The Baseball Lifer

A recognition long overdue for
one of the game’s good stewards

Legendary comedian Groucho Marx once famously quipped, “I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member.”

Perhaps the most reluctant inductee among the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s 333 members, Marvin Miller, former executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association (1966-1983), gained election to the Hall posthumously.

Miller, who died in 2012 at the age of 95, previously expressed his disdain for the process in a letter to the Baseball Writers’ Association of America after being rejected on a Veterans Committee ballot for the third time, in May of 2008:

“Paradoxically, I’m writing to thank you and your associates for your part in nominating me for Hall of Fame consideration, and, at the same time, to ask that you not do this again,” Miller wrote, adding: “The anti-union bias of the powers who control the Hall has consistently prevented recognition of the historic significance of the changes to baseball brought about by collective bargaining.

As former executive director (retired since 1983) of the players’ union that negotiated these changes, I find myself unwilling to contemplate one more rigged veterans committee whose members are handpicked to reach a particular outcome while offering the pretense of a democratic vote. It is an insult to baseball fans, historians, sports writers and especially to those baseball players who sacrificed and brought the game into the 21st century. At the age of 91, I can do without farce.”

Miller is arguably acknowledged as one of the most important and impactful figures in professional baseball history, turning the MLBPA into one of the most successful unions in the United States. He transformed the balance of power from management to labor, eliminating baseball’s draconian reserve clause tying players to their teams indefinitely at their owners’ discretion.

He ushered in the era of free agency and arbitration, raised salaries and pensions, and he helped improve working conditions for all players.

Few have had greater impact on Major League Baseball and yet have received less recognition from the game and its Hall of Fame than Miller. During the previous seven times his name has appeared on various ballots considered by Veterans and Era committees consisting of 12 or 16 members, a large enough percentage of voters included owners and executives that were formerly his rivals in labor/management negotiations, creating a natural conflict of interest.

After Miller was snubbed for the seventh consecutive time on the 2018 Modern Era Committee Ballot, Hall of Fame slugger Hank Aaron exclaimed, “Miller should be in the Hall of Fame if the players have to break down the doors to get him in.”

While former players have been unanimous in their support of Miller’s candidacy, it seemed a forgone conclusion that management types would vote against his induction and as long as they comprised more than 25% of the committees, Miller remained outside looking in.

Former major league hurler and author on baseball’s most celebrated memoir Ball Four, Jim Bouton referred to the process as laughable, “How did these people vote, and why are their votes kept secret (a practice still in place)? And why aren’t there more players on that committee? Hank Aaron, Jim Bunning, Bob Gibson, Ferguson Jenkins, they’re all on the committee for reviewing managers and umpires.

Essentially the decision for putting a union leader in the Hall of Fame was handed over to a bunch of executives and former executives. Marvin Miller kicked their butts and took power away from the baseball establishment — do you really think those people are going to vote him in? It’s a joke. … I blame the players. It’s their Hall of Fame; it’s their balls and bats that make the hall what it is. Where are the public outcries from Joe Morgan or Reggie Jackson, who was a player rep? Why don’t these guys see that some of their own get on these committees? That’s the least they owe Marvin Miller. Do they think they became millionaires because of the owner’s generosity?” said Bouton to writer Allen Barra in a November 2007 article.

This 2019/2020 Modern ERA Committee consisted of 16 members including Hall of Fame players George Brett, Rod Carew, Dennis Eckersley, Eddie Murray, Ozzie Smith and Robin Yount, as well as writers and historians Bill Center, (San Diego Union Tribune), Steve Hirdt (Elias Sports Bureau) Jack O’Connell (Hartford Courant) Tracy Ringolsby (Inside the Seams) and executives Sandy Alderson, Dave Dombrowski, David Glass, Walt Jockety, Doug Melvin and Terry Ryan.

Assuming all six players and four media members voted for Miller, two executives would have to have broken ranks for Miller to receive the 12 votes he garnered to gain election.

While it may have been a little too little and a little too late for Miller to participate in the ceremony, his plaque will be accepted by his heir as executive director of the MLBPA, Donald Fehr, who should have plenty to say about Miller’s long-time exclusion and eventual election.

On the eve of contentious negotiations with the collective bargaining agreement set to expire Dec. 1, 2021, it seems ironically appropriate and perhaps fortuitous that Miller’s contributions are finally being acknowledged.

Charlie Vascellaro is a freelance baseball writer who follows the game around during the year.