Marvin Miller was not a lawyer. But the influential former director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, who died November 27 at age 95, got to know many including a fellow nonagenarian named John Paul Stevens, the now-retired Supreme Court justice.
During a 2011 interview with The National Law Journal, Miller recalled meeting Stevens in 1967. Stevens then represented Charles O. Finley, the volatile owner of the Kansas City Athletics, in a tense meeting with Miller that was a turning point in the fight for players’ rights. Stevens, described by Finley as “my lawyer from Chicago,” calmed Finley down and convinced him to make concessions. “Stevens once in a while would put his hand on Charlie’s arm to hold the decibel level down. His role was to try to keep Finley on an even keel,” Miller said. “He was a very important cog in that wheel.”
