Marvin Miller's last chance

It's more than that. Because we've decided to make it more than that. You can trivialize anything if you really want to, particularly in sports. But the Baseball Hall of Fame has established a very lofty place in the culture of the sport. And that makes it important. And that makes this ridiculous snub important. I can't even begin to understand how you justify not voting for him. Regardless of what you think of the salaries today and so forth, the system for the players before Marvin Miller was downright criminal.

 

Marvin Miller was a phenomenal labor attorney who took one one of the biggest David v Goliath's showdowns in the 20th Century and won. He built upon the courage shown by Curt Flood and convinced the players to collectively stick together to their own short term detriment so that they could gain more equal bargaining power. He worked at this for decades and is a major reason why players like A-Rod can bargain for $250M contracts and similarly why Juan Uribe can get $21M as a mediocre starter and why Arthur Rhoades can still command a contract for $5M/yr at age 42.

If not for Marvin Miller, the players remain locked into the "reserve clause", forever serving at the whim of the club that originally holds their rights with only the right to holdout to gain bargaining leverage (Jim Bouton saw how well that worked out.)

The great percentage of gross revenues that the players receive is Miller's legacy; it holds true with superstar salaries, so-so players' salaries, and marginal players' salaries while also affecting the signing bonuses of new draftees and foreign players.

 

The most influential figure in baseball in the second half of the 20th century is not in the Hall of Fame.
Ridiculous.

 

All of which is readily apparent without being documented on a plaque in a museum in a small upstate New York town.

Amazing.

 

It's as silly as Buck O'Neill not being in, just because there isn't some neat, clean category to consider them under.

 

>>>And the importance of Marvin Miller's impact on the game of baseball is much more likely to be remembered correctly if he is in the Hall of Fame.<<<

Utter nonsense.

 

As long as, in the public's eye, the greatest baseball figures are to go into the Hall of Fame, and the Hall of Fame is one of the biggest topics for fans at all times of the year, whether someone is elected or not elected has a lot more importance then the equivalent of, "I don't think I'll pack that second soda in my lunch bag today."

 

WTF?

 

What I don't get is why Marvin Miller would want to be in the baseball HOF. It's like Willie Sutton wanting to be in the policeman's HOF. They were adversaries. He should be enshrined in an organized labor HOF. With Hoffa and Norma Rae.

 

Steinbrenner doesn't even get nominated if not for Marvin Miller.
I get the notion that the HOF is just a plaque, but if you read Gary Smith's SI story on what it meant to Floyd Little to finally make the NFL Hall of Fame, it makes you understand that no matter how much money someone makes, how much fame they garner, that validation means everything.

 

Given that Marvin Miller asked for his name to be removed from consideration, I don't think he shares Floyd Little's viewpoint.