Marvin Miller

Marvin Julian Miller (April 14, 1917 – November 27, 2012) was an American baseball executive who served as the Executive Director of the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) from 1966 to 1982. Under Miller's direction, the players' union was transformed into one of the strongest unions in the United States. In 1992, 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." 2Early life Miller was born in The Bronx on April 14, 1917, and grew up in Flatbush, Brooklyn, rooting for the Brooklyn Dodgers. His father, Alexander, was a salesman for a clothing company on the Lower East Side in Manhattan; and, as a youngster, Marvin walked a picket line in a union organizing drive. His mother, Gertrude Wald Miller, who taught elementary school, was a member of the New York City teachers union, now the United Federation of Teachers.Miller graduated from New York University in 1938 with a degree in Economics. He resolved labor-management disputes for the National War Labor Board in World War II and later worked for the International Association of Machinists and the United Auto Workers. He joined the staff of the United Steelworkers in 1950, became its principal economic adviser and assistant to its president, and took part in negotiating contracts. 2Major League Baseball Players Association At the United Steelworkers union, Miller worked his way up to be its leading economist and negotiator. In the spring of 1966, Miller visited MLB spring training camps in an effort to be democratically elected Executive Director of the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA). He won the election by a vote of 489–136.Miller negotiated MLBPA's first collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the team owners in 196