" 'How did these people vote, and why are their votes kept secret?' Bouton asks. 'And why aren't there more players on that committee? Hank Aaron, Jim Bunning, Bob Gibson, Fergie Jenkins—they're all on the committee for reviewing the managers and umpires. Essentially, the decision for putting a union leader in the Hall of Fame was handed over to a bunch of executives and former executives. Marvin Miller kicked their butts and took power away from the baseball establishment—do you really think those people are going to vote him in? It's a joke.'
Anyone who doubts the truth of what Bouton is saying only has to look at the two MLB executives who were voted in: former commissioner of baseball Bowie Kuhn, a man repeatedly bested by Miller and the union in every negotiation, and Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley, the man who moved the team out of Brooklyn.
Does Bouton, then, blame the MLB establishment for keeping Miller out? 'No, I blame the players, he says. It's their Hall of Fame; it's their balls and bats that make the hall what it is. Where are the public outcries from Joe Morgan or Reggie Jackson, who was a player rep? Why don't these guys see that some of their own get on these committees? That's the least they owe Marvin Miller. Do they think they became millionaires because of the owners' generosity?' "
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