The Chris Moeller Archives

Terry Miller 1919-2009

Tim McCarver just announced during Game 1 of the World Series the sad news that Terry Miller, wife of baseball labor pioneer and future Hall-of-Famer Marvin Miller, died Tuesday at the age of 90. Marvin and Terry Miller were set to celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary in December.

Terry Miller was more than just the wife of a heroic progressive figure-- she was one in her own right. She was an accomplished academic with a PhD in psychology, a clinical psychologist, as well as an accomplished poet. Marvin's 1991 book, "A Whole Different Ballgame," contains a verse she had written in 1989 about baseball commissioner Bart Giamatti upon his death, which had come shortly after he had suspended Pete Rose from the sport for life for gambling....


so, 2 weeks in a row bart captures the headlines. the week before it was his decision to ban pete rose from b.b. for life. whose life? m is unforgiving, death not withstanding. he abhors all the hypocrisy that has surrounded the commissioner, the unified voice of the media to label him a god and rose a villain. well, god heard, and he, you may remember, is a jealous god. thou shalt have no other gods before me. giamatti was like a biblical character as he announced his punishment of rose. he was angry, cold, severe, flag-waving, pennant-waving. he was the savior of the national pastime, of the nation itself. he had saved the nation from pete rose, the gambler, while handing it over to ron peters, the drug dealer, whose sentence he sought to have reduced. he died a hero.

driving the money changers from the temple. employed by bigger money changers, he was looked upon as the great hope for the future of the game. not, mind you, to restore its integrity, but rather to rebuild its appearance of integrity. appearance is all. who better than a renaissance scholar to shield the lords of baseball from exposure to the light of honesty and fair play. with bart to charm the public, the owners would be able to get away with anything. his death is a big blow to twenty-six owners and ten times that many reporters and commentators who will no longer have their biased propaganda sugar coated for them.

here lies a smooth talking casuist, a union-busting conservative, a simple man who was in over his head.

he did look a bit satanic, didn't he? had he perhaps signed a pact with the devil to gain the post of commissioner of all the baseballs? and failed to pay up? gambled and lost, you might say, or is it truman capote's "more tears are shed over prayers that are answered?"

i'm sorry i never met the man.


I'm sorry I never met Terry Miller. In the book, Marvin called her "bright and beautiful," "ever alert to an intellectual challenge," and said that she "personified femininity and strength."

posted by CM @ 9:28 PM