Former MLB commissioner Fay Vincent has died at the age of 86.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred issued a statement about Vincent in the wake of his death:

Christina Watkins, Vincent's wife, told George Vecsey of the New York Times her husband died from complications due to bladder cancer.

Vincent was elected by the owners as MLB's eighth commissioner in September 1989 after Bart Giamatti's sudden death from a heart attack at the age of 51. He had been named the first-ever deputy commissioner five months earlier.

There was a lot of tumult throughout MLB during Vincent's tenure. He helped navigate the sport through the 1989 World Series between the Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants that was disrupted by the Loma Prieta earthquake shortly before Game 3 was set to begin.

The series was postponed for 10 days before resuming on Oct. 27. Four months later, the owners initiated a lockout that lasted for more than five weeks. He also banned then-New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner from day-to-day management of the club for paying a gambler to find any unflattering information he could about Dave Winfield when the two sides were in the midst of a contract dispute.

Vincent also oversaw MLB's expansion in the early 1990s when the league added the Florida Marlins and Colorado Rockies to the NL. Even though both teams were joining the NL, he split the expansion revenue by giving the NL clubs $190 million and AL clubs $42 million.

Given his tendency to lean more toward the players' side in disputes, Vincent wasn't especially popular with the owners. The owners gave him a vote of "no confidence" in September 1992 and he resigned his post.

The Athletic's Tyler Kepner noted in a November 2024 interview that Vincent recalled thinking he didn't want to work for the owners anymore given their tendency to try breaking the union during collective bargaining negotiations.

"I don't want to work for these guys,'" Vincent said. "I know that there's going to be cheating, and I don't want to be the policeman without community support. I mean, it's hopeless."

After Vincent's resignation, MLB didn't appoint an official commissioner for another six years. Bud Selig served as acting commissioner from 1992 to '98 before being appointed officially.