He was the first Baseball Commissioner I can remember and led baseball into the age of television.  He had been a lawyer in some firm in Washington and had rubbed elbows with a few owners, apparently.  When the position came open, he was offered it.

His book "Hardball" explained some of the background to the Curt Flood lawsuit, the overturning of the Charlie Finley fire sale and several other incidents and makes for fascinating reading for anyone who lived throught the 1960's and 1970's as a baseball fan.  I met him once, a few years ago, he was involved in an evangelical group at my church, I recognized him walking through my gym as I was coaching a basketball practice.   I stopped him, introduced myself and told him how much I had enjoyed his book.  He had to be 6' 6" tall and was a basketball player, not baseball.  He responded that there were several things he would have liked to have re-written in that book but he knew he would never get the chance to.  He mentioned, during the converstion, that his overriding focus was always to act and make decisions that were "in the best interests of baseball. "  I called my son over and said, "I want you to meet a great man, " and tried my best to pronounce his name correctly.  RIP, Bowie.

I used to regard him as the worst baseball commissioner of all time, but with the passage of time my opinion has mellowed.

He's the second worst of all time.

Bowie Kuhn was the commissioner of baseball, but he was in that position before my time. I couldn't tell you what he helped the game with, or any scandals surrounding him, so he really didn't have an impact on me.