Passing: Bowie Kuhn, Former Baseball Comissioner

The death of Bowie Kuhn deserves a word.

He likely will not go down as the best commissioner of Major League Baseball. His rule came during a time of profound change to the sport and to the country.

Free agency, labor strife and night World Series games will likely be his legacy.

But he was also the head of baseball when the game moved into Canada. But most importantly, his name makes us yearn for a time when one such as Bowie Kuhn was believable when he spoke of "the integrity of the game". That term had credibility back then and Bowie Kuhn was respsonsible for that.

Like much in life today, such a concept (integirty of the game) - once taken for granted as, can no longer be taken for granted. Too many in recent years (from the top down) have invoked the term to advance their own limted agenda that the idea of "integrity of the game" very little resembles that we once accepted and nurtured.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/16/sports/baseball/16kuhn.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries&oref=slogin