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The Spectacle Blog
Marvin Miller, who led the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) from its inception in 1966 to 1982, passed away today after a short battle with liver cancer. He was 95.
Prior to accepting the position of Executive Director of the MLBPA, Miller had been the chief economist for the United Steelworkers of America.
Miller succeeded in getting MLB owners to agree to salary arbitration. It was through this process, that Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally were granted free agency thereby ending the reserve clause which effectively bound a player to his team for life until said team traded, sold or released him.
But above all, Miller organized the players themselves who undertook brief work stoppages in 1972 and during spring training of the 1980 season before the 50-day strike during the 1981 season. The MLB owners intended to destroy free agency and with it the MLBPA. They failed miserably. It could very well be why Miller isn’t in the Hall of Fame. The Veterans Committee has denied him entry on several occasions. It will be interesting to see how they vote when he is on the ballot again in 2014 given the posthumous induction of Ron Santo earlier this year.
Now some will argue that Miller’s efforts turned baseball from a sport into a business. But baseball always has and always will be a business even if it isn’t subject to anti-trust laws. All Miller did was help players get a bigger piece of the pie they helped bake and in the process helped make the pie much bigger thus making the owners a whole lot richer as well.
With Miller’s passing, I am planning to re-read his 1991 autobiography A Whole Different Ballgame (co-written with Allen Barra). I would highly recommend this book. While Miller vastly underestimates President Reagan, it is nevertheless a compelling memoir of a man who led a most interesting life.
Occam's Tool| 11.27.12 @ 4:58PM
Well, the Veterans committee is composed of Pro Athletes who are ungrateful bastards by nature.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 11.27.12 @ 5:22PM
"But baseball always has and always will be a business..."
If I might suggest a correction, please allow me to posit that baseball is a game. Professional baseball (MLB, the minor leagues, etc.) may be first and foremost a business, but it is a business formed around a game.
Miles Glorious| 11.28.12 @ 9:03AM
A game played by 8 year olds with the same basic rules.
jaytrain| 11.27.12 @ 6:11PM
Marvin Miller was the best of Branch Rickey and Walter Reuther in one guy . As to the HOF insult , that redounds on the owners . Or better said " I would not join a club that would have me as a member " Marx , G .
CJW| 11.27.12 @ 6:38PM
The Miller book emphasized that Miller was a trained labor negotiator and the players' union authorized Miller to represent them. The owners also had a labor negotiator but the owners thought they were smarter and all got involved thus undercutting their negotiator. Miller said it was like negotiating against 28 (I believe) different employers, each
with his own agenda.
Bob Grant| 11.27.12 @ 9:15PM
Indeed, baseball is much better now that Alex Rodriguez is making 250 million dollars.
Cpm| 11.28.12 @ 9:49AM
Remember Marvin Miller the next time your favorite professional sport is crippled by a strike.
Derek Leaberry| 11.28.12 @ 12:01PM
Professional athletes in the pre-modern era of sports needed unionization and Miller provided vital service. What conservative can argue against ending the old reserve cause? Only a dolt like Justice Blackmun, in the first of his moronic written decisions on the Supreme Court, could rule against the end of the owner tyranny over the players.
Yet what conservative today can not find it socialistic when the unions shake down owners for percentages of revenue irrespective of profit or risk? But then again there is much in modern sports to find revolting. Owners who shake down cities for new stadiums. Athletes a father wouldn't want within a country mile of their daughters. College presidents who have lost control of their athletic programs to alumni and allow as "student-athletes" youngsters unworthy of higher learning. Colleges who jump natural regional conferences for a few extra bucks. A sports schedule dictated by the needs of ESPN. Modern sports in America is Bread and Circuses for a nation in rapid disintegration.
Le Cracquere| 11.29.12 @ 11:49AM
Truly, only the good die young.