Marvin Miller missed the baseball Hall of Fame by one vote. Former GM Pat Gillick got an overwhelming nod of approval, while the former executive director of the MLBPA fell short by a step.  This isn’t an outrageous snubbing by any means, but it is another black eye on what’s already a very controversial process. Why the everlasting legacies of people is left up to such a small collection of individuals to decide is astonishing.

The voting committee consists of 16 members; eight former players, four owners and four writers. Among that group, at least three-quarters, or 12, must say “yes” to allow somebody entrance into the great hall. Miller got support from 11, but five were not convinced he was worthy this year. It’s easy to believe that four of those five were the owners, as Miller made a career out of pissing them off, but the fifth member remains anonymous.

Unlike some other awards, the members of this committee are not allowed to publically share whom they cast their votes for, which continues to look poorly upon the process in general. If speculation is correct that the owners lobbied against Miller, they need only to convince one out of 12 people to think like-mindedly to get their way, and that can’t be too hard. That this information remains anonymous makes it even easier to believe something is amiss here.

Why baseball can’t adopt a system were many dozens, possibly hundreds of votes are cast for this award is outrageous. They do it for the players, why not anybody else? They keep changing the process as it is, and we’re not told why. We’ll never know, because that’s not how these clandestine operations work. Instead, Miller will have to wait another year for possible induction. After all, what’s one more year to a guy who’s already been around for 93? Well, possibly everything.