Along Comes the Players Association: The Roots and Rise of Labor Unionism in Major League Baseball

Abstract

On April 24, 2012, Marvin Miller delivered a speech at New York University in which he reflected at length on the history of the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) and his role in the development of the labor union he led from 1966 to 1983. This article is an introduction in two parts to that speech and the panel discussion that followed it. Part I is a chronology of highlights of labor-management relations in major league baseball. Part II draws an inference or two about the MLBPA from events on that timeline. It is not the entire story of organized labor in major-league baseball, or even of Miller and the union he led. But it is enough, I hope, to put his recollections and the subsequent discussion in mature perspective.

Keywords: American League, Brad Snyder, Charles Korr, commissioner, Donald Fehr, Edward D. White, Federal, Flood v. Kuhn, Harry Blackmun, history, John Montgomery Ward, Lee Lowenfish, Lieb, Michael Weiner, National, Potter Stewart, Presidency, President, reserve clause, sports, Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor

JEL Classification: J21, J44, J45, J23, J53, J54, K12, K21, K23, J61, K31, K40, L44