Marvin Miller surveyed the baseball landscape and came to a radical conclusion: if ballplayers could be convinced to see themselves as blue collar laborers…
Marvin Miller surveyed the baseball landscape and came to a radical conclusion: if ballplayers could be convinced to see themselves as blue collar laborers — not unlike the steelworkers Miller had once represented — there existed an opportunity to drastically shift the balance of power in the sport. Miller’s 16-year tenure as executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association included three strikes and two lockouts, a period of tension between management and players that introduced arbitration and free agency. The average big league salary rose from $19,000 in Miller’s second year in 1967 to $241,497 when he retired in 1982. That number skyrocketed to a record of nearly $4.1 million in 2017, five years after Miller’s death. Yet, on the eve of Miller’s induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Wednesday, leaders of the current players association say his philosophies and strategies remain foundational pillars of the organization. “The power and strength in unity,” MLBPA executive director Tony Clark told The Associated Press. “The importance of engaging and educating players, making sure that we have a respect for the sacrifices of those that came before us and what they endured. We learn to leave the game better than we found it.” “He is, for lack of a better term, the Godfather of it all,” added Cardinals pitcher and association player representative Andrew Miller. Few of the union’s leaders today had even passing interactions with Marvin Miller before he died in 2012. Even Clark, who began a 15-year career as a player in 1995, met him only in group settings a few times and never had a one-on-one conversation. At the outset of a playing career that earned him over $22 million, Clark was educated on Miller’s approach to labor relations by veteran teammates like Cecil Fielder and Alan Trammell.
