Richard Levin announces impending retirement from Major League Baseball

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Richard Levin, who served as Major League Baseball’s senior vice president for public relations, has decided to retire at the end of the current year, baseball Commissioner Bud Selig announced Thursday.

Since joining MLB in July 1985, Levin has worked for and served as the principal spokesman for Peter Ueberroth, Bart Giamatti, Fay Vincent, and Selig.

“Rich is a friend and a loyal and trusted associate,” Selig said. “He has played an important role in many of the decisions and innovations introduced to the game since I became commissioner. Although he has expressed his desire to leave the commissioner’s office at the end of the year, I have his assurance that he will remain available to me and to baseball for his valued advice and institutional wisdom. Rich is a contributor to the history of Major League Baseball. I thank him for his service.”

Levin said: “This has been quite an adventure. Baseball is the greatest game ever invented and it has been an honor and a privilege to be part of the game and to work so closely to those who govern it. I want to especially thank Commissioner Ueberroth for bringing me to baseball 25 years ago and Commissioner Selig for his leadership and friendship over the past 18 years.”

Levin graduated from UCLA in 1965 with a degree in history. He played varsity basketball at UCLA and was a member of Coach John Wooden’s first two NCAA championship teams in 1964 and ’65. He served three years in the U.S. Army, including one year in South Vietnam.

He was a sportswriter for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner for 11 years, covering the Los Angeles Lakers and then the buildup toward the 1984 Olympic Games before joining Ueberroth at the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee in 1983. He is a recipient of Major League Baseball’s Robert O. Fishel Award for public relations excellence.

-- Times wire services