Bowie Kuhn was the Commissioner of Baseball from 1969 through 1984 and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2007. As I wrote in December of 2022, most commissioners do not deserve a spot in the Hall, but Kuhn was especially dubious.
During his time as commissioner, baseball underwent a period of great turmoil. The first-ever player strike occurred in 1972 and the umpires struck in 1979. In 1981, the season was torn apart by the worst player strike in history to that point. Over Kuhn's 16 seasons as commissioner, MLB was faced by no less than eight work stoppages of varying significance.
Other than the changes to the reserve clause during his tenure, on which I have no comment, Kuhn's most controversial decision as commissioner was to ban Hall of Famers Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle from baseball due to their employment at casinos. However, neither Mays nor Mantle promoted sports betting, much less betting on baseball, but worked as greeters and autograph signers. While Kuhn meant to disassociate from any kind of gambling "in the best interests of the game," banning two of the most famous players in history wasn't exactly in the game's best interest. The bans were lifted almost immediately by Kuhn's successor Peter Ueberroth in 1985.
One last note: Kuhn's Hall of Fame plaque mentions that he tripled MLB attendance. As a matter of fact, even with the expansion of the league, attendance did not come close to tripling between 1968 and 1985.
My opinion: Bowie Kuhn is not a Hall of Famer.
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