Former executive director of the MLBPA, Marvin Miller passed away on Tuesday at the age of 95. Miller served as executive director from 1966-1982. During this time he was able to change baseball in many ways. He is regarded as one of the most influential figures not only in the MLB but in all of sports. His accomplishments as executive director formed the MLB that we now know today.
One of Miller’s first accomplishments was negotiating
the first collective bargaining agreement in 1968. This led to the increasing the league’s
minimum salary. The increase was from $6,000
to $10,000 and was the first increase in two decades. In 1970 Miller negotiated arbitration into
the CBA. This allowed player disputes
with owners to be taken to an independent arbitrator rather than to the commissioner. Miller’s biggest accomplishment was encouraging
Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally to play out the 1974 season without a
contract. This led to the Seitz decision
which eliminated the reserve clause and opened up free agency.
After all of these accomplishments that forever
changed the landscape of professional sports, Miller is not in the Hall of
Fame. It does not make any sense to me
that one of the most important figures in MLB history is not enshrined in the
Hall of Fame. In 2003 and 2007 he fell
short of the votes needed by only a few percentage points. Since then the voting in of non-players has
changed. Unfortunately in 2011 Miller
still fell one vote short of making the Hall of Fame. Miller is not eligible for the Hall of Fame
again until 2014. I believe that his well-deserved
enshrinement will finally happen that year.
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