JUSTICE FOR MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL PLAYERS.

• Date: 01 October 2022
• Author: Zirin, Dave
• Published date: 01 October 2022
• Author: Zirin, Dave

For decades, being a minor league baseball player meant living a nightmare of poverty wages and substandard conditions. Given that the average major league baseball salary is $4.4 million, and profit margins for the bosses are off the charts--thanks to regional cable television contracts and the churn of publicly funded stadiums--the pauperism of minor league players has been a national disgrace discussed in baseball circles for years.

But the wheels may finally be turning, thanks to the power of grassroots organizing. On August 29, the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) declared--at long last--that it would organize minor league players into a union. In a statement, MLBPA Executive Director and former major league player Tony Clark said, "Minor leaguers represent our game's future and deserve wages and working conditions that befit elite athletes who entertain millions of baseball fans nationwide. They're an...