Working Life

I’ve loved baseball since I was a kid. But, at the same time, I don’t believe we, the people, the taxpayers, should spend a single dime to help build baseball stadiums, or any sports arena, for the rich people or corporations who own teams. Don’t believe the hype—these projects never pay back the subsidies doled […]

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Sunday there will be yet another ceremony at the National Baseball Hall of Fame–and it will be, without anyone saying so, a ceremony that continues the despicable behavior towards the one man who did more to change baseball outside the lines than perhaps any single individual: Marvin Miller. Despicable because, simply because Marvin Miller built the players’ union into a serious union, the owners have refused to vote him into the Hall of Fame. It’s even more despicable because, after Miller died at age 95 in November 2012, you would think that people would have an ounce of decency, a bit of humanity, to tamp down the animosity enough to be big and do the right thing. But, they have not.

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I’ve always chuckled a bit at the annual baseball debate over the rich teams versus the “poor” teams. Face it: it’s not your family business anymore. It’s big business running these teams. And, lo and behold, the vise of greed is tightening around the national past time.

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One of the most powerful weapons used against unions is to essentially write them out of history: children don’t learn about unions in schools. Most politicians only mention unions when they are slumming for a check for their campaigns or they promise to put on sneakers and walk picket lines when elected but somehow that promise is forgotten once the election is over; they talk great rhetoric about the “middle class” but you almost never hear, unprompted and certainly not in front of crowds outside a union hall, a great speech about unions and their central place in making a healthy economy. Which is why the despicable refusal to elect Marvin Miller to baseball’s Hall of Fame matters–and it should matter to every person who cares about unions, even if you’ve never watched a minute of baseball in your life.

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A digression from the usual politics and all things economic. Derek Jeter goes down.

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   Here was something to celebrate: Pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report on Friday, February 13.

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   My other obsession besides the triumph of workers over the running dog employers is baseball. Let’s see if we can do this with the following rules: talk about what you see your team doing WITHOUT trashing another team.  If you want to say something about another team, it’s got to be nice. This is […]

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    Yes, I know, there are a lot of issues out there that need addressing but today I just want to put in a few words on Marvin Miller. For those of you less inclined to follow sports, Miller was the man who transformed the baseball players union into a real force. Granted, most people […]

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    Yes, I know, there are a lot of issues out there that need addressing but today I just want to put in a few words on Marvin Miller. For those of you less inclined to follow sports, Miller was the man who transformed the baseball players union into a real force. Granted, most people […]

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As I wrote last year, I was glad to see the Red Sox win—at least it would end the sorry whining each year from their fans. But, as I documented, then, the image of the poor downtrodden team that appealed to progressives seemed odd compared to their large payroll, all-white fan base (compared to the […]

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