Ford Frick is best known as the baseball commissioner who put the asterisk next to Roger Maris's record. But his tenure as commissioner carried the game through its most pivotal changes - television, continued integration, West Coast expansion and labor unrest. During those 14 years - and his 17 prior years as National League president - he witnessed baseball history from the perspective of a man who started his career as a sportswriter. This biography of Frick, whose approach to his work sparked lively debate about the commissioner's role, provides a detailed narrative of his career and the events and characters of mid-20th century baseball.