Marvin Miller was the Babe Ruth of labor
Published 6:16 pm, Tuesday, November 27, 2012
The average Major League Baseball salary was just $19,000 when Marvin Miller was hired as executive director of the players union in 1966. A "reserve clause" ensured that players had no real leverage: They were bound to teams until an owner decided to trade or release them.
Miller, a soft-spoken economist, led a revolution that radically altered the balance of power between players and owners in baseball - and, ultimately, in all professional sports. In his 16 years as union leader, Miller employed the powers of the law and union solidarity to steadily chip at the rules and accepted practices that kept players under the thumb of the owners who were reaping the rewards of the sport's popularity. First came collective bargaining (1968), then arbitration for salary disputes (1973), then the grand prize: free agency (1976).
Miller was a highly controversial figure in that era among fans who accepted the owners' warnings that free agency would ruin the sport.
Free agency certainly disrupted the status quo. While it became harder to keep a championship team intact, it became much easier to overhaul a loser. Salaries soared, as did revenues and franchise values, as leagues became savvier at marketing and expanding their reach and profits through television. Today's average player salary exceeds $3 million.
Miller forced players and owners alike to realize their earning potential.