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A Whole Different Ball Game: The Sport and Business of Baseball

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The current economic setup of Major League Baseball owes a great deal to Marvin Miller, whose seventeen-year run as executive director of its Players Association brought drastic advancements in the working rights of athletes. Originally published in 1991, 'A Whole Different Ballgame: The Sport and Business of Baseball' contains Miller's reflections on 25 years of legal history between club owners and the players union, spanning from the MLBPA's creation in 1966 to the banishment of New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner for financial misconduct in 1990.

The late 1960s and 1970s were momentous years for baseball economics. Although concerned originally with guarding its pension plan for retired players, the MLBPA pursued far more under the shrewd guidance of Miller. The pension disputes extended to a basic working agreement with club owners, salary arbitration, free agency, and more balanced distribution of television and radio revenues. But Miller seems to be most appreciative of scrapping the reserve rule, a provision in Major League Baseball that essentially bound a player to his respective club for life.

Players in Major League Baseball were comparable to indentured servants before reform took place. They were paid meager salaries while owners stockpiled millions of dollars in capital; salaries were dictated to players without negotiation and future Hall of Famers sometimes took cuts in pay after excellent seasons; if players had too much to say about working conditions, owners could trade them to other clubs at will or bar them from the sport entirely. Indeed, there was a great deal of inequity in the Major Leagues when Miller took his helm.

'A Whole Different Ball Game' is an extensive memoir that shows Miller's thorough and first-hand knowledge of labor disputes that have plagued baseball over recent years. After giving a brief recap of his upbringing and experiences as a high-ranking officer of the United Steelworkers, Brooklyn-raised Miller deftly explains the MLBPA's origins, beginning with his invitation from union organizers like Robin Roberts and Jim Bunning.

Miller gives full details of events that led to the undoing of player bondage and the creation of multimillion-dollar salaries now enjoyed throughout the league. Of major interest is his role in the 1972 Curt Flood decision and the 1975 Andy Messersmith-Dave McNally arbitration case that helped pave the way for a player's basic freedom to decide which team he will sign with. He also fares well in exposing the myth that Major League Baseball's commissioner is an independent judge of integrity when he is actually little more than a spokesman for league power brokers. The most enjoyable chapter is entitled 'Owners and Other Bosses,' which briefly surveys owners and commissioners that Miller has encountered; this is Miller at his most diplomatic and colorful.

But while energetically driven by his cause, Miller reveals a sadistic streak that makes his book laborious to get through. He is guilty throughout the book of telling rather than showing, italicizing words to ram points home, and using a condescending tone in his experiences with players and the media. He also has trouble restraining his dislike for certain figures in baseball and the political world despite claiming he has 'nothing against them.' Particularly acidic are his dealings with Bowie Kuhn, the commissioner who staunchly opposed Miller until his dismissal by the league in 1984.

Miller's hatreds upset an informative book. The text would be much easier to follow if simply arranged in chronological order. While there is semblance of time passing, Miller wanders off and devotes chapter six entirely to Bowie Kuhn ('Bowie Kuhn Was Not in the Best Interests of Baseball') and everything he finds wrong with him. Other chapters backtrack in time and disorient the reader. To worsen matters, he writes in a loose narrative that too often shows careless grammar. Village Voice columnist Allen Barra assisted Miller in his writings, but Barra shows no ability to correct these problems.

Even with its disorganization and arrogant tone, 'A Whole Different Ball Game' is required reading for those interested in the economics of America's Game. The book, naturally, has a pro-player bias and can be offset by reading Bowie Kuhn's memoir 'Hardball' and books by writers who played little to no role in the negotiation process.