Where Baseball Falls $hort
I enjoy friends with rather diverse work and professional “assignments.” Not unusual to find some associated with a cause derived from their work. One such cause involves baseball. Not how the games get played. Not who plays it, coaches it, umps it or runs it. It involves how several hundred former players get screwed. As someone who advises labor unions and elected officials who make the plights of working families paramount, it infuriates this correspondent to learn an entity rolling in the dough essentially refuses to take care its own.
My friend wrote a book, A Bitter Cup of Coffee, after stumbling onto the issue. He writes op-eds and commentaries to keep up the pressure on Major League Baseball and its Players Association to address this inequity. Some recently posted to Linkedin caught my attention:
An excerpt goes:
"For the most part, baseball players nowadays are set for life. Vested retirees are able to earn as much as $210,000; even the minimum pension for someone who played after 1980 is a reported $34,000.”
The problem involves those who retired before 1980 when an agreement to avert a players strike provided that going forward, every player would automatically qualify for a pension after 43 game days of service, and qualify for health coverage after only one game day. Despite baseball’s great financial success, MLB never found any imperative – perhaps economic justice – to include a group of players often in great financial stress, many suffering ill health. Not just MLB continues to roll in the dollars, its players’ pension and welfare fund remains rather flush with $2.7 billion.
My friend Doug Gladstone emphasizes, “many of whom are filing for bankruptcy at advanced ages, having banks foreclose on their homes and are so sickly and poor that they cannot afford adequate health care coverage.”
A shanda. One can only hope those who can make a difference finally step us. No good explanation exists not to.
Comments
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Thank you for raising our consciousness.
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Growing up as a young kid in Southern California, my dad always used to tell me the same things, over and over. Always give one hundred percent to everything you do in life.
Never take anything from anybody that doesnt belong to you. And when you find something accidently, the only person you know for absolute sure it doesn't belong to is you. Give it back as soon as you can or try your absolute best to find the owner. Make the right choices in life the the first time and if you find you made a bad decision, apologize as soon as possible, admit you made a mistake and correct it.
I think we all had Dads that shared these similar ideas growing up. They were the basic foundation of their lives and characters. I think something has changed over the years. And it has shed a bad light and element into todays bussinesses. Undoubtedly , the owners of baseball feel we deserve a pension or the spokesman for the owners , Mr. Bud Selig, (former MLB commisoner) would not have commented; "It's time to correct an injustice that has gone on far too long." The former MLB nonvested players deserve a pension now, not later because far too many players have passed away. Seven hundred an fifty of the original 1250 players never got their own or their families fair due. God , bless them, they never realized the total impact they left behind in baseball. A two a one half billion dollar enterprise with a pension plan that is far over funded. The nonvested players were a part of the building blocks that led to the owners enormous success. Today's MLB owners, Mr. Rob Manfred, (MLB Commioner) and Tony Clark, (Major League Baseball Alumni, president) have the power and the opportunity to reflect on baseballs past history and go on record, correcting an injustice that has gone on far too long.
Sincerely, Dick Baney
Reach Dick at richardlbaney@gmail.com
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