We Don't Care About the CBA...and That's Great

You've probably heard that the owners and players' union have hammered out a new five-year collective bargaining agreement that guarantees labor peace will extend to 26 years since the 1994-95 lockout.

And your eyes probably glazed over at the terms players' union, collective bargaining agreement and labor peace. This is an excellent development in a sport that used to be consumed with those considerations.

A Little History
From the sport's early days to the 1970s, baseball was ruled by owner-overlords protected against anti-trust restrictions by Congress. Players were literally treated like chattel. When the players' union, led by the brilliant Marvin Miller, began asserting its rights in the late 1960s, the battles with owners were over the larger philosophical issue of whether employees had the right to negotiate the terms of their employment.

It took a series of labor battles, both at the bargaining table and in the courts, and an almost unbroken string of union victories, for the balance of power to shift. By the time of the destructive '94-'95 power struggle that cancelled the World Series and delayed the start of the following season, the millionaire players and their intransigent union chief, Donald Fehr, could no longer credibly argue that the fight was about securing rights.

Although the players mostly prevailed in 1995, many fans were disgusted with them. Members of the union increasingly felt the fight was simply over money. At the same time, the old-style autocrats were ceding their ownership to business people more amenable to the new reality of a freer labor market. In the wake of the embarrassing spectacle that pitted millionaires against billionaires and robbed Americans of their national pastime, both sides recognized the need to ditch the dogma and find reasonable compromises.

Today's Reality
Having passed through that painful chapter, players and owners have been thriving. The bones of contention between them are narrow fights over how to divide a rapidly-growing pot of revenues -- the kind that lend themselves to easier compromise.

So two decades later, of course we have labor peace. Why shouldn't we? Viewed through the prism of the 70s and 80s, this is an accomplishment. But viewed through common sense, it is simply tinkering. The 15-day DL is now the 10-day DL. Qualifying offers for free agents will be watered down. The minimum salary will rise. Wake us up when you get to the interesting parts.

I read an analysis that castigated the union for allowing the owners to "win" this round of bargaining. But that is an antiquated view of the negotiations. The players and the owners  understand that their interests generally dovetail and no longer view negotiations as a win-lose proposition. And as long as that's true, it's generally a win for the fans.

Hall Monitor: The Veterans Committee Hates Credibility

The Veteran's Committee voted three managers into Baseball's Hall of Fame this week. They passed on the man who made all three rich --  Marvin Miller.

The managers, Bobby Cox, Joe Torre and Tony LaRussa, skippered eight World Champs and led their teams to more than 7,500 victories. Voters like wins and like to attribute them to individuals.

Marvin Miller skippered the players' union out of the Dark Ages and into the Modern Era when players have rights and earn their fair share of skyrocketing revenues. Since he took over the union and won the right to free agency, average salaries have leaped roughly 4,000 percent. Voters liked the Dark Ages and don't like high player salaries.

The three managers captained their teams to 37 losing seasons combined. Voters aren't real interested in inconvenient facts. 

Marvin Miller never seemed to lose a single battle with Baseball's establishment. In fact, the main criticism against him is that he won too much power for his constituents. Voters don't like it when guys who aren't as smart as they are make a lot more money.

Tony LaRussa is credited with some innovations that have affected the game long-term, such as the ninth-inning specialist, the LOOGY (left-handed, one-out guy) and the good-hitting pitcher batting eighth. Voters like innovation. Cox and Torre, despite their years of managerial success, are not known for any strategic innovations and are not likely to have long-term impact on the game. Voters like innovation but they like wins better. Wins are easy to count.

Marvin Miller's hot brand is stamped on every Major League game, every Major League team, every Major League player, every Major League front office and every baseball fan literally every single day. His impact is ubiquitous every day and will last as long as Major League Baseball does. Voters who are writers are upset that their own union has no teeth. Voters who were players think they earned their millions on their own.

Miller's critics argue that he went too far and corrupted the game with money. They preferred when owners kept their millions and treated players like indentured servants. How're those same people enjoying the endless pitching changes that are Tony LaRussa's legacy?

Joe Torre had a losing record until he inherited Bernie Williams, Derek Jeter, Tino Martinez, Wade Boggs, Tim Raines, Andy Pettitte, Kenny Rogers, Jimmy Key, Paul O'Neil, John Wetteland, Mariano Rivera, Roger Clemens, David Cone, Jorge Posada, David Wells, Jason Giambi, Alfonso Soriano, Mike Mussina, El Duque, Johnny Damon, Chien-Ming Wang and Alex Rodriguez. Does anyone really know how much of Joe Torre's managerial success resulted from great managing and how much from historically great talent?

In his first nine years of managing, Bobby Cox's teams won six more games than they lost before he inherited Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Chipper and Andruw Jones, et. al. There's somewhat more evidence of his aptitude inasmuch as the general manager who brought those players to the team was the very same Bobby Cox. In addition, many fewer of Cox's charges than Torre's arrived with pedigrees already established. Nonetheless, can we really be sure that Hall of Fame team leadership was the key to sustained excellence in Fulton County?

One cannot credibly dispute that Marvin Miller is the greatest sports union chief of all time. One can credibly dispute the aptitude of almost any manager, particularly Joe Torre and Bobby Cox, whose skippering brilliance just happened to coincide with the accumulation of Hall of Fame players. 

The Veterans Committee doesn't like credibility.