Al Davis, Oakland Raiders' Owner & Terror of the NFL

A short biography of Al Davis, who terrorized the National Football League and was the bete noire of NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle!

Al Davis, Oakland Raiders' Owner & Terror of the National Football League, is Now an Octogenarian

Bowie Kuhn: The Fifth Commissioner of Baseball

Bowie Kuhn: The Fifth Commissioner of Baseball

After General William Eckert was sacked at the end of 1968, Bowie Kuhn -- a lawyer who had been counsel to first the National League and then Major League Baseball, was appointed interim commissioner. In 1970, he was given the job with a 7-year contract.

Derided as the "Village Idiot" by legendary Oakland A's owner Charlie Finley (who should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame but is not), Bowie Kuhn served as MLB Commissioner during arguably its most important epoch aside from the founding of the two major leagues, as he oversee the volatile era that saw the  end of baseball's reserve clause and the advent of free 
agency. 

He was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame, while his great rival, union boss Marvin Miller (the man who freed the slaves from the reserve clause) has not been.

William Eckert: The Fourth Commissioner of Major League Baseball

William Eckert: The Fourth Commissioner of Major League Baseball

Before the baseball owners dropped all pretense and just elevated used car salesman Bud Selig to the catbird seat, they tried various stratagems to keep their iron grip on baseball. One was hiring U.S. Air Force Lt. General William Eckert to be commissioner. That the general hadn't seen a baseball game in a month of Billy Sundays, not had ever had a public sector job, didn't deter them. However, he proved so inept the owners, fearing he wouldn't back them up in their union busting activities in their desire to keep baseball players perpetually in serfdom, gave General Eckert the sack at the end of 1968.