Major League Baseball commissioner Fay Vincent speaks to reporters before a game in the National League Championship Series between the Cincinnati Reds and hometown Pittsburgh Pirates at Three Rivers Stadium in October 1990 in Pennsylvania.

Fay Vincent, who became an unexpected baseball commissioner in 1989 following the death of A. Bartlett Giamatti and then was forced out three years later by owners intent on a labour confrontation with players, has died. He was 86.