Marvin Miller

About Marvin Miller

Marvin Julian Miller (born April 14, 1917) 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. In 1992, the Hall of Fame broadcaster Red Barber said, "Marvin Miller, along with Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson, is one of the two or three most important men in baseball history."

Miller, a labor economist, was born in The Bronx, New York City. He 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 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 generally ruled in favor of the owners. Miller considered arbitration the greatest achievement of the early years of the baseball union.