Minor league baseball players housing situation mostly deplorable
- Thread starter LadyStanley
- Start date
royals119
Registered User
ECHL hockey players have it much better. The team must provide a furnished apartment with utilities (heat, A/C, electric, cable TV and internet). Most teams have a booster club that provides everything else (linens, kitchen appliances, dishes, etc), so players can concentrate on training and playing and not give their living situation a second thought. Married players always get a one bedroom apartment, single players get 1-2 room mates, but only one per bedroom. Minimum salary is ~$350 per week, and they only get paid in season, but at least it is a 'break-even' proposition. If they get traded or called up they don't have any housing issues to deal with. The worst they have is leaving a car behind that they have to collect later.
The Phillies are supposedly one of the best minor league baseball organizations according to the article, but the Reading Royals ECHL players have it a lot better than the AA Reading Phils.
The ECHL players are part of the PHPA, so the union negotiated all that in the contract. I'm not a big union supporter, but seems like minor league players need representation. Major league players union should probably get involved. Either sign up minor leaguers to their union, or organize a union just for the minors.
The Phillies are supposedly one of the best minor league baseball organizations according to the article, but the Reading Royals ECHL players have it a lot better than the AA Reading Phils.
The ECHL players are part of the PHPA, so the union negotiated all that in the contract. I'm not a big union supporter, but seems like minor league players need representation. Major league players union should probably get involved. Either sign up minor leaguers to their union, or organize a union just for the minors.
I agree with your last paragraph, except that it doesn't behoove the PA to do so. They can use minor league players as chips in negotiations with the owners. They can agree to stuff like bonus pools, etc., because it isn't them who is affected.
Bondurant
Registered User
Pecos League players were boarded with Doug Stanhope in Bisbee. That would be a fun time. Went to a few Blue games at Warren Ballpark. They pass a hat around to collect change and small bills for players. There was 20-30 people in the stand. Not raking in the big bucks in Pecos League.
GindyDraws
I will not disable my Adblock, HF
The Pecos League is at the bottom of independent or unaffiliated baseball, where teams are in charge of everything. The league is notoriously miserly when it comes to player necessities.
However, in terms of affiliated ball, this is not supposed to happen in theory. Oakland has had several stories this year about the food they had served, which was similar to the infamous Fyre Festival, as well as forcing players to pay for their hotel rooms while they are in Modesto.
KevFu
Registered User
It's just absolutely dumb that the low-level minors aren't basically "Baseball College" where they house you, feed you, teach you baseball,English/Spanish, personal finance, media relations and social media, brand management.
Jumping in on this a bit late, so forgive me. The only issue with the scenario you're describing in baseball is that should MLB teams implement a "baseball college" at the low levels of the minors, they would move all those teams back to their complexes and eliminate that level of affiliates. Their thought process would be that if they have to provide housing, etc., then they may as well do it in a complex that has housing and other facilities built-in, instead of footing the bill for housing in other markets. There are already organizations that want to do it, but the push to do so was resisted when MLB purged 40 MiLB teams. There is already a "baseball college" of sorts going on in complexes, but primarily for players drafted and signed in July until the end of the summer. Expanding it to a larger scale would effectively eliminate another level or two of minor league teams.
Exactly. They already killed the short-season leagues in favor of putting all newly drafted rookies (and remember, there's also fewer of those per team with the draft being cut to half the number of rounds) in their complex. That's exactly what the analytics types called for, and the reaction has been mixed, with coaches saying being in the "chain link leagues" is not helping and already there being some rumblings of bringing back short season leagues. See More MiLB changes on tap? for coverage.
