M.M. - R.I.P.

Farewell Marvin Miller. You did more to change baseball’s Plantation Mentality than any other person during my lifetime and yet we hardly knew ya’. Your exclusion from the Baseball Hall of Fame is a sad reminder of the century-long history of players as chattel.

Every youngster visiting Yankee Stadium will see larger-than-life images of George Steinbrenner, twice banned from baseball for being an above-the-law scumbag, twice reinstated because money doesn’t talk, it screams. So, while the likes of George become canonized in bronze, you remain the forgotten man, except in the paychecks of every player.

The enmity directed at you by the genteel Colonels of baseball as revenues grew from $50 million to over $7.5 billion dollars is a lasting testament to their everlasting sense of entitlement. What better leader for this group of later day Fauntleroys than the bumbling Bud Selig?

Rest in peace MM. You leveled the playing field by teaching the players that professional baseball is, first and last, a business, and when business is taken care of the game can begin.

V