“You can’t be commissioner for 14 years and not change, for better or for worse. I hope I’ve changed for the better,” he said. “I’m more philosophical about our problems. Initially, I used to become more upset. Now, I take problems for granted as being part of the office.”

While business boomed on his watch, players wanted their cut.

Flood sued to gain free agency, but lost his U.S. Supreme Court case in 1972. In 1975, the union finally ended the reserve clause, which bound players to their teams forever, winning an arbitration case filed on behalf of Dave McNally and Andy Messersmith. Baseball hasn’t been the same since.

“He was in a difficult, untenable position in that whole period,” said Miller, who remembered Kuhn for his humor. “My own guess is that if he had had his druthers, he would have moved to modify the whole reserve system sometime before the Messersmith case arose.”

On the field, Kuhn injected himself into Aaron’s chase for Ruth’s home-run record by ordering Braves manager Eddie Mathews to play Aaron in 1974’s season-opening series at Cincinnati. Aaron entered with 713 homers, one shy of Ruth’s mark.

A year later, Finley led a group that attempted to oust Kuhn as his first term ended.

“That was an ambush,” Kuhn said. “I was blindsided. I didn’t see it coming, and I wasn’t prepared.”

But with the support of Los Angeles Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley, Kuhn managed to gain re-election.

By 1982, a year after the strike — baseball’s fifth work stoppage under Kuhn — owners were ready for change. At a Nov. 1 meeting at a Chicago airport hotel, AL owners voted 11-3 to give Kuhn another term, but the NL vote was 7-5, short of the 75 percent needed.

In 1988, he formed the law firm Myerson & Kuhn with Harvey Myerson, but two years later it filed for bankruptcy. He sold his house in Ridgewood, N.J., and moved to Ponte Vedra Beach, where his home was shielded from bankruptcy proceedings.

He is survived by wife, Luisa Kuhn; son Stephen Kuhn; daughter Alix Bower; and stepsons Paul Degener and George Degener.

A funeral is planned for Tuesday at Our Lady Star of the Sea Church in Ponte Vedra Beach, to be followed in the spring by a memorial service in Quiogue, N.Y. In lieu of flowers, the family said donations may be made to: The Ave Maria Foundation, One Ave Maria Drive, Ann Arbor, Mich. 48106-0373.

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