Father of free agency dies at 95

— Marvin Miller, the soft-spoken union head who led baseball players in a series of strikes and legal battles that won free agency, revolutionized sports and made athletes multimillionaires, died Tuesday. He was 95.

Miller died at his home in Manhattan at 5:30 a.m., said his daughter Susan Miller. He had been diagnosed with liver cancer in August.

“All players — past, present and future — owe a debt of gratitude to Marvin, and his influence transcends baseball,” current union head Michael Weiner said. “Marvin, without question, is largely responsible for ushering in the modern era of sports, which has resulted in tremendous benefits to players, owners and fans of all sports.”

In his 16 years as executive director of the Major League Players Association, starting in 1966, Miller fought owners on many fronts, winning free agency for players in December 1975. He may best be remembered, however, as the man who made the word “strike” stand for something other than a pitched ball.

“I think he’s the most important baseball figure of the last 50 years,” former Commissioner Fay Vincent said. “He changed not just the sport but the business of the sport permanently, and he truly emancipated the baseball player — and in the process all professional athletes. Prior to his time, they had few rights; at the moment, they control the games.”

MLB’s revenue has grown from $50 million in 1967 to $7.5 billion this year. At his last public speaking engagement, a discussion at New York University School of Law in April marking the 40th anniversary of the first baseball strike, Miller maintained free agency and resulting fan interest contributed to the revenue increase.

“I never before saw such a win-win situation my life, where everybody involved in Major League Baseball, both sides of the equation, still continue to set records in terms of revenue and profits and salaries and benefits,” Miller said. “You would think that it was impossible to do that. But it is possible, and it is an amazing story how under those circumstances, there can be both management and labor really winning.”

Miller, who retired and became a consultant to the union in 1982, led the first walkout in the game’s history 10 years earlier. On April 5, 1972, signs posted at major league parks simply said: “No Game Today.” The strike, which lasted 13 days, was followed by a walkout during spring training in 1976 and a midseason job action that darkened the stadiums for seven weeks in 1981.

Baseball had eight work stoppages through 1995 but has had labor peace since then. Meanwhile, labor turmoil has engulfed the other major U.S. pro leagues.

“Marvin Miller was a highly accomplished executive and a very influential figure in baseball history,” Commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement. “He made a distinct impact on this sport, which is reflected in the state of the game today, and surely the major league players of the last half-century have greatly benefited from his contributions.”

Miller’s legacy — free agency — represented the most significant off-the-field change in the game’s history. He viewed the reserve clause that bound a player to the team holding his contract as little more than 20th century slavery.

“I had seen some documents in my life, but none like that,” Miller said in 1966 after reading a Uniform Player’s Contract.

He decided the reserve clause had to be tested. It was, when outfielder Curt Flood, traded by St. Louis, refused to report to Philadelphia in 1969.

Three years later, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the validity of the reserve clause by a 5-3 vote, keeping intact baseball’s antitrust exemption.

Still, the die was cast when Justice Harry Blackmun, in his majority opinion, wrote that baseball’s exemption from ordinary law was an “aberration” that had survived since the court ruled for the game in 1922. The reserve clause would not survive its next test.

In 1975, Los Angeles pitcher Andy Messersmith and Montreal pitcher Dave McNally, with Miller orchestrating the attack, did not sign contracts and their teams invoked baseball’s so-called renewal clause. That gave the team the right to renew a player’s contract without his approval.

Players argued there could only be a one-time renewal, while management said the renewal could be invoked in perpetuity.

Arbitrator Peter Seitz sided with the players on Dec. 23, 1975. The owners appealed his decision in federal court, saying the reserve system was not subject to arbitration. Two months later, U.S. District Judge John Watkins Oliver upheld Seitz’s decision, and teams then went to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which also upheld Seitz.

In negotiations later that year, the sides agreed to a labor contract that allowed players with six years of major league service to become free agents. Free agency became a reality nearly 100 years after the first players were put under contract.

“Marvin possessed a combination of integrity, intelligence, eloquence, courage and grace that is simply unmatched in my experience,” said Donald Fehr, a successor to Miller as union head.

“Without question, Marvin had more positive influence on Major League Baseball than any other person in the last half of the 20th century.”

Sports, Pages 19 on 11/28/2012

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