By Sabrina Mason
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Peter Victor Ueberroth (/ˈjuːbərɒθ/; born September 2, 1937) is an American sports and business executive known for his involvement in the Olympics and in Major League Baseball. A Los Angeles–based businessman, he was the chairman of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee which brought the games to Los Angeles in 1984. Ueberroth was named 1984’s Time Man of the Year for his success in organizing the Olympic games.
After the conclusion of the games, he was named as the sixth Commissioner of Baseball, a role he held from 1984 to 1989. He later served as the chairman of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee from 2004 to 2008.
Ueberroth was elected to succeed Bowie Kuhn on March 3, 1984, and took office on October 1 of that year. As a condition of his hiring, Ueberroth increased the commissioner’s fining ability from US$5,000 to $250,000. His salary was raised to a reported $450,000, nearly twice what Kuhn was paid.
Just as Ueberroth was taking office, the Major League Umpires Union was threatening to strike the postseason. Ueberroth managed to arbitrate the disagreement and had the umpires back to work before the League Championship Series were over. The next summer, Ueberroth worked behind the scenes to limit a players’ strike to one day before a new labor agreement was worked out with the Players Association.
During the course of his stint as commissioner, Ueberroth reinstated two Hall of Famers, Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle, who had been banned from working for Major League Baseball by Kuhn because of their associations with gambling casinos. Also, Ueberroth suspended numerous players because of cocaine use, negotiated a $1.8 billion television contract with CBS, and initiated the investigation against Pete Rose‘s betting habits. In 1985, Ueberroth’s first full year in office, the League Championship Series expanded from a best-of-five series to a best-of-seven series. At his urging, the Chicago Cubs chose to install lights at Wrigley Field rather than reimburse the leagues for lost night-game revenue. Ueberroth then found a new source of income in the form of persuading large corporations to pay for the privilege of having their products endorsed by Major League Baseball.
Under Ueberroth, Major League Baseball enjoyed “increased attendance (record attendance four straight seasons), greater awareness of crowd control and alcohol management within ballparks, a successful and vigilant anti-drug campaign, significant industry-wide improvement in the area of fair employment, and a significantly improved financial picture for the industry. When Ueberroth took office, 21 of the 26 clubs were losing money; in Ueberroth’s last full season – 1988 – all clubs either broke even or finished in the black. In 1987, for example, baseball as an industry showed a net profit of $21.3 million, its first profitable year since 1973.”
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Question of the Day
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
Born
- Albert Spalding (baseball player) –
- Cleveland Amory (author of The Cat Who Came for Christmas) –
- Peter Ueberroth (businessman) –
- Terry Bradshaw (football player) –
- Christa McAuliffe (selected to be the first teacher in space) –
- Mark Harmon (actor) –
- Keanu Reeves (actor) –
- Salma Hayek (actress) –
- Erin Hershey Presley (actress) –
Died
- J. R. R. Tolkien (author) –
- Troy Donahue (actor) –
- Bob Denver (actor) –
Events
- Great Fire of London began–
- Congress established the United States Department of the Treasury–
- The first issue of McCall’s magazine was published. The magazine had previously been called Queens Magazine and Queen of Fashion–
- Vice President Theodore Roosevelt uttered the famous phrase, Speak softly and carry a big stick at the Minnesota State Fair–
- Japan surrendered formally at ceremonies held aboard the battleship Missouri, to end World War II–
- First ATM in U.S. debuted, Rockville Centre, N.Y.–
- Charles Burton started 3-year pole-to-pole expedition–
- The long awaited chess rematch between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky began in Yugoslavia–
- Diana Nyad completed a two-day, two-night swim from Cuba to Florida and became the first person to accomplish the feat unaided by a shark cage–
Weather
- Denver had its earliest measurable snow, 4.2 inches–
- Hurricane Frances caused 2.5 million Florida residents and vacationers to flee the state. It was the biggest evacuation ever ordered in Florida–
COURTESY www.almanac.com
