Statement on the Death of Baseball Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti

I am shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic death of Bart Giamatti. He had an abiding love of baseball and an enduring zest for life.

Author, teacher, college president, commissioner -- Bart Giamatti was a man of many talents and a man who lived by the highest standards of excellence and ethics. He was my friend of longstanding. I will miss him very much. He was a strong, gentle, and generous man; and his loss is the Nation's.

Barbara joins me in mourning the death of this remarkable human being.