Life After Baseball
After stepping down from the commissioner's office, Vincent became a private investor and the president of the New England Collegiate Baseball League. Vincent would serve as the NECBL’s president from 1998 to 2003.
In 2001, when baseball owners voted to contract two clubs, Vincent criticized them for not consulting the players' union. In 2002, Vincent wrote his autobiography entitled The Last Commissioner: A Baseball Valentine.
In 2005, during an interview Fox Sports Radio, Vincent shared his thoughts on the controversy surrounding Texas Rangers pitcher Kenny Rogers, who received a 20-game suspension for a tirade directed at two TV cameramen. Vincent believed that Rogers, who had a record of 9–4 with 2.45 ERA at the time of the incident, shouldn't have been allowed to play in the All-Star Game in Detroit. Vincent said
| “ | The All-Star Game is a great honor. Again, if you are trying to send a message to players to think twice before you do something stupid, one way to do that is by sending the message that, and by the way, if there is an All-Star Game, you're not going to get to play in that. | ” |
Fay Vincent has also been critical of Major League Baseball's handling of the dreaded strike in 1994. Some observers feel that Vincent's absence (or any other permanent commissioner at the time) could have been a decisive turn in finding a compromise agreement. While being interviewed for ESPN Classic's SportsCentury (about the year in sports in 1994), Vincent believed that the strike turned out to be a lost cause since the end result was federal judge Sonia Sotomayor ruling that work had to resume under the previous collective bargaining agreement. Vincent has hinted that he believes that the strike was instigated by the owners (including his successor Bud Selig) who were frustrated by their diminishing power over the MLBPA. Vincent strongly believes that the cancellation of the World Series in 1994 (the first time that there wasn't a World Series played in 90 years) was a major mistake.
In March 2006, Vincent called on baseball to investigate (similar to the Dowd Report surrounding Pete Rose) possible steroids use by Barry Bonds, saying the cloud hanging over his pursuit of the home run record is a crisis akin to the Black Sox scandal from 1919.
| “ | I don't think it's an exaggeration to say it's the biggest crisis that's hit baseball since the '20s and the Black Sox scandal. The generic problem of steroids in baseball has been brought to a head by the Bonds situation. It's really an enormous mess because it has threatened all baseball records, everything that was done in the '90s forward is suspect because of the likelihood that lots of players were using steroids. | ” |
Vincent wrote in the April 24, 2006 issue of Sports Illustrated, that with most of Bonds' official troubles being off the field, and with the strength of the players' union, there was little Bud Selig could do beyond appointing an investigating committee. Vincent said that Selig is largely "an observer of a forum beyond his reach."
Fay Vincent also believes that the only franchises in Major League Baseball to have a chance to win are the ones that have their own regional sports networks. Vincent has credited Atlanta Braves owner Ted Turner as one of the first to capitalize on this.
On October 18, 2007, Vincent appeared with sportscaster Bob Costas at Williams College for "A Conversation About Sports", moderated by Will Dudley, Associate Professor of Philosophy.
On May 28, 1992, Vincent was awarded an honorary doctoral degree at Central Connecticut State University. On May 18, 2008, Fairfield University conferred an honorary Doctor of Laws degree on Mr. Vincent where he served on the Board of Trustees from 1991 to 2002; and he created the need-based Alice Lynch Vincent Scholarship Fund in memory of his mother in December 1996.
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