My respect for elders long preceded my time in the early 1990s as commissioner of Major League Baseball, but few institutions have more regard for its history than baseball. It was my great good fortune to know and listen to such old timers as Tommy Henrich telling of Lou Gehrig sitting and smoking cigarettes after going 0 for 4, Bob Feller talking of his wartime duty on the USS Alabama, Buck O'Neal proudly extolling Negro League baseball, Warren Spahn describing the collapse of the Bridge at Remagen in World War II, and Larry Doby praising his friend and mentor, the legendary promoter Bill Veeck. What joy it was to listen to them.