Neither Marvin Miller nor George Steinbrenner are going to the Hall of Fame... at least not this year. And no disrespect intended towards Pat Gillick (who I believe deserves his selection) but he didn't have 1/10th the impact on the game that Miller and Steinbrenner had.
But it makes sense, their omission. It is like those years when there is a truly daring and fabulous movie that doesn't win the Best Picture Oscar and a safer film does. (Think Dances with Wolves winning over GoodFellas or Forrest Gump winning over Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption and Quiz Show.)
Miller changed the power of the game from owners who could cut and lowball players left and right to the era of free agency.
And Steinbrenner embraced free agency when no other owner would and helped bring the Yankees back to glory.
And there's the rub. As important as both of the contributions were, there are plenty of people who think that they damaged baseball much more than they helped it.
Between the free agency meat market, collusion, the strikes and not even mentioning Steinbrenners two suspensions, it doesn't surprise me that they won't be in. They deserve to be in the Hall.
And GoodFellas deserved the Oscar.
I believe Steinbrenner's omission this first time is his punishment for the two suspensions from baseball. Miller still has his critics, even among the current voters. Boggles my mind that Bowie Kuhn is in while Miller is still out.
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