>> i'm lucky. one of those rare instances where a little boy's dreams came

true. >> major league baseball's ninth commissioner, many say he was the most influential. on saturday he stepped down after 23 years on the job. he grew up in milwaukee where he rooted for the yankees. at age 70 he bought the pilots in bankruptcy court and moved the team to milwaukee. he calls this his proudest accomplishment. he expanded interleague play. he face aid number of challenges. among some of the best players cast a wide shadow on the game. on sunday he spoke at yankee stadium. here is that conversation. >> there are a lot of things we could do on sunday morning fwout talk to you about baseball in this setting, this stadium with snow on the ground. >> i've been to yankee stadium a

lot, ever since 1949. never been here when there is snow covering the field. so this is a first. >> growing up in milwaukee, you were a yankee fan. >> i was. very strange, in 1945 the milwaukee brewers had an outfielder by the name of her shall martin. i'm the only one left on earth who remembers him. he was my favorite player and they traded him to the yankees during the wartime period so they were reaching out for players. and i became a yankee fan. her shall was gone quickly but joe came and i became not only a yankee fan but i was a joe dimaggio fan. >> derek jeter, whose career coins sided with your career. >> absolutely.

we're lucky because the great icons of our sport have been really good. you go back to dimaggio and williams and on and on to henry aaron who was a close friend of mine the last 57 years, willie mays, sandy koufax. and derek jeter has been the face of baseball. and i must say i've told him many times, i've told his parents makes you proud to be the commissioner of a sport that produces a player like that. >> what does he have that makes him -- >> remarkable poise, class dignity, greatness on the field but better off the field. and so sometimes in sports as in life things happen that

sometimes you wish didn't happen. derek really just had a remarkable career off the field. on the field we know he won five world championships and played brilliantly. but he was the face of baseball no question about it. >> and a great captain of the yankees. >> a great captain of the yankees. >> your affection for baseball began with your mother and not your father. >> that's true. >> this woman from romain i can't had what influence? >> when i was three or four years old, my mother was a schoolteacher. so she was very well disciplined. but she loved baseball. as a little kid i can remember her listening to the radio back in the 1930's listening to the brewer games and then the white sox and cub games in particular. and she took me at a very early

age to the old tripping a ballpark in milwaukee. and i guess they say something gets in your blood from that time on i was an intense fan. i wasn't just a fan. i was an intense fan. >> did you want to own a team? >> that's interesting. at first when i was 10, 12, 15 years old, i thought i was going to be the air to joe dimaggio. i played center field. about the age of 14, a young man threw me a curveball and that was it. i knew then my career was -- >> he was playing a game you weren't familiar with. >> my career on the field was over at a very early age. but i went to school and thought i was going to be a history professor. >> and are in fact today. >> that's correct. it took me to age 20eu8 realize that dream. >> your dad wanted you to spend

a year in the business. >> he did. when i got out, i was going back to school. my dad said just give me a year. i had a close relationship with both my parents. when your father asked you to do something you did it and the rest is history. then i became a big braves fan. they were great, as you know, and won pennants in 1957 and 1958. then they left milwaukee and that's when my baseball career started, 1964. shockingly they were leaving for atlanta. as a 30-year-old kid i wound up in the middle of all of that and it took us a long time to get a team. passed over by -- >> you had that minor league team didn't you have an investment? >> i had an investment in the milwaukee braves. they went public and left town.

>> and then you sold your stock. >> difment the name braves in milwaukee was very negative. but i am -- >> wasn't there a minor league team called the milwaukee brewers? >> before that. that was before the braves came to milwaukee from boston. that's why we renamed the team because a lot of very kind feelings toward them. it took us five and a half years. it taught me a lot about life patience. the american league expanded and i then brought the white sox for milwaukee for two years. similar to taking the dodgers to jersey city. but interestingingly enough, in 1967 we were two years without a team and i managed to convince the minnesota twins and the chicago white sox to play an

exhibition game. they told me i had ruined baseball the forever and nobody would come and i was very nervous. it was the first time two teams played an exhibition game and i was trying to keep baseball alive in milwaukee. >> a lot of people showed up. >> 51,144. we stood them on the field jammed all over. it was a wonderful thing. i do like to agitate and i remember walking in the press box and saying to the sports editor who had been tough on me up to that point. we showed them baseball in milwaukee tonight. then i got the white sox to come up for two years in 1968 and 1969 and that did very well. there were two brothers, the allen brothers who owned them and we thought we had the white sox bauth in 1969 and john decided to buy them. and so we were almost at the end of the line.

my budding career with the seattle club got in trouble. >> did the commissioner veto a deal to bring the white sox to milwaukee? >> i think the commissioner would have vetoed that deal. they did not want to leave chicago and i understand that. having been a commissioner, i would have made the same decision that he would have made. so the day that deal died i read about the seattle club in trouble, a one-year-old expansion team. and we went to seattle. eventually made a deal. but then spent the winter because seattle was trying to keep their team. and didn't want to move seattle if he didn't have to. but in march of 1970, things finally came together and we bought a team out of bankruptcy court.

paid $10.8 million. that was the highest paid. sitting here at yankee stadium brings back the story. two years later the yankees were bought for $10 from cbs. i bought the yankees for $10 and you bought them out of bankruptcy -- >> who is the better business man? >> that's what he was telling me. >> you have a team finally? >> finally. >> where do you go from there? try to win a pennant. >> you do. expansion was a very tough process in those days. we got a team out of bankruptcy court. they hadn't spent money on players. so the first few years were really bad. i'll never forget we lost 12-0 in our first game. as i was walking down, a fan -- we had a big crowd and it was great. a fan said to me you wanted a

team in the worst way and that's what you got. we had a lot of years we struggled through the 1970's. until 1978 where we really finally we won 93 games. we had a wonderful team. george who was one of my favorite baseball personalities came to manage. and then it was 1978 1979 we finally won the pennant in 1982. we lost in seven games because riley was hurt and i'm still mad about that and it's 33 years ago. >> talk about being a baseball owner. you go to your first owner's meeting. there is a guy who has lived baseball. >> you bet. april of 1970 we get this team on eight days notice.

four days later we have an important meeting. i got to the meeting and-in new york and had no idea what it was about. really excited. i thought i'm going to a major league meeting. i'm going to sit. and phil wrigley to my left and gus si to my right. he had been a great friend to milwaukee. gus si had broken his ankle and he had a cain. it was all about labor and pension fund. it was as tough a meeting. i'm sitting in the room thinking what have i gotten myself into and gus is pounding a cain you are not going to do this and that. unfortunately that was a symbol of what was to happen for the next 25 years. >> what was? tell me what you learned about baseball from that meeting in terms of what the conflict was what the challenge was what you

didn't know about the way baseball was run? >> i thought i knew a lot. but i realized that day the relationship between the players and the owners was very badly strained. the yuan i don't know had been formed -- union had been formed in 1966 and the owners resented a fact there was a union. there was a lot to say about that. it was a painful moment that didn't go away for a long time, two and a half decades. we had eight work stoppages in my career. my mentor was a man john from detroit who was a wonderful man, a visionary who did great things. he took me under his wing from the start. on that day i had known him a little bit before we got into

baseball. but i asked could i fly with him to detroit and go to milwaukee from there. he said fine. he said you didn't know what you got yourself into did you and i said this is tough and he said you are right. >> do the owners run the commissioner? >> the commissionership not well understood. through certain traumas people would say if lan diswere still alive this wouldn't happen. i didn't often agree with marvin miller but marvin said when he was fighting with coon which was a da daily occurrence i represent the players, the commissioner doesn't represent the players. and life evolves as in everything else. so the commissioner, i can never complain about owner interference in my 23 years

we've done a lot and there are things that i wanted to do. but after all the owners own the teams and one has to be sensitive to that. >> what does that mean sensitive it to? in the end they can vote you out of office. >> they have. they renewed me four times. but the answer to your question is yes. what i would say what i've told people over and over and i would say this to you it's a political job. there is no question about it that people have said well bud was a politician. i like 30-0 votes because it's a manifestation of unitty. and i like that. but the fact of the matter is that after tall owners have to vote on everything of significance and you better convince them and do what you think is in the best interest in the end. but the commissioner does discipline and do things. >> suspensions. >> absolutely. i can't think of a single

instance where i did not do something because the owners were objecting. >> some have asked the question when was bud acting in his own interest for his own team rather than the good of baseball? >> once i took over, i was very sensitive about that. i had founded the brewers. i had lived every inning, every pitch. and one of the reasons i had some trepidation about taking the job was could i be neutral. but by the time i took over the commissioner's job and before i knew i could be. let me give you a for instance. in 1997 we needed a team to move leagues and so i said to david glass, the owner of the kansas city royals, the milwaukee club wanted to move back to the national league. the braves had been there and they thought there was more history. i didn't agree. i liked being in the american league east because i liked

beating george steinbrenner's team. just to be sensitive about it, i said to david glass kansas city should move into the national league and have a great rivalry with the cardinal and so forth. i gave him six weeks, more than everybody wanted because i was so reluctant to move the brewers because people would say there they he goes doing something in his own interest. david turned me down and everybody said you got to move the brewers, they are the only other possibility. i think as history chronicles all of this there was never an issue where i favored the brewers or anybody could find that i favored the brewers nor did anybody ever say i did. >> one thing you did good for the brewers was revenue sharing. >> yes, for the brewers, no for baseball. >> did you it for baseball. >> in the 1990's, the system was

broken. the economic system was broken. i have often said, charlie that the national league was liven in the polar ground days. you and i will understand that. what i meant by that is they hadn't changed the way they did business economically and their system was broken. now disparity came in. i remember sitting in a meeting in 1989 when the yankees deal with msg came and nobody could believe the numbers. that was the beginning of the change. by the 1990's we had a lot of unhappy teams that couldn't compete. you had to do something that helped baseball. it wasn't only milwaukee, it was pittsburgh, cincinnati, on and on. you had many more small and medium market teams. >> was it a hard sale? >> it was a tough sale.

it took me a long time. you talk about a political job and convincing. but in the end, there is no sense in denying that it took a while. we have a very good revenue sharing that was never any litigation. it all went through because in the end it was in the best interest for baseball. what is the proof of that? since we've had revenue sharing revenues have gone to over $9 billion. teams are worth far more than ever and the sport is healthier. did revenue sharing help baseball? you bet it did. >> what has mlb.com done for baseball? >> almost legendary to be honest with you. we knew the internet was going to be a factor. i got the clubs to authorize its formation in a 30-0 vote. i had to work on george steinbrenner a little at the end but he finally came around.

we had no idea. but mlb.com bam huge company today has really taken us to a point -- amongst other things, as i told everybody this week when i went to say goodbye to people, our relationship with our fans is so close because we have things like that. and mlb.com and bam and everything has not only become a huge enterprise, far greater than any of us dreamed, but it's also served as a wonderful linkage between the clubs, baseball and their millions of fans. charlie, when i was growing up other than the road roo and i could go buy tall baseball magazines, there was no other linkage. that's what it's done. >> and the revenue.

>> huge revenue and been wonderfully successful. and it's another device, it's owned by the 30 teams equally. and that's really important. because sometimes charlie, people don't understand. the job of a commissioner and the job of the sport is to create hope and faith. we are a social institution, no question about it. and the idea is to create as much hope and faith as is possible. so now all 30 clubs have been in the playoffs in the last 10 or 12 years. and kansas city royals playing in the world series last year. people ask me about it, of course it made me happy because it was what we set out to do and to go -- >> to create some parody? >> balance competitive balance. that's what we've done.

>> peeking of pete and david stern and major league football and major league basketball, the nba and nfl, they have chosen the number two person to step forward and so have you. was that an automatic choice for you? >> i wanted it to be an open aggressive election and i wanted people to feel they had their choice but rob in our particular case had been around for two and a half decades, been through all of our labor negotiations is a very skilled labor negotiator and had worked very close. and i thought to myself at the time he really knows his way around, he knows the people. and so i think for the same reason that david chose adam silver and roger goodell, i

formed a committee and threat committee work independently and they had independent choices. they came after reviewing everything to the same conclusion and that was good. >> the giants who won the world series did not have any african-american players. >> right. >> you it is said, have been very sensitive to race issues, even back in college in your fraternity when you insisted that an african-american be admitted and shut the doors and said i'm not letting you out of here. >> that was true. i didn't let them out of there. >> let's assume this is something -- but does baseball has a huge influx of people, latin americans, caribbean, but african-americans dominate basketball, a significant amount

of football but not baseball. >> that's true. we have more diversity today than ever before. that is true. i have often said that the proudest and most important moment in baseball history was april 15 1947 in brooklyn jackie robinson. and out of that came don and hen -- henry allen. we hit a tough period in the 1960's and 1970's. i've had thousands of conversations about it. here is what we've done. we've built academies all over, compton, california, houston,

one in philadelphia. one in washington. out of that the drafts of the last couple of years, we've made i think significant progress on drafting african-american players. the point is as much education as it is developing players. i would say that the next two to four years, you're going to see significant improvement on that, it's very important to me. i tell the story -- >> did baseball drop the ball then? >> i don't know if baseball dropped the ball many years ago or it was a combination of things. people have said that it was easy to put up a hoop and play a little basketball or football. >> became a street game. >> exactly right. i tell the story because people want to know how i got to this whole social institution thing. i got it in september 23 1957.

i went and the braves were going to play the cardinals and to make a long story short i was going to cut a class which i never did which bothered my mother. henry aaron hit a home run to win the pennant. i never saw unbridled joy, henry got carried off the field by mainly white teammates. and the same day the next day in the "new york times" fathers were spraying ablack kids trying to go to school. i still have that paper. i think that's where the whole social institution thing was born. and why i feel so strongly about that. there is no question about it i want baseball to represent america and be like america. i think you will be impressed in the next three or four years as

you watch this unfold. >> if you ask most people today what is america's game would they say football? >> i guess it depends on whom you ask. my sport our sport is more popular than ever before drawing far more people than ever before. mirnle -- minor leagues doing well. we're sitting in one of 22 new ballparks here. the grand old game has never been this popular and i'm proud of where we are. ♪

♪>> let me talk about relationships and personalities and people. vincent succeeded as commissioner of baseball. he became a great friend of yours. >> one of the best friends i ever had in the world. when i was chairman of the commission search committee in 1982, i interviewed people and that is where bart and i met.

the first night we walked the streets of new york until 2:00. i was a yankees fan and he was a red sox fan. >> he became commissioner of the national league. >> that is right and then commissioner and then tragically died september 1 of 1989. bart would've been a great commissioner. >> did you talk to him the night before he died? >> i did. i had gotten home from dinner and i was reading that the brewers had won a game on thursday afternoon. i called bart. left a message. at about 12:30, he called me. he had been out and he said, is everything all right, buddy, you sound -- >> buddy is what he called you?

>> we talked for an hour, a nice talk. every commissioner comes in and -- it was great. he said, i have to go, i'm going to the cape tomorrow. he said, i will call you when i get to the cape. it was that kind of relationship. the last thing he did, he and his wife bought one of our daughters who was getting married and wrote a card and send it and died. terrible story. it was tough. it was very tough on baseball. fay had been in the office, his assistant. two weeks later he became commissioner. >> that is what i do not understand. vincent was very close to bark.

t. he got him to close -- he got him to work. fay had been an executive. bart, a professor. they worked together. yet, you leading the effort. -- led the effort. >> i do not know about lead but it was reported. there were a lot of people look, i said to be for -- i said you before, the economics were bad and getting worse. there was a lot of trauma. we have been through one unfortunate labor incident after the other. the problem was we agreed, it did not solve our basic problem, disparity was growing and people were unhappy. and i talked a lot about that. a lot of club owners who felt we were not doing what we should do. >> and so, you did not believe

that vincent should be the commissioner of baseball because you were not doing what you've got to do in terms of relation with the players union? >> not as much as the people who said that. there were concerned the economic programs were getting worse and the economic consequences of these things small and medium markets were not able to compete. these were props that bart and i spent a lot of time talking and they were getting worse. >> pete rose, some say stress killed bart. >> i do not think so. bart, bart's health overall seemed to be good. he did smoke a lot. that was the only time he got mad at me. a couple of weeks before we had dinner one night, i talked to him about it that.

on the way back to the elk club eight was quite unhappy and then we moved on to other things. but, it was a very stressful time. whether that killed him or not i do not know. it was a painful problem and a painful time for bart. one of the things you do as a commissioner, you always worry about his integrity. whatever one wants to say, we can agree or disagree but without integrity, we do not have a sports. if we come here, if there is a doubt in your mind and my mind about the game itself, you do not have sports. gambling was something that was -- is person non grata. i remember going into my first clubhouse and there was a big

sign when you walked in about the gambling. if you gamble, you were suspended for life, signed by the commissioner. johnny bench and a few others supporting -- the elimination of pete's suspension. what did they want? >> they brought pete to see me and wanted me to meet pete. joe morgan was there and i was close to joe and johnny dench and mike smith. and that was it. i met pete and we talked. they left the room. he was alone with me. >> did he acknowledge guilt? >> not that day, a later date.

not to me, publicly. what's he denied it at the time of that meeting with you? >> there was no admission of anything. we just talked about life. remember, bart, when he suspended pete said he had to reconfigure his life. >> that is what bart said to pete? >> said it publicly and privately. and so, paul knew what he had to do. >> has he done it? >> since i was a judge and fortunately, to me, i have seen my own judgment that i have left -- a number of reasons. >> which are? >> i felt it was right at the time and so concerned not only about the integrity of this

sport and gambling. >> is there anything pete rose could do? >> i do not know the answer but it is up to pete now. i just felt honestly, by not doing anything that it was in baseball's best interest and everybody to leave the suspension as it was. >> then there were steroids. if you look back over your career, the 23 years of commissioner, that has to be the most tested time for you. >> i worry a lot, i worried a lot. >> it goes to the heart of the game. >> no question about it and people said we were slow to react. that is a historical myth. >> they said it was a glacial response.

>> we became aware in 1998. there'd been a little something earlier, but i would tell you many lived in the clubhouse, had a far better view. nobody ever said anything about it and they have all said it. we reacted quickly. number one, drug testing is a manner of collective bargaining. the union was opposed. they will admit it. they were here this morning, they would not deny it. we tried in 1994 to get it and we tried various times in the 1990's. when the whole thing with mark mcgwire arose, we went to harvard to study. in 2001, i put in the minor-league testing the program. players have been tested for 15 years.

in 2002 when we went to collective bargaining, it was a very strong, but it turns out it led -- continuously tightened it up. people were called before congress which was painful but did not lead to -- i was already bound and determined to toughen the program. i bought senator george mitchell in and i would tell you about that, it is interesting. nobody on my staff and the players association was forced. it was me and me alone. >> to bring in -- >> senator mitchell because i had a lot of faith with him and he had done a lot of good work that talked about the problems we had before. i said to senator mitchell, do

whatever you want. interview over you want. he started with me and anybody else. the players association did not cooperate. in the 1980's, we had a very significant cocaine problem in the sport. the drug trials, all of the teams including mine had a problem. could not get a drug testing program. there was a left-handed pitcher who was suspended seven times. and so when people said we were slow to react, there was no history. a subject of collective bargaining and to the union was opposed. marvin miller, before he passed away, certainly his opinion said if he was still running the union there would be no drug testing. when people say, the commissioner was slow to react that is when you got -- people would say back in the 1990's,

landis if was still commissioner. number one he was not still commissioner and number two, there was no union, it was a different world. >> mitchell pointed the finger across the board and said a lot of people are responsible for the fact it became the problem it is in baseball, including -- including the commissioner and the owners. >> he did accept the difference was -- he is my guy. what he would say to you today and what he is said it many times since, he made recommendations. i look back on it and consider myself a baseball fan, charlie. i went back to all my old players who i had a close relationship. we did not have any guys on my team. i asked, maybe we were not aware of area people are doing a lot a

second guessing and i am not suggesting -- >> that you could've done more? >> i do not know. i have thought about it often, i do not think so. george made 20 recommendations and we accepted all of them. training facilities are different. you talk to professional athletic trainer, a different world. we also eliminated everything else around there. today, if you talk to people who work in the clubhouse on the team doctors, it is a different world. that game is cleaner today than ever. as a social institution, what did we do? we had the best drug testing program. one person who was critical said we have the best not only in american sports but america. >> and then there's alex rodriguez who blames in his

response a witchhunt by the commissioner that is personal between you and him and that -- >> there was nothing personal and i always gotten along with alex. as a result of the information given to me and the whole biogenesis affair, 13 players accepted it and alex did not and fought it. i suspended him. and i do nothing you will hear those comments from alex anymore. you would hear about the opposite. back to pete rose. commissioners are always in a difficult position, but you have to use your judgment. what is in the best interest of the game? it is not right at all. it has to do what you think is right. if not, you will be sorry.

>> you are convinced of the league has done everything it can about steroids and this is no longer going to be an issue? except in terms of history. you went to the game with hank aaron tied to the record. you did not go when he broke the record. you send out a message. how should we view those athletes who use steroids and have toppled the records of people who did not? >> people are going to have to make their own judgment about it. i have studied the game every decade, every generation has its unique features and i say not critically, i know the hall of fame balloting on those people

have been not good and they are not getting high percentages. >> you think they will ever make it? >> i want to say this. i have had players who have come to me, a lot of players, who resent being called a bid in the steroid era, there were a lot who did not, as clean as can be and resent that. those we know who did it history will have to deal. >> what would you say to your friend hank aaron. his record broken by somebody -- >> we have had a lot of conversations and hang understands, there's nothing i can do about it. as far as i am concerned, hank broke babe ruth's record. what happened and that period -- >> did barry bonds break the record? >> he did.

he broke hank aaron's record. i will have to let people's judgment, we will all have our own opinion. >> your opinion is it should be an asterisk? >> we did what we had to do. we corrected it. we fixed the problem better than anybody else has. the independent, i cannot redo that part of history. >> alex rodriguez is six home runs short of willie mays. willie mays. >> the great willie mays, you are right. we will have to see what happens. he will be playing for this team or at least be in spring training in another month or so. >> what to do you think? >> i do not know. >> let's turn for you proud

achievements in baseball. one, we mentioned revenue-sharing. interleague play, proud of that. you are proud of the fact that you have a wildcard. >> two more. >> the world classic. and what else? jerome, a historian of baseball died in 2008, i think. he said in 2008 before he died you thought that he thought you were the greatest commissioner that baseball had. if that is true, beyond the things i mentioned, what ought to be part of that achievement? if he is right, why is he right? >> i will let other historians -- >> the case for his judgment. >> economic reform which is led

to this hope and faith we have talked about, enormous consequences. labor peace for 21 years. we had a work stoppage. >> canceled the world series. >> i am proud of that because nobody ever thought it was possible. we have made -- the whole wildcard thing. baseball was very resistant to change. social institutions are usually resistant -- >> was it the owners? >> every body. when i owned a team, we talked about things and said we have never done it that way and we cannot do it. all parties, players, owners commissioners in some cases. look at the changes. i guess what i would say to you to answer the question if you look in 1992, which was quite

abysmal, economics broke. sport had been ice age stuck in neutral for three decades. the wildcard when we put the wildcard in september of 1993 in boston, you would've thought i had defiled motherhood at that time. my goodness gracious, you cannot do that. you made winning independent -- >> less important, that's what they argued. >> they were so wrong and now everybody loves it. look, we had 16 teams and we expanded to 26 and then 28 and then the 30's? you cannot leave it as it is. by labor day, it is all over. and that is why this -- look.

we do not want to disturb the great game, but you have to make changes and that is true of everything in life. why do you think the last decade has been the most watched in our history? >> they play more games. >> the fact of the matter is because it appeals to people. that is why the wildcard today is so popular. >> and then there is this which i know you have thought a lot about, it is too long a game. there is no time limit. >> that is interesting. >> in a lot of ways you can make it shorter. >> let me go back to something. i saw a sport and they were worried about pace of the game.

games were taking two hours and 31 minutes. i often tell the story to the sports editor of the milwaukee journal who went to dallas at the ap sports editors and said baseball has lost the younger generation, a more abundant sports. i've heard this for 56 years. i am not saying there is not anything to it. i say to you, we are working on the pace of the game. joe torre and sandy have a great committee, boston red sox. we are coming up with things. i want to say, why is television increasing and revenue? the more i talk to fans, i do not get it as much as i do in the media. >> if you were -- if you did not

think it was a problem, you would not have these important people looking at it. >> we will look at the problem but i want to, 74 million people attending baseball games was unheard of a decade ago. >> tell me that these you do not want to see. one recommendation is a shorter time between -- >> yes, i think it is ok. we get to the pitcher ready. there are a lot of things and i've said this to people batters in my day, maybe in your day, got into the batter's box and did not get out and that is not right. and that is stuff we are talking with the players association. we are talking to them now. >> what have you wanted to do in the 23 years? we thought you would retire earlier and got extended. >> 4 times. >> you cannot give it up?

>> the owners convinced me it was the right thing for me to say. i am glad i didn't. >> why did you decide to do now? >> i had my 80th birthday and i really decided it was in -- the sport needed to move forward and it was time. >> you are still going to have an office and they will still paying $6 million a year. what are you going to do? >> i do not know. ask me in a year or so and i will let you know. >> your judgment is really good. >> they created a commissioner emeritus which they never have. i look forward to it. i will help with whatever they want me to do. >> thank you for taking the time. >> it has been a pleasure. thank you. >> the 9th commissioner of major

league baseball. thank you for joining us. ♪

>> live from pier three in san francisco, welcome to "bloomberg west" where we cover technology, innovation, and the future of business. here is a check of the headlines. u.s. stocks got hit hard today. the main reason was disappointing earnings.