(because of cropping, you can’t see that Murray is wearing a t-shirt that reads, “TOP THAT, DAULERIO”)

“I™m not sure what Tom Verducci, the Sports Illustrated writer, thought of Marvin Miller, but I know he didn™t think much of the job Miller had. When Verducci covered baseball for Newsday, the Long Island daily, he hated covering baseball labor. And when he did cover it, he wasn™t very good at it.”  That’s how former NY Times scribe Murray Chass attempted to make sense of Tom Verducci allegedly voting against Marvin Miller’s election to the Baseball Hall Of Fame, a charge Chass apparently learned from Miller himself.  Trouble is, Verducci insists said story is pure fiction.  From SI.com :

Because Miller gave erroneous hearsay to the blogger that was published, and especially with Miller falling one vote short of induction, the Hall of Fame took the unusual step of allowing me to reveal my vote. Committee members are asked not to reveal their votes.

Miller issued his apology to me after I telephoned him. I informed Miller that I supported him in the meeting room and with my vote. I also stressed to him that while I continue to admire his accomplishments, I was disappointed and saddened that a champion of fair treatment in his professional career would pass unfair, erroneous accusations to a blogger.

“I passed it along, and I’m guilty of that,” said Miller, who admitted that he spoke with the blogger by telephone when he made his comments. “I didn’t know he was going to publish it.”

The blogger did not return phone and e-mail messages.