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RETURN OF THE GHOST OF BOWIE KUHN

By Murray Chass

August 20, 2014

Over the six years this web site has existed, its more than 600 columns have triggered e-mail responses that have ranged from complete and total thoughtful agreement to vile, nasty, repugnant, fan-fueled comments.

It’s always gratifying to have readers agree with the thoughts and ideas presented in a column, but it could become boring to have all readers agree all of the time. In other words, I don’t mind a contrary opinion expressed by a reader.

But what I really appreciate is readers whose responses suggest ideas for additional columns. I received one of those this week, though I don’t know that the writer/reader meant to suggest this column.

This was a response to the column about the election of Rob Manfred as the next commissioner and the determined but failed effort of Jerry Reinsdorf, chairman of the Chicago White Sox, to block Manfred.

This was the e-mail:

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LISTEN TO REINSDORF SING HIS SWAN SONG

By Murray Chass

August 15, 2014

How is Jerry Reinsdorf a loser? Let me count the ways.

On second thought, I have neither the time nor the space to do a complete count. I’ll just hit a few highlights:

In his career-long obsession with deflating players’ salaries, the chairman of the Chicago White Sox and Bulls was a central figure in the baseball owners’ illegal collusive activities against free agents in the mid-1980s. “Collusion was a $280 million mistake,” former commissioner Fay Vincent said in a television interview this week. “And Jerry was right in the middle of that. That mistake is the sort of thing that baseball cannot really tolerate ever again.”

In his ugly, mean-spirited way, Reinsdorf joined fellow owner and confidant Bud Selig in 1992 in orchestrating Vincent’s ouster from the office of commissioner. Reinsdorf and Selig wanted Vincent out because they were plotting to go to war with the players union in the 1994 labor negotiations and didn’t want Vincent getting in their way. The results of the 234-day strike they forced were disastrous.

In the 33rd year of their relationship, the 78-year-old Reinsdorf suddenly found 80-year-old Selig too secretive and …

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MANFRED MOVES CLOSE TO VOTE TOTAL TO SUCCEED SELIG

By Murray Chass

August 10, 2014

Twenty-five of Major League Baseball’s 30 club owners will do something Thursday they have never done. They will vote in an election for a baseball commissioner.

Bud Selig, who voted for commissioners before he became commissioner himself, has his own idea of who should succeed him next January. His close old friend and a previous voter, Jerry Reinsdorf of the Chicago White Sox, has a different idea.

Their differences have created a controversy that has become so heated that the commissioner felt compelled to issue a statement Friday denying any rift with anybody over the selection process. It is unlikely that anybody believed him.

Although the commissioner denied in his statement that he has promoted any candidate, it is well known that …

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