Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
November 30, 2007
Time for Fame

Via BBTF, I agree with Hal Bodley that it's high time to put Marvin Miller in the Hall of Fame. In my lifetime, Miller did more to change the game in a positive way than anyone else. Free agency brought a new dynamic to the game that brought in fans in droves. The owners may bristle at the salary structure Marvin helped create, but it also made them very rich. They should thank him with a plaque in Cooperstown.


Posted by David Pinto at 10:35 AM | History | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Absolutely agree with you, David. In a move that EVERY SINGLE major leaguer should repeat, Nolan Ryan singled out Marvin Miller in his HOF acceptance speech, thanking him. If memory serves, Nolan pointed out that he was living in a trailer partially injured after an early 70's season with the Angels, with no inkling of what his future might be. But thanks to Marvin Miller he was able to provide long time security for his family. Every baseball fan should thank Marvin Miller for helping major league baseball become the entity it is today.

Posted by: PatHajovsky at November 30, 2007 12:02 PM

Miller has a point--a committee that is largely made up of former executives is unlikely to give him a 75% vote--perhaps the current union leadership should consider clearing its throat loudly to nudge the Powers That Be into a more equitable structure for the vote.

Bodley wants Bowie Kuhn to be inducted as well, and I am strongly opposed to that. The man was an incompetent buffoon who fumbled virtually every important issue that came his way, and his feud with Charlie Finley contributed greatly to two of the worst blunders by MLB in the 1970's: accepting binding arbitration instead of allowing all players to become free agents at the end of their contracts, and artificially limiting the amount of cash that could be involved in player transactions. I'm not a fan of unions in general, but Marvin Miller did more for his constituency than virtually any union boss in history--he definitely deserves to be in the Hall.

Posted by: M. Scott Eiland at November 30, 2007 05:40 PM

This silly idea come sup each year. Fortunately, so far it has failed. If there is a labor negotiators hall of fame stick him there. He has no business in the baseball hall of fame unless he buys a ticket.

Posted by: largebill at November 30, 2007 07:12 PM
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