Letters to the Editor
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Not dead yet
I realized today that Marvin Miller's problem is that he's lived too long. If he were dead, he'd probably have been voted into the Hall this time, but baseball owners and management (who comprise the majority of the voters on the new panel of the Veterans Committee that votes on off-the-field contributors) have absolutely no interest in hearing him speak the obvious at his induction.
I realized this when I read his comments about not being inducted. He hasn't mellowed one little bit since he left the union, and he wouldn't give one of those Ripkenesque love of the game speeches that gives everyone a warm glow. He'd point out that free agency was a huge boon for players, that owners make even more money than they used to, that the game is much more popular (in terms of fannies in the seats) than it was in the supposed golden age of the 50s, and that the owners fought the very thing that led to this state every step of the way. Oh, and he'd happily give dozens of interviews in the days leading up to his induction, making exactly the same points.
On the other hand, if he's inducted after he's dead, no speech, no interviews, just a few stories about how he changed baseball, some of which will say it was for the worse (even though that's not really true). Given the choice, well, it's easy to see how management representatives voted the way they did.
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Evel not a role model
I understand what you are saying about Evel Knievel. I too jumped my Huffy over everything I could manage. (I somehow only managed to break a toe.) The entire X Games entity owes him a big debt.
However, what I didn't realize at the time or until just this weekend, is that he was an hypocritical and ego-maniacal thug. He was supposedly a devout Christian, but was also an alcoholic and serial philanderer. He constantly lied about his own achievements and downplayed the achievements of other motorcycle jumpers. At the high of his popularity, he beat a man (a promoter) with a baseball bat while another held him, allegedly for writing something untrue about him. He did a year in prison for that.
Evel was certainly brave and exciting to watch, but he was no role model for young boys. Of course, one could say the same about Ty Cobb, Pete Rose, Barry Bonds, and other major athletes of just about any era.
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paxcanfield
He died of kidney failure. He did survive a liver transplant at some point.
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Marvin Miller, Bill James
The piece about Marvin Miller is most interesting, as is your commentary about Bill James'contributions to baseball. Sports journalism at its unorthodox best.