He changed the game. This is why Curt Flood belongs in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

If you ask me, Bowie Kuhn and Bud Selig in the Baseball Hall of Fame is far more repulsive than Donald Trump being president.

Long read: "Major league baseball has a long but little-known history of rebels, reformers, and radicals."

In the late, great Jim Bouton's seminal Ball Four, he observes that the famously eccentric (and highly talented) genius/pitcher Mike Marshall once authored a university term paper titled "Baseball Is An Ass."

Marshall's paper would have been written during the mid-1960s, just before Curt Flood challenged the reserve clause -- and as the late Marvin Miller took the reins of the players union.

Quite simply, Miller belongs in the upper tier of most transformational figures in the history of baseball. Only this year did Miller gain admittance to the Hall of Fame, primarily because of the owners' resentment of a man who enabled them to garner unprecedented wealth by first forcing them to share some of it with the men on the field who made it all possible.

Flood belongs, too. Thanks to IAmHoosier for the link.

Fifty years ago on Christmas Eve, Curt Flood mailed a letter that changed baseball history, by Derrick Goold (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Baseball’s declaration of independence, as brief and blunt as it has proven impactful, was sent to the commissioner’s office on Christmas Eve, 50 years ago, and it had St. Louis as the return address.

The brick building with its six white Ionic columns still sits at 8007 Clayton Road, and behind its “For Lease” sign is The Creative Services Building, home to a company that specializes in promotional products to help companies establish their brand, create awards for employees, or fashion gifts for anniversaries. On Dec. 24, 1969, Curt Flood & Assoc. Inc. and Curt Flood Studios resided there, and under its letterhead and that date the former Cardinals outfielder typed a letter that changed baseball history.

“After twelve years in the Major Leagues,” Flood’s letter began, “I do not feel that I am a piece of property to be bought and sold irrespective of my wishes.”

Flood’s rejection of a trade to the Phillies ignited the labor relations revolution that cost him his career. Between addressing commissioner Bowie Kuhn and signing his name, in an economical 127 words, Flood launched what would help create this winter’s billion-dollar free agent market ...

A wrong, finally righted: Marvin Miller has been voted into baseball's hall of fame.

It's about damn time.

Here is the NAC post of November 27, 2012. I was mistaken; it took another six years for the honor to at last arrive.

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Marvin Miller, RIP.

Next year, Marvin Miller again will be eligible for the Hall of Fame.

I suspect he'll get the nod, because the very same detestable Seligites who kept Miller out while he was living will find it sufficiently sophomoric to give in to inevitable enshrinement following his death.

Marvin Miller, The Man Who Reinvented Baseball, by Keith Olbermann (Baseball Nerd)

... In that he utterly reshaped the way the game was played on the field, Babe Ruth probably reigns supreme on the list of those who changed baseball most. In that they reshaped its color (and our nation’s attitude – and laws), Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson probably share second place. But only they can even be considered above Marvin Miller as men who had greater influence on the history of baseball.

Late note: Only after posting this did I see Charles P. Pierce's piece about Marvin Miller at Esquire, and his sentiments parallel mine:

He is not in the Baseball Hall Of Fame because the voting process is completely corrupt and needs to be blown up and rebuilt from scratch. (My prediction is that they will vote him in posthumously, just to be nasty about it, because Miller already told them not to bother.)

Pierce gets the last word: "(Miller) had a positive genius for making all the right enemies."

Another day-late note: There's a great interview with Miller at The Nation.

Why is Marvin Miller not a member of the baseball Hall of Fame?

In Jim Bouton's seminal Ball Four, he observes that the famously eccentric (and highly talented) genius/pitcher Mike Marshall once authored a university term paper titled "Baseball Is An Ass."

Marshall's paper would have been written during the mid-1960s, just before Curt Flood challenged the reserve clause -- and as the late Marvin Miller took the reins of the players union.

Quite simply, Miller belongs in the upper tier of most transformative figures in the history of baseball. Naturally, he isn't in the Hall of Fame, primarily because of the owners' resentment of a man who enabled them to garner unprecedented wealth by first forcing them to share some of it with the men on the field who made it all possible.

I've written about this several times, and it still gripes my cookies.

Baseball Hall of Fame as corrupted banana republic: Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth and (not) Marvin Miller.

Baseball. I love it, bit it's still an ass.

Baseball Union Chief Marvin Miller Awaits His Due, by Richard Sandomir (New York Times)

 ... But if (Curt) Flood, a center fielder, merited being honored for sacrificing his career for the labor rights that he believed all players deserved, the next logical question is: Why is Marvin Miller, the union chief who transformed the baseball players’ union into a fierce labor force, not a member of the Hall? Miller, who died in 2012, has been rejected by various veterans committees an absurd six times — five during his lifetime and the sixth in 2013 when his candidacy was spurned by at least 10 of the 16 voters who elected Bobby Cox, Tony La Russa and Joe Torre.

Baseball Hall of Fame as corrupted banana republic: Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth and (not) Marvin Miller.

I stand as one with Keith Olbermann on this topic.

Nine to Know: Remembering Marvin Miller, at Billy-Ball

Marvin Miller fails in 6th try for Hall of Fame, by Ronald Blum

Column: Miller will make Hall and have last laugh, by Jim Litke

Keith Olbermann: Marvin Miller, RIP.

Next year, Marvin Miller again will be eligible for the Hall of Fame. I suspect he'll get the nod, because the very same detestable Seligites who kept Miller out while he was living will find it sufficiently sophomoric to give in to inevitable enshrinement following his death.

Marvin Miller, The Man Who Reinvented Baseball, by Keith Olbermann (Baseball Nerd)

... In that he utterly reshaped the way the game was played on the field, Babe Ruth probably reigns supreme on the list of those who changed baseball most. In that they reshaped its color (and our nation’s attitude – and laws), Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson probably share second place. But only they can even be considered above Marvin Miller as men who had greater influence on the history of baseball.

Late note: Only after posting this did I see Charles P. Pierce's piece about Marvin Miller at Esquire, and his sentiments parallel mine:

He is not in the Baseball Hall Of Fame because the voting process is completely corrupt and needs to be blown up and rebuilt from scratch. (My prediction is that they will vote him in posthumously, just to be nasty about it, because Miller already told them not to bother.)

Pierce gets the last word: "(Miller) had a positive genius for making all the right enemies."

Another day-late note: There's a great interview with Miller at The Nation.

Former baseball player union head Marvin Miller blasts corporate pay.

Even the dunderhead commissioner Bud Selig has publicly stated that Marvin Miller belongs in baseball's Hall of Fame, even if the veterans committee orchestrated by Selig refuses to select Miller for enshrinement. The plain fact that Selig was chosen from the ownership cadre to advance ownership interests, itself a remarkable conflict of interest, probably is responsible for the cognitive dissonance of Miller's ongoing exclusion.

Marvin Miller blasts corporate pay (Associated Press)

NEW YORK -- Marvin Miller says high salaries of Major League Baseball players are more justifiable than the huge income of Wall Street and corporate CEOs.

Appearing at the New York University School of Law on Tuesday night to discuss the 40th anniversary of the first baseball strike and the rise of the players' association, the 95-year-old former union head spoke for 68 minutes and delivered a blistering criticism of corporate pay.

He also said collusion by owners in the mid-1980s was worse than the Black Sox scandal in 1919 and claimed the first baseball commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, may have been a member of the Klu Klux Klan.