As Connecticut’s baseball community remembers Fay Vincent, who died at 86 Sunday, as a commissioner willing to act in the game’s interest.

Fay Vincent, whose idealism and self-styled independence as baseball commissioner clashed with owners eager for war with the players’ union, leading to his resignation under pressure in 1992, died on Saturday in Vero Beach, Fla. He was 86.

Fay Vincent became an unexpected MLB commissioner in 1989 and was forced out three years later by owners intent on a labor confrontation with players.