Only the Players Call Him...Marvelous

[DOUGHBOYS]

Have you ever played 'Devil's Advocate' and start thinking, 'Hey,maybe this making some sense'?
It happened to me yesterday. I have a friend named John. He's older than I, does not play fantasy baseball and is an old school baseball guy. He thinks the Hall of Fame is hallowed (of which we've had many debates). He thinks of Wrigley Field and Fenway Park as Museums that should never be razed and even thought the same of Tiger Stadium and Yankee Stadium.

Anyway, John mentioned Marvin Miller and how he should be in the Hall of Fame. He had the usual argument. That before Miller came along baseball players were grossly underpaid and that free agency has changed baseball. I've heard the argument so often that I've actually tired of it a bit and I was a fence sitter on Miller's entrance in the Hall, but leaned towards no admittance.
Besides, I enjoy playing devil's advocate.

I told John that, yes, Miller had changed baseball.
But, are we better for it?
I know the players are. They are the benefactors. But who else?
The owners aren't. There's less money being put in their pockets. And that has the same trickle down effect that every American business has. Other employees do not get raises as quickly. Improvements to facilities come at a slower pace, and in the end, the worst part is that the customer, or fan in this case, pays through the nose to watch his now zillion dollar player who used to survive on hundreds of thousands.

John argued that Miller simply did what needed to be done. It was the player that the fan came to see, not the owners. For their superb play, they should be rewarded. He accused me of being a union-buster. Somebody that prefer the bigwigs stay the bigwigs while those that toil under them be grossly underpaid.

I countered that hundreds of thousands of dollars is grossly underpaid?
That baseball players, before Miller, had already reached the stage where none of them needed to take a second job, in the days where they REALLY did need a guy like Miller.

I asked him where he shopped, knowing full well that he was a cheap sombitch like me and that WalMart was his usual place.
After answering, I told him that WalMart was where I went too. Because the prices are more friendly.
I asked him to think about the supermarket ads in the paper. How WalMart usually beats the competition.
And that the reason for that is that little Marvin Miller's have visited almost every chain BUT WalMart.
Those employees (or players) are making much more money for their chains and it is the customer (fan) paying for it.
Only in baseball's case, we have no other place to shop.
(Which isn't entirely true, I prefer minor league attendance over Major League games)
I asked him if maybe he weren't a little of a union-buster himself by shopping at WalMart or did he just like saving the dough.
The argument sort of petered out after that.
John did not counter with the argument I would have made. That we don't go to WalMart to watch the employees perform. We go strictly because of our pocketbook.

Still, in the course of playing Devil's Advocate, I had convinced myself that I was no longer a fence sitter regarding Marvin Miller getting into the Hall of Fame.
Fans endured strikes. Fans endured, and are still enduring, ever soaring prices as a result of Miller 'changing the game'. Miller's 'changing of the game' did not take place on field. On the field, baseball was not changed at all.
Money changed hands.
Has Marvin Miller made baseball better as a whole?
I don't know.
I can see more detriments than positives as a fan.
Sure, he changed the game.
So did night baseball. So did the catcher's mask. So did the baseball glove.
It isn't enough just to change baseball. The impact must be for the WHOLE of us, not just for the players.
And in Miller's case for the Hall, he changed the game for only the players benefit, not baseball as a whole.