Ted Simmons, union chief Marvin Miller elected to Baseball Hall of Fame

SAN DIEGO — Baseball’s Hall of Fame will add two honorees next July whose heydays intersected in the 1970s, one a switch-hitting catcher indentured to the St. Louis Cardinals for the best of his career, and the other determined to free players from that fate.

Switch-hitting catcher Ted Simmons, an eight-time All-Star who batted better than .300 in seven seasons, and MLB Players’ Association pioneer Marvin Miller were elected by the Hall’s Modern Baseball Era Ballot in an announcement made at the winter meetings on Sunday.

Simmons was named on 13 of 16 ballots (81.3%) while Miller was named on 12 of 16 ballots (75%), reaching the minimum plateau required for induction.

Miller was elected in his eighth appearance on the ballot, falling short in seven elections between 2003 and 2018.

Simmons, 70, spent 13 seasons with the Cardinals before a seven-player trade sent him to Milwaukee before the 1981 season. The Brewers made the playoffs in each of his first two seasons in Milwaukee, but in an unfortunate twist, lost to his old mates from St. Louis in a seven-game World Series in 1982. He amassed 2,472 hits and 248 home runs.

Follow every MLB game: Latest MLB scores, stats, schedules and standings.

Miller, who died in 2012 at age 95, was the executive director of the MLBPA from 1966 to 1982, turning the union into one of the nation’s most powerful and working tirelessly to ram through a concept that would alter sports forever: Free agency.

OPINION:Hall of Fame assures Marvin Miller will never be forgotten

HALL OF FAME:Derek Jeter heads list of players on 2020 ballot

WINTER MEETINGS:Five burning questions

Miller, first with the aid of Curt Flood, chipped away at baseball’s Reserve Clause, which binded players to their original teams in perpetuity. When Flood refused to report after a trade from St. Louis to Cincinnati, it cost him his career, a Supreme Court ruling going against him.

But in 1976, pitchers Andy Messersmith of the Dodgers and Dave McNally of the Orioles opted to play that season without a contract, and then filed a grievance arbitration. The resulting ruling paved the way to free agency, leading to astronomical rises in both player salaries — more than a tenfold increase in his tenure — and fan interest.

Appropriate, then, that Miller gained entry to the Hall at an event — the annual winter meetings — that would be nothing more than a procedural industry gathering without the hot stove season that Miller stoked.

"Players are pleased that Marvin will now take his rightful and long overdue place in the Hall of Fame in recognition of the monumental and positive impact he had on our game and our industry," Tony Clark, executive director of the MLBPA, said in a statement.

The Modern Baseball Era panel, a 16-member committee of former players, executives and writers/historians, gave a thumbs down to a decorated group of other players. Dwight Evans (8 votes, 50%); Dave Parker (7 votes, 43.8%); Steve Garvey (6 votes, 37.5%); Lou Whitaker (6 votes, 37.5%) all fell short, as did Tommy John, Don Mattingly, Thurman Munson and Dale Murphy, who each received three or fewer votes.

Follow USA TODAY Sports' Gabe Lacques on Twitter @GabeLacques.