R.I.P. Marvin Miller
Posted by Steve L. on November 27th, 2012 · Comments (8)
He passed away today at the age of 95.
Say what you want about his inclusion in Cooperstown, or not. But, you cannot say that he didn’t have a huge impact on the game of professional baseball.
Miller belongs in the Hall of Fame. That he’s not in there is really a crime.
I had the opportunity to hear him speak at NYU a few years ago and, even in his early 90′s, he was still sharp and witty and just as spirited as he was when he was fighting owners in the 70′s.
Professional sports not just baseball.
Not a bad run. Too bad it led to Don Fehr, but Miller was a tough act to follow.
The fact that he is not in the Hall of Fame is a disgrace. Lee MacPhail is in the Hall of Fame and Miller isn’t! Miller wrote a book in the 90′s “A Whole New Ball Game”, I highly recommend this book. Miller was great man, a tremendous leader.
That he had an enormous impact on MLB is beyond contention.
That it was positive for anyone but the players is not.
One can make the argument that if not for free agency and the other rights Miller helped the players win, players would not work so hard year-round to improve themselves, and the quality of play would not be nearly so high.
On the other hand, one can argue that the vast monies those rights brought into the game on both sides was one cause of exploding PED use, and the union he created and brought to overwhelming power fought testing for as long as it possibly could. Miller himself opposed testing even after the union negotiated it into the Basic Agreement.
This I’m sure of: if not for the union and the vast increase in players’ salaries it brought about, ticket prices would, on the whole, be very much lower than they are now, as would parking prices, as would concession prices.
Put Miller in the Labor Union Hall of Fame? But if it’s up to me, not in Cooperstown.
Evan3457 wrote:
If the players are making that kind of scratch, imagine how much the owners are making? From taxpayer funded facilities to tv contracts, I imagine it’s a pretty penny.
They could lower ticket prices and parking prices across the board, but they won’t. In many cases, they don’t have to.
Raf wrote:
I’ve heard this before. If salaries had not exploded, neither would ticket prices. Costs are a part of the price structure in any business.
Evan3457 wrote:
Agreed, but to use the Yankees as an example, payroll has stayed consistent (at both venues), and they have the YES network. They have a license to print money, and they’re still gouging the customers @ YS3. Granted there are more bells and whistles to the “Yankee Experience” when attending a game, but IMO not enough to justify the prices they’re charging.