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If you grew up in New York City during the 1960s like I did, you probably tuned into WPIX Channel 11 to watch “The Little Rascals,” otherwise known as the “Our Gang” comedies that Hal Roach Studios and, later, Metro-Goldwyn Mayer produced in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. The classic shorts featured such child stars as George “Spanky” McFarland, Darla Jean Hood, Willie Mae “Buckwheat” Taylor and Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer, among others.
One of the most well-known episodes was entitled “Mail and Female,” and it was all about how Spanky formed a group called the He-Man Woman Haters Club – much to the dismay of Darla, who Alfalfa was perpetually pining away for.
Of course, everything is fine and dandy by the end of the episode. That’s the way those shorts were scripted. Things worked out in the end.
It is anyone’s guess how things will work out for women such as Pittsfield, Massachusetts native Jilda (née Brush) Wright, however. See, Mrs. Wright’s late husband, Ken, a former New York Yankees pitcher who passed away on January 21, 2017, was at the time of his death one of the players who wasn’t receiving a pension from Major League Baseball (MLB). That’s because, during the 1980 Memorial Day Weekend, MLB and the union representing the players, the Major League Baseball Players’ Association (MLBPA) changed the vesting requirements.
Prior to 1980, you needed four years of service credit to be eligible to receive a MLB pension. Since then, all you’ve needed is one game day of service to be eligible to buy into the league’s health insurance plan, and 43 game days on an active roster to receive a pension.
The problem for all the men like Wright was that the union didn’t ask for retroactive coverage.
In April 2011, the league and the union attempted to partially remedy this injustice by awarding the men such as Wright non-qualified retirement payments of $625 per quarter, up to 16 quarters, or a maximum payment of $10,000 per year before taxes.
With 3 ½ years of service to his credit, the gross amount of Wright’s payment each year totaled $8,125. His net amounted to $5,900.
Meanwhile, a vested player can earn up to $220,000 per year.
What’s wrong with this picture?
Health insurance would have come in handy too. Beset by Type 2 diabetes – he had diabetic ulcers on his feet – Wright worked as a courier at a local hospital in Pensacola, Florida but also needed to take a second job at the Warrington, Florida Emergency Relief Center just to make ends meet.
Now for the real kicker – the payments aren’t transferable to a spouse, loved one or designated beneficiary. So when Wright passed, that $5,900 passed with him.
As you can imagine, his widow isn’t happy about that.
In a recent email, Jilda Wright told me that “she hopes a fair minded person in the right position will see the plight of these men and their widows for what it is.
“There seems to be the mindset,” she continued, “that before long these men will all be gone and good riddance.”
I don’t disagree. Fact is, the union has been loath to divvy up anymore of the collective pie. Even though Forbes recently reported that the current players’ pension and welfare fund is valued at $2.7 billion, executive director Tony Clark has never commented about these non-vested retirees, many of whom are filing for bankruptcy at advanced ages, having banks foreclose on their homes and are so sickly and poor that they cannot afford adequate health care coverage.
Unions are supposed to help hard working women and men in this country get a fair shake in life. But Clark is apparently only helping himself — he receives a MLB pension AND an annual salary of more than $2.1 million, including benefits.
What makes this injustice more unseemly is that the national pastime is doing very well financially. MLB recently announced that its revenue was up 325 percent from 1992, and that it has made $500 million since 2015. What’s more, the average value of the each of the 30 clubs is up 19 percent from 2016, to $1.54 billion.
Both the union and the league would be well served to take care of this blight on the game as soon as possible. Since the MLBPA recently engaged the services of Bruce Meyer, a litigator specializing in collective bargaining negotiations, that could be a good development.
Or it could mean the players are gearing up to play hardball on this matter.
Either way, since it is the union’s responsibility to broach this matter in collective bargaining, Clark and Meyer need to understand that they’ve got a potential nightmare of a public relations problem on their hands, namely, coming across as anti-female.
Which means that the MLBPA’s offices at 12 East 49th Street in Manhattan can also be called the new He-Man Woman Haters Club.
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Photo by Wade Austin Ellis on Unsplash