Category: History

Marvin Miller is in the Hall of Fame… now what?

This article is free for anyone to read, but please consider becoming a Patreon subscriber to allow me to keep writing posts like this one. Sign up to receive articles like this one in your inbox here.

Marvin Miller was finally elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, an incredibly overdue honor for the one of the single most-important figures in the history of the sport. On the other hand, it’s not what the first-ever executive director of the MLB Players Association wanted: before his death, he had asked to be removed from the ballot, but his request was ignored. Per Murray Chass, here’s what Miller wrote to Jack O’Connell, the secretary-treasurer of the Baseball Writers Association of America, in 2008:

“Paradoxically, I’m writing to thank you and your associates for your part in nominating me for Hall of Fame consideration, and, at the same time, to ask that you not do this again,” Miller wrote to Jack O’Connell, secretary-treasurer of the Baseball Writers Association of America.

Miller added: “The antiunion bias of the powers who control the Hall has consistently prevented recognition of the historic significance of the changes to baseball brought about by collective bargaining. As former executive director (retired since 1983) of the players’ union that negotiated these changes, I find myself unwilling to contemplate one more rigged veterans committee whose members are handpicked to reach a particular outcome while offering the pretense of a democratic vote. It is an insult to baseball fans, historians, sports writers and especially to those baseball players who sacrificed and brought the game into the 21st century. At the age of 91, I can do without farce.”

Continue reading “Marvin Miller is in the Hall of Fame… now what?”

25 years later, the 1994 strike is still the MLB owners’ fault

This article is free for anyone to read, but please consider becoming a Patreon subscriber to allow me to keep writing posts like this one. Sign up to receive articles like this one in your inbox here.

Twenty five years ago, on August 12, 1994, the last strike in Major League Baseball occurred. It’s unlikely to be the final strike or work stoppage in the league’s history, but there have been 25 years of what some would refer to as “labor peace” since the last one. You should expect to see takes floating around the internet today suggesting that the strike was a bad idea, or that it was a disaster, and maybe even asking who was to blame for the strike, as if it isn’t management pushing the workers into a strike whenever one happens.

After all, we didn’t get to see Tony Gwynn hit .400, or Matt Williams challenge Roger Maris, or the Expos get a chance to win the World Series because of the strike, which apparently are the things we should really care about. Not that the strike kept MLB’s owners from implementing a salary cap, or that a federal judge stepping in at the tail-end of the strike stopped MLB from putting replacement players — scabs — on the field for games that actually counted, which could have destroyed the power of the MLBPA and had much further-reaching, dire consequences for the game than adding another 25 years onto the wait for someone to hit .400 again.

Continue reading “25 years later, the 1994 strike is still the MLB owners’ fault”

The first strike in MLB (and pro sports) happened on this day in 1972

This article is free for anyone to read, but please consider becoming a Patreon subscriber to allow me to keep writing posts like this one.​

Navigating the internet on April 1 is an annual nightmare, but worry not, this newsletter comes bearing facts only. This date is the anniversary of an important labor battle in MLB history: April 1, 1972 was the beginning of the first strike in MLB history, and in professional sports.

MLB’s owners were shocked to find out that the players were striking, even though their actions are what pushed the players into this historic moment in the first place. It was an easily avoidable strike, too, given the issue that the Major League Baseball Players Association and MLB were negotiating in the lead-up to it. The union wanted an increase to the owners’ contributions to the players’ pension, in light of the existence of things like “rising cost of healthcare” and “inflation” and “a four-year, $70 million television deal with NBC that injected massive quantities of cash into MLB, cash the players weren’t necessarily going to ever see in a pre-free agency world.” MLBPA Executive Director Marvin Miller even had a plan for this increase to be funded, without the owners having to spend any of their own money to do it: the existing pension fund created income just by being there, and Miller suggested using the surplus $500,000 to fund the players’ retirement benefits.

Continue reading “The first strike in MLB (and pro sports) happened on this day in 1972”

Labor peace is a lie, pt. 6: MLB’s players are finally angry again

This article is free for anyone to read, but please consider becoming a Patreon subscriber to allow me to keep writing posts like this one. Sign up to receive articles like this one in your inbox here.

Over the last few few weeks, I’ve been emailing out sections of a larger story, titled “Labor peace is a lie.” Here’s part six, the conclusion, on the players starting to get angry and get (re)organized. If you missed any of the other five parts, you can find them here.

The players are finally realizing their mistake

While enough fans don’t seem to care about present-day labor issues in MLB, the players certainly do. What has been a less and less effective union as time has gone on is now seemingly galvanized by consecutive horrible offseasons, to the point where players like Kenley Jansen and Adam Wainwright are openly talking about striking years before the MLBPA can legally stage one.*

Continue reading “Labor peace is a lie, pt. 6: MLB’s players are finally angry again”

Labor peace is a lie, pt. 5: Rob Manfred and the rise of tanking

This article is free for anyone to read, but please consider becoming a Patreon subscriber to allow me to keep writing posts like this one. Sign up to receive articles like this one in your inbox here.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be publishing sections of a larger story, titled “Labor peace is a lie.” Here’s part five (of six), on Rob Manfred and fans choosing owners over players. If you missed any of the other five parts, you can find them here.

Rob Manfred takes control while the MLBPA loses it

Rob Manfred is the current commissioner of baseball, but like his predecessor Bud Selig, his early work came on the labor scene. He was outside counsel for MLB during the 1994-1995 labor battle, and by 1998, Manfred was the Executive Vice President of Economics and League Affairs. He negotiated the first drug-testing agreement between MLB and the MLBPA, and was MLB’s lead negotiator for the collective bargaining agreements of 2002, 2006, and 2011 before becoming COO in 2013. He was also the head of MLB’s Biogenesis investigation, which, if you remember your recent history, involved MLB maybe obstructing a federal investigation just so they could get enough (stolen) dirton Alex Rodriguez that Selig could extend his victory lap into his final year as MLB commissioner.

Continue reading “Labor peace is a lie, pt. 5: Rob Manfred and the rise of tanking”

Labor peace is a lie, pt. 4: Selig cries poor, then colludes once more

This article is free for anyone to read, but please consider becoming a Patreon subscriber to allow me to keep writing posts like this one. Sign up to receive articles like this one in your inbox here.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be publishing sections of a larger story, titled “Labor peace is a lie.” Here’s part four, on MLB’s owners changing their tactics and approach to bargaining, in a way that reverberates in today’s game. If you missed any of the first three parts, you can find them here.

The owners change their tactics

No more would the owners directly attack player salaries and earnings. Baseball had been saved in 1998 by sluggers chasing history, and Bud Selig knew that a return to the wars of years past would bring baseball to ruin once more.

For the 2001-2002 CBA negotiations, Selig and the owners came to the table with what Doug Pappas described as “unusual foresight,” focusing heavily on increasing concepts already contained within the CBA:

Continue reading “Labor peace is a lie, pt. 4: Selig cries poor, then colludes once more”

Labor peace is a lie, pt. 3: The rise of Bud Selig and the 1994 strike

This article is free for anyone to read, but please consider becoming a Patreon subscriber to allow me to keep writing posts like this one. Sign up to receive articles like this one in your inbox here.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be emailing out sections of a larger story, titled “Labor peace is a lie.” Here’s part three, on Bud Selig’s transition from owner to “acting” commissioner. If you missed any of the other five parts, you can find them here.

The rise of Bud Selig

Bud Selig wasn’t MLB commissioner in 1990. He was the owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, and a central figure in every labor dispute. He was one of the colluding owners, and a ringleader of the ‘90 lockout — he even attempted to divide the union by exploiting the different concerns of its age groups, secretly negotiating with veterans like Brewers’ star Paul Molitor, who just wanted to get back to work and cash his already-large paychecks at the expense of those younger players still working toward or within their arbitration years.

There were cracks in the union, and while the Players Association held firm during the 1990 lockout and 1994 strike, through failure Selig had figured out how to widen those cracks and start earning wins for the owners once again.

Continue reading “Labor peace is a lie, pt. 3: The rise of Bud Selig and the 1994 strike”

Labor peace is a lie, pt. 2: Free agency, concessions, and collusion

This article is free for anyone to read, but please consider becoming a Patreon subscriber to allow me to keep writing posts like this one. Sign up to receive articles like this one in your inbox here.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be emailing out sections of a larger story, titled “Labor peace is a lie.” Here’s part two, on free agency, collusion, and the strikes of the 1980s. If you missed any of the other five parts, you can find them here.

Free agency, and owners’ rights to players

Building on the work of Curt Flood before them, players in 1975 finally, officially, challenged for free agency. In the previous CBA negotiations in ‘73, players broached the free agency topic, but came away with a sort of pseudo-arbitration instead, as they were allowed to negotiate their salaries in front of arbitrators after they had two full seasons in the majors.

It would not be long before players took things a step further, as Flood had before. They allowed their teams to renew their contracts, but did so while saying that the reserve clause Flood had challenged that owners clung to did not give teams perpetual rights to a player’s services, but a one-year option. If the player allowed a contract to be renewed once but did not sign, they would then be free to sign elsewhere in the future. While teams did not agree, arbitrator Peter Seitz did, and suddenly, there was chaos.

Continue reading “Labor peace is a lie, pt. 2: Free agency, concessions, and collusion”

Labor peace is a lie, pt. 1: Robert Cannon, Marvin Miller, and the first CBA

This article is free for anyone to read, but please consider becoming a Patreon subscriber to allow me to keep writing posts like this one. Sign up to receive articles like this one in your inbox here.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be emailing out article-sized sections of a larger story, titled “Labor peace is a lie.” The goal is to provide context for why the Major League Baseball Players Association formed in the first place, why it operated the way it used to, and how Major League Baseball and its owners eventually changed their tactics combating the union, all of which connects to the lack of free agent activity today. At the center of it all is the concept of “labor peace,” and, well, we’ll get to how I feel about that.

Here’s the first part of the larger story, which looks at the origins of the union and the direction it nearly went in before its first possible leader saved the players from themselves, all because of geography. If you missed any of the other five parts, you can find them here.

Labor peace seems like an admirable goal. On one side, you have the players, and on the other side, you have the owners. If they’re at peace, then we, the fans, get baseball, the players get paid, and the owners continue to see the benefits of television deals and revenue-sharing and everything else profitable in MLB.

Everybody wins, and MLB’s website can run articles with URLs that say things like “labor peace benefits everyone in MLB” without anyone taking a second to think about how weird it is that MLB has their own outlet designed to influence fan opinion on matters like labor peace.

Continue reading “Labor peace is a lie, pt. 1: Robert Cannon, Marvin Miller, and the first CBA”