I can’t think of another explanation for a committee appointed by the Baseball Hall of Fame to study nominees from the Expansion Era (1973 – present) denying Marvin Miller entrance into the Hall.
Miller negotiated MLBPA’s first collective bargaining agreement with the team owners in 1968. That agreement increased the minimum salary from $6,000 to $10,000, the first increase in two decades. In 1970, Miller was able to get arbitration included in the collective bargaining agreement. Arbitration meant that disputes would be taken to an independent arbitrator to resolve the dispute. Previously disputes were taken to the Commissioner – hired by the owners – who generally ruled in favor of the owners.
Miller’s successful negotiations paved the way for the age of free agency for players; hundreds of them owe their skyrocketing salaries and their cushy retirement incomes to him.
And for those achievements he’s been hated by baseball’s owners ever since.
Baseball and its Veterans Committee should be ashamed of itself.
I’m glad to see Pat Gillick get into the Hall of Fame. His skills are one of the reasons why this central Illinois resident is a Toronto Blue Jays fan. He built a powerhouse in Toronto that got derailed by the fact that New York developed more revenue streams than Toronto could ever match. I know that Steinbrenner will make it into the Hall, but I am glad that he was not elected in his first appearance on this ballot.
But I do agree that Marvin Miller deserves a spot in the Hall of Fame. His efforts paved the way for players to have the luxuries that they could only dream of in an earlier era.
The Veterans Committee disgraced itself by failing to elect Marvin Miller. Even Bud Selig concedes Miller belongs in the hall.
Quite naturally, the Hall of Fame told the committee members to keep their votes secret. Presumably Jerry Reisndorf wants it that way.
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