Angelo Bartlett Giamatti was a brilliant scholar who specialized in Comparative Literature. As a teacher, he left a lasting impression on his students, who loved and respected his ideas about the Renaissance. He was the youngest person to ever lead Yale. During his time in office, he had to deal with many problems. He had to take care of the University’s money. He wouldn’t let Yale sell its shares in companies with ties to apartheid South Africa. Also, its office and technical workers went on strike, which he had to deal with. When he wrote about baseball, owners of teams and people in charge of the league took notice. He was put in charge of the National League for the 12th time. He has been a big baseball fan since he was a kid, and he tried to make the park better for fans. He was chosen by everyone for the job of Major League Baseball Commissioner. He was only in office for about six months. He was very interested in the Pete Rose scandal at the time. Pete Rose, who was the manager of the Cincinnati Reds at the time, was found to have bet on games. Rose, a baseball legend, had to quit because he wanted to keep the game clean. This was like a ban for life, and it sent a strong, clear message to other players. Soon after this, Giamatti had a heart attack that killed him.
Early years and childhood
Angelo Bartlett Giamatti was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He was the son of Mary Claybaugh Walton and Valentine John Giamatti. His father was the head of the Department of Italian Language and Literature at Mount Holyoke College, which is a very prestigious school.
He grew up in South Hadley, Massachusetts, and went to South Hadley High School and the Overseas School of Rome for a year each. In 1956, he graduated from Phillips Academy.
He went to Yale, where he joined the secret society Scroll and Key and the fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon. He did very well in school and got a high honors degree in English in 1960.
Barlett Giamatti’s Career
In 1964, Giamatti got his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Yale. He helped put Thomas Bergin’s essays in print by co-editing them. He started teaching Comparative Literature at the Ezra Stiles College of Yale University.
He loved Edmund Spenser’s books and other works from the English Renaissance. He mostly talked about how English and Italian poets influenced each other, as well as the Italian poet Ludovico Ariosto.
He thought that the Renaissance was a product of change and that change began in the Middle Ages. This made him very popular with his undergraduate students. To make his point, he used the term “Protestant Deformation.”
His time as a teacher at Stiles College came to an end in 1972. His students gave him a moose head as a joke gift at the end of the year because that was what he had asked for.
From 1978 to 1986, he was the youngest person to lead Yale University. The office and technical staff at Yale went on strike while he was president. People said he didn’t handle the situation well.
He didn’t give in to what protesting anti-apartheid students wanted. They wanted Yale University to get out of businesses that did business with apartheid South Africa.
Even though he was busy with baseball, he was an active member of the Board of Trustees of Mount Holyoke College. In 1980, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences made him a Fellow.
As an academic, he wrote many books, essays, and articles about Renaissance literature, but baseball team owners and executives were interested in him because of what he had written about the game.
On December 11, 1986, he became the 12th president of the National League. He talked a lot about being honest and having values, and he tried to make ballparks better for baseball fans.
In 1988, all 26 club owners chose him to be the 7th Commissioner of baseball for a five-year term. As Commissioner, he chose Francis T. Vincent, Jr. to be the new deputy commissioner.
Take Time for Paradise, his book, came out in 1989. After he died, his baseball articles were put together in a book called “A Great and Glorious Game.”
Works of note
When Giamatti became President of Yale University in 1978, he tried to fix the school’s finances, which had been in the red for over $10 million. Yale reached “financial equilibrium” after two years.
As the baseball commissioner in 1986, he showed that he had no tolerance for dishonesty by making Pete Rose, the manager of the Cincinnati Reds, accept a ban from the game for betting on games.
Barlett Giamatti’s Awards
Giamatti was given a Guggenheim Fellowship for English Literature in the Humanities in 1969. Fellowships are given to people who have shown they are very smart or have a lot of talent in the arts.
Personal History and Legacies
Giamatti got married to Toni Marilyn Smith, who taught English at the Hopkins School in New Haven, in 1960. They had three children: Paul and Marcus, who are both actors, and Elena, who makes jewelry.
At the age of 51, he died suddenly of a heart attack. The Giamatti Research Center is the name of the new research center at the Hall of Fame.
Estimated Net worth
Marcus Giamatti has a $10 million net worth.
Trivia
This famous American academician and baseball manager were told by his doctor a day before he died that his clubbed fingers were a sign that he was starting to have a heart attack.
This scholar and baseball manager said, “Outside of literature, I find baseball to be the most nourishing game. They both tell stories about people’s lives.