Walter O'Malley, Bowie Kuhn, Dick Williams quietly go into the Baseball Hall of Fame

Richard Sandomir of The New York Times writes about Bowie Kuhn (photo-right) and Walter O'Malley (photo-top) who are both being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame today... "O’Malley was the consummate politician who exploited his sport’s manifest destiny, whether as a visionary or a business opportunist. But the patrician Kuhn often seemed buffeted and besieged by the gales of change, like the toppling of the reserve clause and free agency, which he said he thought would destroy baseball, and the angry labor wars in which he was outmaneuvered by Marvin Miller, who led the players union." ...

Richard Sandomir

Chris Jenkins of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes how Dick Williams (photo-left) and Goose Gossage helped bring a pennant to San Diego in 1984... "Before almost anybody outside of San Diego had heard much about the hitting exploits of a young Gwynn, however, Williams and Gossage arrived with big mustaches and big championship rings and big designs on doing it all over again with the Padres. Which they did." ...

Chris Jenkins