A. BARTLETT GIAMATTI 1938--1989 : Opposing Managers Are Drawn Together by Their Sense of Loss

Perhaps it was fitting that there was a brief power failure before last night’s Dodger-Expo game at Dodger Stadium. It seemed the right touch for the dark mood that enveloped both clubhouses in the wake of the news that Baseball Commissioner Bart Giamatti had died earlier in the day of a heart attack.

“It was a shock,” Dodger reliever Jay Howell said. “It certainly puts in perspective how the game of baseball is just a game. And how your health is very, very important.

“It’s sad. He was a well-respected man. You’ll hear that from both sides of the fence, from players and owners alike.”

When Howell was discovered to have pine tar on his glove in last year’s National League playoffs, it was Giamatti, then the league president, who suspended him.

“He was fair,” Howell said. “And he had a real sense of humor. He was concerned for me on a personal level. I could tell that.

“He told me, ‘This will blow over. There will be another issue for people to talk about.’

“He was right.”

Said Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda of Giamatti: “He was truly a great friend and a very intelligent man. He brought a lot of pride back to people in the National League.”

Lasorda, who has dieted this season, said he talked to Giamatti about doing the same the last time the Dodgers were in New York.

“I had gotten on him about it, and he agreed that it would be a good thing to do,” Lasorda said, “but I guess it was too late.”

Montreal Manager Buck Rodgers spoke emotionally about a man he had come to know well.

“It’s too bad he didn’t have time,” Rodgers said of Giamatti. “He would have been a fine commissioner.

“Integrity was always a big thing with him. He told me that the game was bigger than anybody or anything. He said that the American people depended on baseball as a release from their problems, so it had to be beyond reproach.

“He was frustrated by the way the (Pete Rose gambling inquiry) was dragging on. He wanted to get on to other things. He had a lot of good ideas, like starting an umpiring school. I’m sorry he died before he could implement some of those ideas.”