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Of course they are....they are in out of their league when it comes to playing the game called politics. There is nobody fighting for them including the MLBPA. If you want to rail at somebody in all this, rail at them.
Minor League salaries are abysmally low in order to allow guys like Bryce Harper a shot at ringing the register for $400 million dollars. The NFL players union caters to the stars, the NBA players union caters to the stars. Nobody advocates for the lesser lights.
Break off a piece of that action and sprinkle it across the minor leagues and then tell me more about fairness and equality. Why do I feel like some these guys who advocate this position drive around with Bernie Sanders bumper stickers? Clueless....
MLBPA where are you? MIA?
from mccoveychronicles.com
https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2018/3/21/17146268/the-prospect-round-up-3-21-18-minor-league-baseball-players-are-about-to-get-screwed?ref=digest
The Prospect Round-Up 3/21/18 - Minor League Baseball Players are About To Get Screwed
TRIGGER WARNING: I'm about to talk Politics.
I know I'm going to get some comments or replies on this saying to "Stick to Sports". Oh well. This is about sports.
I hate it when the sport I love does something that makes me want to stop supporting it, writing about it, and move on to something else. But it's doing it right now.
The organization of Baseball (comprised of both the Major and Minor Leagues) is attempting an end run around legislation subcommittees and lawsuits, by including a rider on a massive government spending bill that exempts minor league players from federal labor law protections.
Omnibus subplot: Effort afoot to write labor-law exemption for minor league baseball into spending bill, quashing players' wage claims.https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/spending-bill-could-quash-minor-league-baseball-players-wage-claims/2018/03/18/d31cd76e-2b0a-11e8-8ad6-fbc50284fce8_story.html …— Mike DeBonis (@mikedebonis) The ultimate in inside baseball. MLB billionaires working to secretly get an exemption from minimum wage laws so they can continue to pay minor leaguers nothing during spring training and $4 per hour during the season. https://twitter.com/mikedebonis/status/975564643157463040 …— Garrett Broshuis (@broshuis)
By doing this, they will skip various subcommittees that are there to discuss labor matters in full. It will just happen. And the travesty of how minor league players are paid and kept in poverty will remain.
Garrett Broshius, former Giants prospect and the lawyer helping to lead the lawsuits against Minor League Baseball for their payment of players, has been vocal about this latest version of the bill. He shared this letter written by a prospect who left baseball, and explaining why.
Here's a legit MLB prospect walking away from the game because of financial woes. He made under $8,000 last year at the upper levels of the minors. But yes, let's give MLB an exemption from minimum wage laws.
http://www.stlsportspage.com/CARDSBASEBALL/tabid/91/entryid/12071/economics-of-playing-in-minors-prompts-cardinals-prospect-to-retire.aspx#sthash.clydCl4S.4AQExARk.dpbs …— Garrett Broshuis (@broshuis)
It takes a while for him to get to the financial side of it, but it's worth reading. The fact that teams pay players as "Seasonal Employees" when they are expected to maintain rigid offseason workout programs and report their progress in, but not be paid to do so nor have those facilities to do it in, is insulting. Minor League players are also not paid for Spring Training.
Baseball insists that minor leaguers should view their employment as a "Stepping stone" rather than a career, and compares them to fast food employees in that regard, according to an interview published by Baseball America.
They continue to push the argument that raising the salaries of minor leaguers will essentially destroy minor league baseball, throwing those clubs into debt and closing them, ending the jobs of thousands of other workers at those stadiums who are protected by minimum wage law. This is complete BS, since minor league players are paid by their major league team, not the minor league ownership. I have yet to see anyone try to get the organizations of baseball to explain this argument further.
O'Conner says "We're not saying that it shouldn't go up," in the Post article…and yet, they spend millions on these lobbyists rather than making minor league salaries go up.
I feel strongly about this. I feel disgusted by the people who run this sport that I love and that I write about (for free). This is my opinion. But if it is yours as well, now is the time and try and get those in Congress to do something. This isn't a party issue; both Democratic Leaders and Republican Leaders seem to support this bill.
If you want to, you can use this website to help find your constituents. I would also suggest contacting the four Congress leaders: Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, House Speaker Paul Ryan, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Tell them you believe Minor League Baseball Players are more than interns. Ask them how they can allow workers to be asked to work year-round and not get paid. Ask them why it's minor league organizations that are being threatened when the pay of the responsibility of Major League clubs. Ask them why they think this deserves to skip the methods other labor rules have to take. Ask them why baseball gets to be the exception.
Ask them why, just because it's a game played by kids, does it not protect its players like adults.
Okay, that's my political rant. I won't do that often, but I feel very strongly about this issue. If players don't get paid in the minors, they can not be in top shape. They can not stay healthy or well-fed. They can not support families that they are kept away from for months at a time. And, ultimately, it causes players to leave the game, or young athletes to choose other sports.
This will hurt baseball. Not tomorrow. But in the long run. And it will hurt real people tomorrow.
This is a baseball issue. I'm not a fan of the Player's Union, but this is cheap baseball owners trying to save a buck rather than invest in the players who will (in their near-future) compose the teams they make their bucks on. It's frustrating.
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