Saturday, May 08, 2004
"Baseball Wrong In Denying Pensions." No, It's Not.
The whining just won't stop: here's another article complaining about the "unfairness" of not paying pensions and medical benefits to players who didn't earn them. My opinion of the now-dismissed class-action lawsuit on behalf of these players hasn't changed -- they have no case, and their lawyers are an embarrassment to the legal profession.
Their cause has been taken up again by Chris Fast, son of Darcy Fast, one of the affected players. (Chris Fast has E-mailed me about this, too, and pointed me to this article.) Darcy Fast made his major league debut on June 15, 1968, at the age of 21. He made eight appearances for the Chicago Cubs that season, throwing a total of ten innings, then never returned to the majors.
Chris Fast, and the author of this article, think it would be "fair" for Major League Baseball to reward Darcy Fast for his ten innings of major league service with $10,000/year for life, plus comprehensive medical benefits. With all due respect, that's like a file clerk who worked at Google for two months in 2001 claiming a right to share in the proceeds of its IPO. Darcy Fast got exactly what he was promised: a minimum salary of $10,000/year (up from $7,000 the year before as a result of the first collective bargaining agreement negotiated by the MLBPA) and the right to a pension and medical benefits if he played long enough to qualify. He didn't.
Like Darcy Fast, I had a job at age 21: a summer job that lasted about as long as Darcy Fast's major league career. (Longer, if you count the three other summers I worked there.) What do you think would happen if I called that employer -- which was and is a hugely profitable world leader in its field, whose top personnel earn as much as major league baseball players -- to demand a pension and health benefits? What would happen if I sued for those benefits, and started calling the newspapers to protest the unfairness of it all?
If MLB wants to increase pensions and benefits for deserving personnel, Darcy Fast & Co. can wait in line behind all the coaches, scouts, trainers, groundskeepers, clubhouse attendants, receptionists and clerical employees who have given their lives to baseball with no public recognition and little reward from the industry's explosive revenue growth. It'll be a long wait.
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The whining just won't stop: here's another article complaining about the "unfairness" of not paying pensions and medical benefits to players who didn't earn them. My opinion of the now-dismissed class-action lawsuit on behalf of these players hasn't changed -- they have no case, and their lawyers are an embarrassment to the legal profession.
Their cause has been taken up again by Chris Fast, son of Darcy Fast, one of the affected players. (Chris Fast has E-mailed me about this, too, and pointed me to this article.) Darcy Fast made his major league debut on June 15, 1968, at the age of 21. He made eight appearances for the Chicago Cubs that season, throwing a total of ten innings, then never returned to the majors.
Chris Fast, and the author of this article, think it would be "fair" for Major League Baseball to reward Darcy Fast for his ten innings of major league service with $10,000/year for life, plus comprehensive medical benefits. With all due respect, that's like a file clerk who worked at Google for two months in 2001 claiming a right to share in the proceeds of its IPO. Darcy Fast got exactly what he was promised: a minimum salary of $10,000/year (up from $7,000 the year before as a result of the first collective bargaining agreement negotiated by the MLBPA) and the right to a pension and medical benefits if he played long enough to qualify. He didn't.
Like Darcy Fast, I had a job at age 21: a summer job that lasted about as long as Darcy Fast's major league career. (Longer, if you count the three other summers I worked there.) What do you think would happen if I called that employer -- which was and is a hugely profitable world leader in its field, whose top personnel earn as much as major league baseball players -- to demand a pension and health benefits? What would happen if I sued for those benefits, and started calling the newspapers to protest the unfairness of it all?
If MLB wants to increase pensions and benefits for deserving personnel, Darcy Fast & Co. can wait in line behind all the coaches, scouts, trainers, groundskeepers, clubhouse attendants, receptionists and clerical employees who have given their lives to baseball with no public recognition and little reward from the industry's explosive revenue growth. It'll be a long wait.
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