Sunday, August 12, 2018

Minor Pay for Minor League Baseball Players


Do you like to watch baseball games? Right now the Yankees are doing badly and the Red Sox guys are winning all the time. Maybe you should instead get a good seat in your borough and watch a Minor League game instead? Soon you will get disguised watching the younger guys play too if you knew how little Trump’s budget is paying them. Yes, Trump is ruining the lives of Minor League Baseball players too. It is called Title II-Save America’s Pastime Act. Sounds like a good idea but the only thing the approved act is saving is lots of money for the league owners. The players are poverty stricken. The law said that the League only has to pay the guys $60 more per month and only for the few months they play. Minimum wage pays much more.
Blame it on the Lobbyists that the League gave millions of dollars to give the politicians in campaign re-election funds for their vote. They built larger Minor League Stadiums and are making a fortune but don’t want to pay the eager young guys a penny more for their contracts. If the guy doesn’t sign, they know that there is a long list of guys who will sign just to have the opportunity to play. If you knew you would be outrages.
Image result for cartoon of poor wages of  minor league baseball players
Trump’s Congress quickly signed the thousands of pages budget and no one even read it. This bogus Act was hidden on page 1,967 and was passed late in the evening. We need to get rid of lobbyists who spend millions of big business funds on charming Congress for their favorable votes. In the past year lobbyists paid off rich Congressmen three times the amount they usually get in re-election funds. If you go to a Minor League game, pass around a collection plate and give it directly to the players who get paid next to nothing and in Trump’s world, it is all legal.
Congress should be protecting Americans but this Congress just made the Minor League player’s lives worse. Baseball is doing well. Last year they made almost $10 billion dollars in revenues. The business of Baseball is booming. Major League Players have seen their salaries multiply by five times. Owners have seen their investments grow by 20 times. They are very wealthy but they rather bribe Congress to keep wages down for Minor League Players down to practically nothing than share the wealth with the guys. The majority of Minor League baseball players are making less than $7,500 per year. No Joke!!
They are living well below the poverty line. Minor league games are making millions because they like to be affordable family games with thousands of sold out games. They have the money and lots of it. The players get to the game early in the day and leave late at night and earn $3-4 dollars per hour. Minor Leaguers don’t get paid at all during spring training. They don’t get paid at all during off season. The guy selling hot dogs at the stadium gets paid more than the players. This is how America treats their professional athletes?
There was even a law suit filed on behalf of the Minor League players that only wanted minimum wages and overtime pay but the Congressional Law threw the case out. The law suit filed was on behalf of over 2,000 players that now have nothing and no hope with Trump’s budget. The Save America’s Pastime Act only saves money for the wealthy owners of baseball.

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