Marvin Miller Again Denied Hall of Fame Induction

From the MLBPA:

New York, NY, Monday, December 06, 2010… The following statement was issued today by Major League Baseball Players Association founding Executive Director Marvin Miller regarding the Hall of Fame Expansion Era Committee election results.

“The Baseball Hall of Fame’s vote (or non-vote) of December 5, hardly qualifies as a news story. It is repetitively negative, easy to forecast, and therefore boring.

“Many years ago those who control the Hall decided to rewrite history instead of recording it. The aim was to eradicate the history of the tremendous impact of the players’ union on the progress and development of the game as a competitive sport, as entertainment, and as an industry. The union was the moving force in bringing Major League Baseball from the 19th century to the 21st century. It brought about expansion of the game to cities that had never had a Major League team. It brought about more than a 50% increase in the number of people employed as players, coaches, trainers, managers, club presidents, attorneys and other support personnel, employees of concessionaires, stadium maintenance personnel, parking lot attendants, and more. It converted a salary structure from one with a $6,000 a year minimum salary to a $414,000 a year salary from the first day of a player’s Major League service. The union was also the moving force for changing the average Major League salary from $19,000 a year to more than $3 million a year, and the top salary from $100,000 to more than $25 million a year. The union was a major factor in increasing the annual revenue of all Major League clubs, combined – from $50 million a year before the union started in 1966 to this year’s almost $7 billion a year. That is a difficult record to eradicate – and the Hall has failed to do it.

“A long time ago, it became apparent that the Hall sought to bury me long before my time, as a metaphor for burying the union and eradicating its real influence. Its failure is exemplified by the fact that I and the union of players have received far more support, publicity, and appreciation from countless fans, former players, writers, scholars, experts in labor management relations, than if the Hall had not embarked on its futile and fraudulent attempt to rewrite history. It is an amusing anomaly that the Hall of Fame has made me famous by keeping me out.”

New York, NY, Monday, December 06, 2010… The following statement was issued today by Major League Baseball Players Association Executive Director Michael Weiner regarding the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s Expansion Era Committee election results.

“On behalf of members past and present of the Major League Baseball Players Association, I express my frustration, disappointment and sadness that Marvin Miller today was again denied his rightful place in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Every person who has benefited in the past half century from baseball’s prosperity — player, owner, executive, manager, coach, or member of the media — owes a debt to Marvin. Marvin’s legacy is undiminished by this vote; the Hall, by contrast, once again squandered a chance to better itself as an institution.”

New York, NY, Monday, December 06, 2010… The following statement was issued today by Major League Baseball Players Association former Executive Director Donald Fehr regarding the Hall of Fame Expansion Era Committee election results.

“Once again, Marvin Miller has been denied election to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

“There can be no question as to the extraordinary contributions that he made to Baseball. In the last half of the 20th Century no one had a greater or more meaningful positive impact on the Game than did Marvin Miller.

“Generations of players are already in his debt, as all future players will be. The fact that a few members of the Expansion Era Committee saw fit to continue to deny recognition to the representative of the Players – who are the reason that the Hall exists in the first place – says more about them than it does about Marvin.

“This is a sad day for anyone who is or has been a Major League Player.”