A Whole Different Ball Game: The Inside Story of the Baseball Revolution [Paperback]

Marvin Miller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 12, 2004

For more than a century the owners of baseball franchises conducted their business like feudal barons, with the players in the role of serfs. This situation began to change in 1966, when the Major League Baseball Players Association was formed and Marvin Miller, who had been chief economist and assistant to the president of the steelworkers' union, became its first executive director. Here he recounts his experience in dealing with club owners and his success in winning a new role for the players. He helped virtually end the system that bound an athlete to one team forever, and thereby raised salaries enormously. Candid in his assessments of the characters involved in this drama, Mr. Miller is nonetheless generous in his comments about the ballplayers who made sacrifices for their union.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Baseball fans may…have more fun spending their money on this new edition of the book… (Star Democrat, Easton, Md )

A fascinating account…very well written by the man at the center of it all…. Spiced with hilarious behind-the-scenes anecdotes. (Bookcrossing.Com )

Provides an 'inside' story of baseball….outlines [Miller's] influence and baseball history. (The Bookwatch )

Brutally frank and immensely engrossing. (Kirkus Reviews )

[After Babe Ruth,] the second most influential man in the history of baseball. (Red Barber )

During his sixteen years in the game Marvin Miller was the true commissioner of baseball. (Jim Bouton )

Marvin Miller took on the establishment and whipped them. (Reggie Jackson )

The man did more to change the game in the last 25 years than anyone else. (Bill Madden New York Daily News )

There is no man in our time who has had more impact on the business of baseball than Marvin Miller. (Tom Seaver )

One of the most important [books] ever published about baseball. (Gould, Stephen Jay New York Review Of Books )

Marvin Miller is as important to the history of baseball as Jackie Robinson. (Hank Aaron )

About the Author

As executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association from 1966 to 1983, Marvin Miller revolutionized the relationship between players and owners, and forever changed the nature of the game. He lives in New York City.

Product Details

• Paperback: 456 pages
• Publisher: Ivan R Dee (August 12, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566635993
• ISBN-13: 978-1566635998
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #305,728 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Baseball's Evolution, December 27, 2009

By 

Isabel Diaz Jr. - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Whole Different Ball Game: The Inside Story of the Baseball Revolution (Paperback)

The book was very good....a study of the basic mechanics of baseball's labor struggles and agreements....

Mr. Miller is definitely to be commended by baseball players and other professional players for bringing them from exploitation to fair market value...with that said, he will never be forgiven by the Owners and thus will never enter the Hall of Fame in his life time...so petty on the owners part...

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Book, September 8, 2006

By 

Bookworm - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Whole Different Ball Game: The Inside Story of the Baseball Revolution (Paperback)

This book was actually written to give current major leaguers, who were born after Miller was appointed as Executive Director of the Players Association in 1967, some perspective on what conditions the earlier players faced with the MLB owners and had to go through to form the union. So why not sell it to the public, and make a few extra bucks.

Miller didn't care for former baseball commissioners Eckert, Kuhn, and Uberroth. Lord knows why the baseball owners chose Spike Eckert or gave him a seven year contract, but he was only given three years on the job before he was ousted. Eckert probably needed a job when he was hired and is a good example why you shouldn't hire somebody who's unemployed.

Kuhn, a former assistant general counsel to MLB, was probably promoted over his head by a level or two. This is evidenced by his term as commissioner and his subsequent attempts to practice law. He spent only a short time with the first law firm at which he practiced, and the law firm that he founded eventually went bankrupt. Uberroth knew little about baseball. Having lived through all these commissioners I had low regard for the commissioners too, but it was interesting to hear an insider's prospective of them. Miller also thought that Kuhn's book "Hardball" was delusional. There are a few factual errors in the book, but overall a good read.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Revolution In Baseball, September 22, 2006

By 

Bicycle Day - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: A Whole Different Ball Game: The Inside Story of the Baseball Revolution (Paperback)

For many sports fans, Marvin Miller is an out-of-touch windbag who made statements on steroids only East German women swimmers would have appreciated during 2005 interviews on national radio sports-talk programs.

It was too bad because his work in creating a true baseball player's union revolutionized the game and showed the bargaining power of athletes who work as one voice at the negotiating table.

Miller, with a labor background as chief economist and assistant to the president of the steelworkers' union, became the first executive director of the MLB Players Association in 1966. At this time the team owners controlled the game at all levels - from preventing movement of players from team to team through the reserve clause to hand-picking a liason for the players to management to oversee the miniscule pension plan.

A group of players wanted to break away from being the pawns of management, but it was a tough mountain to climb. And the path may have been paved by an icon in blue pinstripes.

Miller cites aging superstar Mickey Mantle as the key player in setting the foundation for the association. Though Mantle denied it, Miller says the Yankee great delayed his retirement in 1968 so he could give the association his personal vote of confidence, which then weighed heavily on players to favor the plan.

Upon his retirement in 1983, Miller had led the charge to end the reserve clause; arbitration in labor disputes; the right for veteran players to veto trades; an improved pension plan; and, most importantly, the recognition of the players' association as the vehucle to bargain collectively, with players having the right to use agents to negotiate individual contracts.

Miller has pointed comments toward those he faced at the negotiating table, with particular venom aimed at Commissioner Bowie Kuhn. He is also quick to credit the players for pushing for change and that he was only voicing their demands to management.

It can be argued that Miller was the most important figure not to wear a uniform. The book is important for its historical significance, but please flip the radio dial if Miller is being queried by a talk-show host.