Marvin Miller

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For the actor, see Marvin Miller (actor).

Marvin Julian Miller (born April 14, 1917 in The Bronx, New York City) is the former executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) from 1966 - 1982. Under Miller's direction, the players' union was transformed into one of the strongest unions in the United States.

Miller, a labor economist, first started at the National War Labor Relations Board, and then moved on to the Machinist Union and the United Auto Workers. Finally, he worked his way up the United Steelworkers union to become its leading economist and negotiator. In the spring of 1966, Miller visited Spring Training camps in an effort to get selected as executive director of the MLBPA. He closely followed the joint holdout of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. He was elected head of the MLBPA in 1966.

Miller negotiated MLBPA's first collective bargaining agreement with the team owners in 1968. That agreement increased the minimum salary from $6,000 to $10,000, the first increase in two decades. In 1970, Miller was able to get arbitration included in of the collective bargaining agreement. Arbitration meant that disputes would be taken to an independent arbitrator to resolve the dispute. Previously disputes were taken to the Commissioner - hired by the owners - who often ruled in favor of the owners. Miller considered arbitration the greatest achievement of the early years of the baseball union.

In 1974, Miller used arbitration to resolve a dispute when Oakland A's owner Charlie Finley failed make an annuity payment as required by Catfish Hunter's contract. The arbitrator ruled that Finley had not met the terms of the contract so Hunter was free to negotiate a new contract with any team - making Hunter a free agent. When Hunter signed a 5-year, $3.5 million contract with the Yankees, the players saw the money that could be made when players were free to negotiate with any team.

In 1975, Miller led Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally to file a grievance arbitration; the ensuing Seitz decision effectively eradicated the reserve clause and ushered in free agency.

As an economist, Miller understood that too many free agents could actually drive down player salaries. Miller agreed to restricting free agency to players with more than six years of service, knowing that restricting the supply of labor would drive up salaries as owners bid for the few free agents.

Miller led the union through three strikes, the first in 1972 which lasted 13 days, in 1980 spring training, and again in 1981 which lasted 50 days, and two lockouts, in 1973 spring training and 1976 spring training.

Miller fell short of selection to the Baseball Hall of Fame in both 2003 and 2007, although he finished among the leading candidates in voting for executives [1].