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MILLER, REVOLUTIONARY |
 MARVIN MILLER ...most deserving? |
He deserves Hall of Fame
for making everyone rich
By MAURY ALLEN
of TheColumnists.com
Baseball’s
first revolutionary figure was a pitcher-outfielder named George
Herman (Babe) Ruth. He came to the Yankees from the Boston Red
Sox in 1920, hit 54 homers that year, hit 59 the next year and
changed the game forever.
Instead of the slap dash game best identified with Ty Cobb, baseball
became a swing-from-the-heels sport.
Yankee Stadium opened in 1923 with Ruth, of course, hitting the
first Stadium homer. Hitters from Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Hank
Greenberg, Ted Williams, Ralph Kiner, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris,
Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds have carried the legend of power
forward.
Now it is time for the game to recognize the second revolutionary
figure and arguably the most important in the game’s history--Marvin
Miller.
Miller fell short of election to the game’s Baseball Hall
of Fame shrine in Cooperstown, New York in both 2003 and again
early in 2007, just before his 90th birthday.
Under a new voting system established by the Hall of Fame directors,
Miller will again be considered next month in a special election
conducted by sitting Hall of Fame players, sportswriters and
broadcasters, some 92 persons in all.
Among the other candidates to be considered by Bob Feller, Stan
Musial, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Reggie Jackson, Tom Seaver,
Cal Ripken Jr., Johnny Bench and the rest of the game’s
living legends are Billy Martin, Whitey Herzog, Davey Johnson,
Gene Mauch, Bowie Kuhn and umpire Doug Harvey.
Under the new setup the Veterans Committee will select one former
manager, executive or umpire to be announced on December 3. In
December of 2008, this Hall of Fame group will again consider
former players not originally selected by working sportswriters
with Gil Hodges, Ron Santo, Tony Oliva, Dom DiMaggio and Mickey
Vernon among players to be considered.
Sportswriters will again consider players retired more than five
years in the election scheduled for late next month with winners
to be announced in January of next year. Leading candidates in
that group include Rich Gossage, Jim Rice and Andre Dawson.
Miller is by far the most significant name on any Hall of Fame
ballot.
Before Miller. the game was a Mom and Pop operation with salaries
controlled by the teams and players bound to their organizations
by the hated reserve clause. Today the teams are mostly owned
by giant corporations and team values are up to and over $1.2
billion, the latest estimate of the Yankees if the Steinbrenner
ownership family decides to sell after the Boss, George Steinbrenner,
checks out. He has owned the team since 1973.
Miller, born and raised in New York City, was an economist with
the United Steelworkers Union when a group of players led by
pitchers Robin Roberts and Jim Bunning interviewed him for the
position of executive director of the Major League Baseball Players
Association.
The group was a loosely connected association of players mostly
interested in getting their minimum salaries raised from $6,000
a year, where it had been for almost two decades, to a more reasonable
price.
Miller was asked to visit training camps in Florida and Arizona
that spring, talk to players and wait for a consenting vote.
Some stars, such as Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, feeling no need
for unionship, campaigned against Miller but the majority of
players, especially the political activists, such as Jim Bouton,
convinced their teammates it would change their lives for the
better.
Miller won approval and set up an old fashioned union headquarters
in Manhattan. There would be strikes in 1972, 1980 and 1981 and
lockouts in 1973 and 1976.
Baseball completely shut down with a lost World Series in 1994
long after Miller’s retirement under his chosen successor
and former assistant, Don Fehr.
The baseball fans were bitter about that. It took Cal Ripken’s
consecutive game streak to really energize the fans back to baseball
loyalty.
Miller encouraged Curt Flood to sue the game for his freedom.
Flood lost before the Supreme Court but free agency was soon
negotiated as a result. Miller had moved behind Catfish Hunter’s
appeal for his rights and encouraged Andy Messersmith and Dave
McNally to challenge the legality of the reserve clause after
they played a year without contracts.
Salaries exploded and Alex Rodriguez today can search for a $350
million deal as a result of Miller’s previous proddings.
The average salary has risen from $12,000 a year when Miller
took over to $2.3 million in 2008.
Despite these huge salary figures, baseball owners have prospered
beyond belief during and after Miller’s time as leader of
the players. Teams are sold regularly after owners hold them
for a five or six year period with no team ever going on the
market at a figure less than what the owner had originally paid.
Fears of failure followed Miller’s original election and
certainly after free agency disappeared in the middle 1970s.
Everybody made money. Fans may complain at the high cost of tickets
but attendance levels are at their highest in the history of
the game. People have more money to spend now than they did in
the 1960s when Miller took over and much more of it is spent
in baseball parks across America on tickets, food, drink, parking
and souvenirs.
Miller has made money for all.
As he sits comfortably in retirement in his New York apartment,
bats a tennis ball around as frequently as he can and is amused
at the salary levels now offered and asked by players, he waits
the call for Cooperstown.
If Babe Ruth changed the game with his home runs, Marvin Miller
changed the game even more with his negotiations. They deserve
to be Cooperstown teammates.
©2007 by Maury Allen. The Maury Allen caricature is ©2001
by Jim Hummel. The photo of Marvin Miller is courtesy of the
Major League Baseball Players' Assn. This column first posted
Nov. 19, 2007.
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