Most MiLBers earning less than $7,500 a year, a number placing them well below the poverty lineGETTY IMAGES
MLB players since '84 have seen their salaries "multiply five times and owners have seen their investment grow twenty-fold," but minor league players have "seen their yearly pay go down" in that same period, according to Jon Frankel of HBO. MiLBers are already "baseball's poorest." Attorney and former MiLBer Garrett Broshuis said, "Revenue is growing exponentially and yet none of that is trickling down to the minor league players. ... The majority of minor league baseball players are earning less than $7,500 a year, a number that places them well below the poverty line." Frankel noted Broshuis is suing MLB over "how much the league pays its minor league players." His suit started with just a few dozen plaintiffs, including former MiLBer Tim Pahuta, but Broshuis was soon "representing more than 2,000 minor leaguers." If successful, the lawsuit "stood to overhaul the minor league pay system for good." But MLB "decided to open its purse strings" and "give out large sums of money" to lobbyists and lawmakers in DC. In the last few years, MLB has "tripled their spending on lobbyists." The Washington Post's Mike DeBonis said, "You don't see a jump like that unless there are very specific issues at stake that are important to the bottom line." Frankel noted MLB's lobbyists "got a bill placed before Congress" with a "less-than-subtle name, the 'Save America's Pastime Act.'" Many MLB owners then "began sending large campaign donations" to DC's most "powerful lawmakers" ("Real Sports," HBO, 7/24).
