Peter Ueberroth

Peter Victor Ueberroth (born September 2, 1937 in Evanston, Illinois) is an American sports executive. He served as commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1984 to 1989.

The 1984 Olympics

Ueberroth was a successful travel agent for Trans International Airlines before becoming the organizer of the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles, California. He was a prominent figure in the games and was named Time magazine's Man of the Year in 1984. Under Ueberroth's leadership and management, the first privately financed Olympic Games resulted in a surplus of nearly $250 million. This was subsequentally used to support youth and sports activities throughout the United States. Coincidentally, he was born on the day on which the founder of the modern Olympic Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, died.

Baseball Commissioner

Ueberroth (front right) watches President Ronald Reagan throw the first pitch prior to a game

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 $5000 to $250,000. His salary was raised to a reported $450,000, nearly twice what Kuhn was paid.

Just as Ueberroth was taking office, were Major League Umpires Union threatening to strike the post-season. Fortunately, 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 Hall of Famers Willie Mays & Mickey Mantle, who had been banned from working for Major League Baseball by Kuhn because of their associations with gambling casinos, facilitated collusion, suspended numerous players (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/03/19/sports1627EST0322.DTL) because of cocaine use, negotiated a $1.1 billion television contract with CBS, and initiated the investigation against Pete Rose's betting habits.

Also at his urging, the Chicago Cubs chose to install lights at Wrigley Field rather than reimburse the leagues for lost night-game revenues. 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 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.

Post-Baseball activities

Before the start of the 1989 regular season, Ueberroth stepped down as commissioner even though his term wasn't scheduled to end until October of that year. Three years after leaving office, he led the Rebuild Los Angeles project after the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

In 1999, Ueberroth along with Arnold Palmer & Clint Eastwood bought the Pebble Beach golf course.

Ueberroth ran for Governor of California in the 2003 California recall election as an independent, though he was a registered Republican. His campaign focused on California's economic and budget crisis, avoiding social issues. With polls indicating only a low level of support, he pulled out of the race on September 9, 2003, though his name still appeared on the ballot and received a small but significant amount of votes. He placed 6th in a field of 135 candidates.