39 Facts About Marvin Miller

Marvin Julian Miller was an American labor union leader and baseball executive who served as the first executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association from 1966 to 1982.

Marvin Miller grew up in a working-class family in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, and began his career with positions at various prominent unions.

In 1966, Marvin Miller departed from USW when he won a landslide victory in a players' vote to become leader of the MLBPA.

Marvin Miller advised St Louis Cardinals outfielder Curt Flood in his 1972 Supreme Court challenge against baseball's reserve clause that prevented players from entering free agency.

In 1974, Marvin Miller coordinated with players Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally in a bid for free agency that resulted in the abolition of the reserve clause in the 1975 Seitz decision.

Marvin Miller was born in the Bronx on April 14,1917, and grew up in Flatbush, Brooklyn, rooting for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Marvin Miller's father, Alexander, was a salesman for a clothing company on the Lower East Side in Manhattan and as a youngster, Marvin walked a picket line in a union organizing drive.

Marvin Miller's mother, Gertrude Wald Miller, who taught elementary school, was a member of the New York City teachers union, now the United Federation of Teachers.

Marvin Miller graduated from New York University in 1938 with a degree in economics.

Marvin Miller resolved labor-management disputes for the National War Labor Board in World War II and later worked for the International Association of Machinists and the United Auto Workers.

Marvin Miller joined the staff of the United Steelworkers in 1950, became its principal economic advisor and assistant to its president, and took part in negotiating contracts.

At the United Steelworkers union, Marvin Miller worked his way up to be its leading economist and negotiator.

In March 1966, Marvin Miller visited MLB spring training camps in an effort to be democratically elected executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association.

Marvin Miller negotiated MLBPA's first collective bargaining agreement with the team owners in 1968.

Marvin Miller had a great way of communicating and relating the issues to us.

Flood did not take his challenge of the reserve clause lightly and did consult with Marvin Miller before suing MLB and Bowie Kuhn.

Flood pressed forward with his suit and, as Marvin Miller predicted, became what later generations would figuratively call "radioactive".

Flood was represented by prominent labor lawyer Arthur Goldberg, a former Secretary of Labor, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and General Counsel of the United Steelworkers while Marvin Miller was the union's chief negotiator.

Meanwhile, Marvin Miller took his union on a "lightning" strike on April Fools' Day 1972.

In 1974, Marvin Miller used arbitration to resolve a dispute when Oakland Athletics owner Charlie Finley failed to make an annuity payment as required by Cy Young Award winning pitcher Catfish Hunter's contract.

In 1974, Marvin Miller encouraged pitchers Andy Messersmith of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Dave McNally of the Baltimore Orioles to play out the succeeding year without signing a contract.

Marvin Miller agreed to limit free agency to players with more than six years of service, hoping that restricting the supply of labor would drive up salaries as owners bid for an annual, finite pool of free agents.

Marvin Miller's hopes were frustrated for a time as baseball owners engaged in collusion in which they agreed among themselves not to deal with any player who was a free agent.

Marvin Miller led the ballplayer's union in two more actions against the Major League owners, the second during 1980 spring training, and the third during the heart of the 1981 regular season.

Marvin Miller taught MLB players the basics of human capital as a commodity they were selling to club owners.

Moss was one of Marvin Miller's most trusted advisors at the MLBPA, and later went on to become an MLB agent.

Marvin Miller was succeeded in 1985 by Donald Fehr, who had joined the Major League Baseball Players Association as general counsel in 1977.

Marvin Miller fell short of selection to the Hall of Fame in 2003 and 2007.

Therefore Marvin Miller should be in the Hall of Fame on that basis.

In December 2009, in voting for the 2010 class for the Hall of Fame, Marvin Miller received seven votes from the 12 committee members, two short of the nine votes needed for election.

Marvin Miller was named as one of 12 figures from what the Hall calls the "Expansion Era" to be considered.

Marvin Miller died in November 2012; he was posthumously listed on the Expansion Era ballot for the 2014 class, but received fewer than seven of 16 votes and was again not elected.

The system's time-frames were restructured, with Marvin Miller to be evaluated by the Modern Baseball Era Committee, considering candidates whose greatest contributions occurred from 1970 to 1987.

Marvin Miller again fell short in the Modern Baseball Era Committee balloting for 2018, receiving only seven of 16 votes, with 12 votes necessary for election.

Marvin Miller was again on the Modern Baseball Era Committee ballot for 2020, and was elected with 12 of 16 votes in December 2019.

Marvin Miller was formally inducted on September 8,2021, with Donald Fehr delivering a speech on his behalf.

Marvin Miller was inducted into the Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals in 2003.

Marvin Miller was married to Theresa Morgenstern for 70 years, and the couple had two children, Peter and Susan.

Marvin Miller died on November 27,2012, at the age of 95, in his home in Manhattan.