler Jr., a former federal judge.
Vincent, following the pattern established last summer for Rose, used guidelines set up for a formal hearing.
Such a hearing never took place for Rose because of the plea bargain. It did take place for Steinbrenner, on July 5 and 6.
In that closed-door session, Steinbrenner and his counsel were allowed to state the owner's case and call witnesses if they so chose. Only Steinbrenner testified.
The procedure also allowed Vincent to cross-examine the owner.
In a transcript that has since been made public, the commissioner's questions mostly concerned Steinbrenner's relationship with Spira, who professes to have bet heavily with bookies in the past.
Vincent also showed concern over Steinbrenner's treatment of Dave Winfield, the former Yankee outfielder who had a long-standing feud with his employer.
Throughout the proceedings - before and after the formal hearing - Vincent seemed pulled by two factors: the desire to move expeditiously and the desire to give the process as much time as it needed to assure it played out correctly.
In the weeks following the hearing, that internal conflict seemed to be at its greatest for Vincent. It was then that the legal team for Steinbrenner pushed deadlines set up by Vincent for submitting more information and affidavits.
Steinbrenner's forces also sought to have the hearing itself reopened so they could confront, before Vincent, such witnesses as Winfield; a former commissioner, Peter Ueberroth; Dowd, and the commissioner himself.
At one point, Vincent, seemingly annoyed by what started to look to him more and more like stalling tactics, said: "Ultimately, it is my decision. They have a chance to speak to the issue, but I will decide what the process is from here on out."
But, at yet another point in the wrangle over witnesses, Tyler, who was brought in by Vincent as an adviser, persuaded Vincent to let Steinbrenner shore up his case without regard to the time element, although the Yankees' owner was not allowed to call additional witnesses.
Recently, one owner, who asked for anonymity, was quoted as being irritated that Vincent and baseball were so preoccupied with the Steinbrenner situation. That owner felt that the game had more serious problems to worry about, like skyrocketing salaries.
Both Vincent and Greenberg defended the process as well as the time it took.
Vincent said that others among the owners, the people who pay his salary, had generally been supportive and willing to let the situation play out.
NOTE: various versions of Steinbrenner stories ran in Metro and New River Valley editions)
by CNB