The former commissioner, who died Sunday at 86, spoke of his strong opposition to sports betting in a November interview with The Athletic.

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 labor confrontation with players, has died. He was 86.

In his second month as the commissioner of baseball, Fay Vincent, working by candlelight, open-collared shirt and a proper low-volume sense of empathy and persp