Angelo Bartlett "Bart" Giamatti (/ˌdʒiːəˈmɑːti/ JEE-ə-MAH-tee; April 4, 1938 – September 1, 1989) was an American professor of English Renaissance literature, the president of Yale University, and the seventh commissioner of Major League Baseball.

[4] Giamatti's maternal grandparents, from Wakefield, Massachusetts, were Helen Buffum (Davidson) and Bartlett Walton, who graduated from Phillips Academy Andover and Harvard College.

[2] At Yale College, he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon (Phi chapter) and as a junior in 1960 was tapped by Scroll and Key,[5] a senior secret society.

Giamatti stayed in New Haven to receive his doctorate in 1964, when he also published a volume of essays by Thomas G. Bergin he had co-edited with a philosophy graduate student, T. K. Seung.

He also decided to make umpires strictly enforce the balk rule and cited affirmative action as a remedy for the lack of minority managers, coaches, or executives in the major leagues.

Giamatti, whose tough dealing with Yale's union favorably impressed Major League Baseball owners, was unanimously elected to succeed Peter Ueberroth as commissioner on September 8, 1988.

Determined to maintain the integrity of the game, on August 24, 1989, Giamatti prevailed upon Pete Rose to agree voluntarily to remain permanently ineligible to play baseball.

[17] Also before Game One, the Yale Whiffenpoofs sang the national anthem,[17] a blend of "The Star-Spangled Banner" with "America the Beautiful" that has been since repeated by other a cappella groups.

According to Proto, Giamatti believed the university's duty was to educate students in the civic responsibility of good citizenship, not the elitist imperative of creating "leaders.