What was Marvin Miller’s greatest contribution to the game of baseball? Taking baseball into an unprecedented age of prosperity.
“What you saw was both sides improve their lots in baseball – owners making more money and players making more money,” Bob Boone said last week.
Boone, the former National League player representative, worked closely with Miller through the early years of free agency and the first labor disputes of the 1970’s and 80’s.
On Wednesday, Miller, along with Derek Jeter, Larry Walker, and Ted Simmons, will officially be inducted into The Baseball Hall of Fame.
“I was so impressed in our early negotiations,” Boone said. “He was fantastic to listen to. My first meeting I felt like I was sitting in a class with one my Stanford professors.”
Miller was a tough negotiator, rooted in his years spent working with the steel workers union. And his demeanor was perhaps a contrast to the way Miller was sometimes portrayed by club owners, who were not used to being challenged in their arena.
“Marvin always spoke with a very low tone,” Boone said. “He was never in a position where he was getting mad at somebody. He was just explaining the points. He never talked very loud. He made you lean over to listen to him. If you want to know what he’s saying you better pay attention.”
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And in the early to mid-1970’s, as free agency began to become a reality, the players found they were willing to wade through the tough negotiations with Miller on their side.
“We were always having issues,” Boone said of the bargaining sessions for new collective bargaining agreements. The “issues” ranged from more simple items like meal money or hotel accommodations to more complicated ones like pension plans and free agency, “and it was pretty easy early on to go, ‘This is the guy I want leading me.’”
Owners often publicly portrayed Miller as an arrogant man in the service of greedy players.
“Never arrogant,” Boone said. “He was kind.”
Negotiating was a skill at which Miller excelled, and Boone saw that first-hand during the 1981 Players Strike.
“We had a position, they had a position. He knew we were in this for a fight and we’re going to have to negotiate it, which means both sides were going to have to give and take. Marvin’s job was to make it happen,” Boone said. “We didn’t want to strike. He was just so mentally superior and it was always just a conversation. A lot of times he would walk away (from a negotiating session) because we couldn’t give more and then the meeting was over. And the fight, so to speak, went on, but I never heard a fight; I only heard discussions.”
Miller, Boone, and the players union of the 1970’s and 80’s led the way for player salaries that skyrocketed – along with owners’ revenues – in the decades to come.
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In Boone’s first full major league in 1973, he made $15,000. In his final season in 1990, he made $1.9 million. His sons, Bret and Aaron, both made the major leagues and made over $60 million in combined salaries.
“There’s no question that from our side as players, the baseball life improved immensely,” Boone said. “A lot of time it was dirty because of the strikes, but at the end of the day, with all the years Marvin put into it, both sides have improved immensely with a lot of tough fights.”
Wednesday in Cooperstown, Marvin Miller takes his place among the greatest and most impactful people the sport has ever seen.
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