Marvin Miller and Ted Simmons Elected to Baseball Hall of Fame by Modern Era Committee

The first inductees of the 2020 MLB Hall of Fame class have officially been announced.

Catcher Ted Simmons and longtime MLBPA Executive Director Marvin Miller will be enshrined at Cooperstown after being voted into the Hall of Fame by the Modern Baseball Era Committee.

The Modern Baseball Era Committee is made up of 16 former players, executives and historians who voted on nine players and the aforementioned Miller who played or were around baseball from the 1960s to about the mid 1980s. 12 votes were needed to qualify for induction.

Simmons played 21 years in the big leagues, from 1968 to 1988, primarily for the St. Louis Cardinals and the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves. While he was never considered to be the best catcher in the league in any given year, the eight-time All-Star was always a dependable force behind the dish and racked up 248 home runs, 1,389 RBI's and a .285 average.

The last time Simmons was eligible for the Hall of Fame, he missed out by a single vote.

Marvin Miller may have had one of the greatest impacts on baseball, and his induction into the Hall of Fame has been called for by many all-time greats in the past.

Miller, who passed away in 2012, was responsible for transforming Major League Baseball's players union into one of the strongest in sports. As Executive Director of the MLBPA from 1966-1982, he negotiated the first MLB collective bargaining agreement, which saw the average base salary of an MLB player increase significantly.

Miller was also responsible for challenging the MLB reserve clause, which stated that upon the contract expiration of a player, his rights were still retained by the team. He was able to successfully negotiate the severance of legal ties between a player and franchise once the player fulfilled his contract, thus ushering in the start of free agency.

Congratulations to Simmons and Miller for being elected to the Hall of Fame! The results of the BBWAA Hall of Fame balloting will be announced on Jan. 21, which is when we'll see who will be joining Simmons and Miller in Cooperstown this summer.