Why we should applaud baseball's all-powerful players union

Without it, players might have little say in where they play or how much they get paid

Union dynamo Marvin Miller talks with New York Mets players on March 11, 1972.
(Image credit: AP Photo)

You could be forgiven for assuming that super-rich professional baseball players don't need a labor union as much as, say, early 20th-century coal miners. After all, ballplayers' salaries are astronomical, and their lives embarrassingly cushy. But it wasn't always that way.

Baseball players — even stars — used to struggle. Their comfort today comes from the strength of their labor union, which is the most formidable in all of professional sports. If hockey players had a union as strong as baseball, the NHL wouldn't be suffering its third lockout in 20 years.

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