Madison Kwiecinski 

News Editor

Mvk5945@psu.edu

Minor-league players from the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets wore teal wristbands that simply read #FairBall during the Saturday game on September 18th, 2021 in order to protest and bring awareness to minor-league pay.

This was just the latest step in the increasing public effort to change conditions in the minor leagues, including making a living wage. Minor-league players are typically only paid twice a month and oftentimes for only for five months a year. MLB players make around $10,000- $15,000 annually. The federal poverty line is currently around $13,000. 

“The players who donned wristbands in Brooklyn today will make less than $12,000 this year. The MLB teams they play for are worth well more than $2 billion,” said advocates for the Minor Leaguers in a statement to The Athletic. “There is absolutely no excuse for this. We are proud of these players for standing up for themselves and each other. Their message should be heard loud and clear across this industry: it is time to pay Minor Leaguers a living wage.”

MLB has released a statement saying that they are 7 months into the process of planning how to address long standing issues that impact the MLB. They have said that they are working on how to improve working conditions and pay for Minor League players. 

“Player salaries and working conditions are unequivocally better than they were under the previous structure.,” said the MLB, “While more work remains, enormous strides have been taken by increasing salaries from 38-72% for 2021, improving facilities, providing more amenities and better clubhouse conditions, and reducing in-season travel with better geographical alignment.”

The 2018 Save America’s Pastime Act ruled minor league players are exempt from the federal minimum wage, and all laws based on overtime pay. Baseball also has an antitrust exemption, which exempts them from the Sherman Act, and therefore allows businesses to merge at any point. In 1998, the Curt Flood Act partially repealed the act so that MLB players have the same rights as other pro sports  unions but Congress specifically stated the exemption was still intact for MLB players when regarding relocation and the minor leagues. This means minor league players still lack the same standard of rights when regarding their relocation, and anything else covered under the exemption. 

The New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies were protesting all of these things whn they wore the #FairBall bracelets during their final game of the season. The Phillies were accused of reprimanding their players for wearing the bracelet, but Dave Dombrowski, the Phillies President of baseball operations, denied the accusations. 

“I’ve done some checking, and we don’t feel that it happened at all, to my knowledge. I’ve asked. First of all, we wouldn’t reprimand people for doing that. We really had no objection that people wore them,” said Dombrowski. Reprimanding players for an expression of free speech would be a serious issue, and one worthy of national recognition. 

The Phillies treat their players better than many other teams in the MLB do, which is of minor consolation. According to the Advocate for Minor Leaguers, the Phillies minor league players at various levels do receive a housing stipend, and have their team hotels covered. Phillies players also receive salary extensions for extended spring training. The New York Mets do none of these things, and neither do many other teams within the MLB. 

Improved conditions for players in the Minor Leagues is something organizations such as the Advocated for Minor Leaguers will continue to fight for, until a fair wage and reasonable working conditions are met.