Kuhn’s suspension of the Detroit Tigers’ star pitcher Denny McLain from April 1 to July 1, 1970, for past involvement with bookmakers, was alternately criticized as too lenient or too harsh. When Jim Bouton, then pitching for the Houston Astros, collaborated with the journalist Leonard Schechter on “Ball Four,” a behind-the-scenes and sometimes risqué look at baseball, Kuhn called him in to voice his dismay. The flap served only to boost the book’s sales.

Kuhn championed World Series night games, inaugurated in 1971, a move that brought enhanced television revenue but much criticism. When Kuhn sat in the stands without a topcoat, seemingly in denial while everyone else was shivering, during Game 2 of the 1976 World Series on a frigid night in Cincinnati, he became the object of ridicule.

In 1972, the players staged their first general strike, a 13-day walkout, with pensions again at issue. Kuhn essentially stayed out of the dispute, leaving matters to management’s Player Relations Committee.

Kuhn was faced with a contentious issue of another sort when the Atlanta Braves sought to hold Hank Aaron out of their 1974 season-opening series in Cincinnati so he could eclipse Babe Ruth’s career home run record of 714 when the team played at home. Kuhn ordered the Braves to play Aaron in Cincinnati, citing the need to protect the integrity of the game.

Aaron tied Ruth’s record in the season opener, with Kuhn present. But when Aaron broke the record in the Braves’ first home game, against the Dodgers, Kuhn was in Cleveland. He had sent Monte Irvin, a baseball official and one of the major leagues’ first black stars, in his place, rankling Aaron for some time to come.

Kuhn became embroiled, meanwhile, in disputes with owners. He fined or reprimanded Finley several times, and in November 1974 he suspended Steinbrenner for two years after he pleaded guilty to making illegal contributions to President Richard M. Nixon’s 1972 re-election campaign. (The ban was dropped after 15 months.)

In the summer of 1975, Finley was among several owners who sought to block Kuhn from a second seven-year term that would begin in August 1976, but Kuhn won re-election with key support from O’Malley.

In December 1975, an arbitrator ruled that players were bound to their teams only for the lengths of their contracts, a fatal blow to the reserve system that Flood had challenged.

Labor turmoil arose once more in 1976, when the club owners refused to open spring training camps after union negotiations had stalled. Kuhn ordered an end to the lockout in mid-March.

In June 1976, Finley, anticipating the loss of his best players to free agency, sold pitcher Vida Blue to the Yankees for $1.5 million and outfielder Joe Rudi and reliever Rollie Fingers to the Boston Red Sox for $1 million each. Kuhn voided the sales on grounds that they would upset the sport’s competitive balance. It was the first time a commissioner had canceled a cash deal. Finley sued Kuhn and the major leagues in federal court, but lost.

Kuhn clashed with ownership again in 1977, levying a one-year suspension against the Braves’ Turner for improper conduct in pursuing Gary Matthews, a San Francisco Giantsoutfielder, when he was planning to file for free agency.

In 1981, players staged a 50-day strike to protest a plan to compensate clubs that were losing players to free agency. When the strike ended, Kuhn decreed a controversial split-season format to determine the playoff teams. That resulted in the Cincinnati Reds’ failing to make the playoffs, although they had the best overall record in the major leagues.

When Kuhn became commissioner, baseball was often derided as slow and dull in comparison with pro football. Baseball became revitalized in Kuhn’s years as commissioner, but management’s battles with Miller and the players’ union overshadowed the turnaround.

“There was about Miller a wariness one would find in an abused animal,” Kuhn wrote in “Hardball,” his memoir. “It precluded trust or affection.”

Miller had been pleased with the labor accord Kuhn brokered in 1969, but their relationship deteriorated over the years. In his own memoir, “A Whole Different Ball Game,” Miller accused Kuhn of violating “basic rights” of players and others in the game “in his efforts to give the impression that he was in control.”

On a front beyond the labor strife, Kuhn was determined to be vigilant against gambling. He barred Willie Mays, in 1979, and Mickey Mantle, in 1983, from further association with baseball because of their promotional work for casinos.

Although most owners continued to support him, Kuhn failed to muster enough votes for a third seven-year term, which would have begun in 1983. He stayed on during a search for his successor, then left on Oct. 1, 1984, when Peter Ueberroth replaced him. Soon after his election, Ueberroth reinstated Mays and Mantle.

Kuhn returned to his former law firm, Willkie Farr & Gallagher, then joined with the lawyer Harvey Myerson to form Myerson & Kuhn in January 1988. Their firm filed for bankruptcy in December 1989, and Kuhn moved from New Jersey to Florida. His creditors charged that Kuhn was seeking to avoid them, but he denied that. He later formed a consulting firm and spoke widely about his Roman Catholic beliefs.

He is survived by his wife, Luisa; his son, Stephen, of Chappaqua, N.Y.; his daughter, Alix Bower of Ridgefield, Conn.; two stepsons, Paul Degener, of Redding, Conn., and George Degener of Somers, N.Y.; a sister, Alice McKinley of St. Augustine, Fla.; and 10 grandchildren.

Upon losing his bid for a third term, Kuhn summed up his perception of the commissioner’s mandate in offering advice for his successor.

“He’ll be told, for instance, that legalized gambling and baseball are perfectly compatible and that we can even turn a profit from the relationship,” Kuhn wrote in The New York Times. “He should tell the compromisers to get lost. They are burglars of our patrimony. They will never understand the threat to baseball posed by such things as legalized gambling, sports betting, drug abuse and undesirable associations. He should use his powers fearlessly to protect the integrity of the game. The critics will call him self-righteous and moralistic. Have courage. Ignore them.”

Bowie K Kuhn