Chicago Cubs: MLBPA should leave no player behind

Chicago Cubs: Rule change leaves 600 MLB players pension poor

Before 1980, an MLB player had to have four years of service to get any benefit and to be permitted to buy into the league’s umbrella health plan. Without four years, you were not eligible for squat. Once you hit that magic four, then you were eligible for benefits and could then start contributing money into a health insurance plan.  After the rule change, you only needed 43 active game days where you played to collect a pension and just one active game day to be eligible for the health insurance plan.

Well, what’s wrong with that? Right? It just so happens that the benefit was made better for players, only not all players. The deal was never made retroactive. That meant some players retired after 1980 getting different benefits than a player who retired under the old system. After 1980 those players that first retired received an excellent pension under a much more lucrative system. Gladstone also wrote about this tragedy:

The problem for men like Fanzone, and former White Sox outfielder Bob “The Macaroni Pony” Coluccio, is that the agreement wasn’t made retroactive. So though he had three and one-half years of service, all Fanzone has been receiving for his time in “The Show” is a yearly stipend that, after taxes, comes to $6,250.

Meanwhile, a vested retiree who played after 1980 can earn up to $225,000.

Roughly 626 MLB players fell into the same hole as Fanzone. That’s just a handful of players compared to all those who have played the game professionally. Any executive could easily see this egregious error most likely drove some players to bankruptcy, homelessness, poverty, drugs or alcoholism.

For what? It’s just 600 players!

Both these organizations are making philanthropic donations of $3 million to non-profit charities for 2020. What about taking care of your own family first? If these orgs took the next five year’s worth of non-profit donations and gave it to these players, it could be enough.

Executive Director of the MLBPA Michael Weiner got the 600 players some monies in 2011.  However, the 600 believed if they hired one of their own to manage the organization, the chances of rectifying the outstanding debt owed to them would inevitably happen.

Enter Tony Clark.

Chicago Cubs: Tony Clark the promised hero

When the Major League Baseball Players Association voted unanimously to appoint Tony Clark, the next executive director of the organization, there was hope that Clark would fix what was broken so long ago. After all, Clark used to be a player himself scratching out a living over 15 years as a first baseman on six different teams.

Clark bestowed the title of All-Star in 2001 while riding high with the Detroit Tigers. Still, like all significant leaguers, eventually, Clark could not outrun his injuries (significant shoulder injury), age, contracts and the inability to hit the ball like when he was younger.

Clark retired in 2009 and went to work on the MLB TV Network, like many players were doing as they transitioned out of the game.  One year later, Clark went to work for the MLBPA as the Director of Player Relations.

When former executive director Michael Weiner passed away in 2013, Clark was unanimously appointed executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association.  The 600 players left behind thought their days of waiting for a solution were over and that Clark would address the wrong that had been done to his brethren players.  As Douglas Gladstone recently reported, Fanzone was shocked when Clark didn’t act.

“I thought for sure that when [former Detroit Tigers All-Star] Tony Clark became executive director of the union, he would help us because he was one of us. But he’s turned a blind eye to this issue,” he says. “I just think both the league and union are waiting for all of us to die off so they won’t have this problem anymore.”

Clark’s former boss and mentor at MLBPA, Weiner, was the only person ever to help the 600 and do something about the injustice they suffered. Weiner acknowledged the 600’s plight, and in 2011 the pre-1980 players began to get some money.

It wasn’t a grand amount, and the details have been kept quiet. There most likely was some sort of agreement that to get the money, players couldn’t bad-mouth MLBPA or MLB for the unjust treatment they received. They most likely had to sign some gag-order, which prohibited them from speaking to the media directly. If they wanted to get any of the cash that they deserved for almost 40 years, they had to shut their mouths and cash their checks.

Chicago Cubs: The perfect time to fix it all

The current CBA or collective bargaining agreement between MLB and the MLBPA expires in 2022. That means there is just one year left until baseball owners and players’ union reps commence negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement.  It would be the perfect time to finally, once and for all, address the 600 player’s grievances that were left behind from the benefits of being a professional baseball player.

Players today don’t seem to be as concerned about the pension, the past, or the plan because they have a number to focus on these days. The number for most active players is 10. That’s right, just pure old 10 and everyone is racing for it. Once a player hits 10 years, he can retire and claim his health insurance. So everyone in MLB has got the same goal, according to Jorge L. Ortiz of USA TODAY.

The plan pays fully vested members a minimum of nearly $68,000 a year for those who start drawing at 45, with a sliding scale that goes up to $220,000 for beneficiaries who wait until age 62. The payout is even more meaningful for coaches, managers and trainers, who are also eligible and have lower salaries.

Expect there may be some changing of the 10-year rule down the road soon as well, but if not, MLB and the MLBPA will have to start thinking out the box. This can’t go on for wealthy organizations to leave anyone behind. The U.S. Army, also known as the biggest corporation in America, has made an entire culture out of leaving no one back from the time of the Viet Nam war until now.

There are so many fans and friends of the Chicago Cubs that would love to raise money and give something for the 600 players. Now more than ever, this is a matter for owners, MLB leadership, current players, coaches and the league.  Do you realize that just a nickel increase on every hot dog and drink sold this season would take care of those 600 for the rest of their lives?

Let them finally enjoy the fruits of making it to the show.

Especially Fanzone who still loves everything about Chicago, especially the food, according to Gladstone:

He still longs for Chicago cuisine. That’s why he regularly places online orders for Lou Malnati’s deep-dish pizza. “I’ve got two in my fridge right now,” he (Fanzone) says.

What do you say, MLBPA? Let’s fill that fridge up for Fanzone.