N.J. lawmaker wanted Hank Aaron to be baseball commissioner, but Assembly never acted

The New Jersey Legislature never moved on a 1983 resolution supporting Hank Aaron to become the new Commissioner of Baseball.

Assemblyman Willie Brown (D-Newark) proposed Aaron as a successor to Bowie Kuhn, a Ridgewood resident, but Assembly Speaker Alan Karcher didn’t post the symbolic resolution for a vote.

Aaron, the former Home Run King, died on Friday at age 86.

At the time, Brown was one of six Black members of the State Assembly.

When he was governor, Brendan Byrne said he would like to become Commissioner of Baseball the next time the job opened up.  There is no record that Byrne applied to replace Kuhn.

The baseball owners named Peter Ueberroth, the chairman of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, as commissioner.