Reese Kaplan -- Food Trucks for Minor Leaguers???

As you look across the fields at Port St. Lucie or any other spring training complex throughout Florida and Arizona you will find dozens and dozens of minor leaguers trying desperately to get noticed.  Many of them will never advance to the majors but continue to work as hard as possible for achieving not only their dreams, but also to be able to afford basic necessities like food, a vehicle and a place to live with some privacy.

Yes, it’s that time again to explore the plight of minor league ballplayers, most of whom must exist on about $7500 for the entire season.  To put that in perspective, a minimum wage job by federal law must pay $7.25 per hour.  The states of Georgia and Wyoming still offer state minimum wages of just $5.15 per hour, but most employers come closer to the federal minimum.  A person who works 40 hours per week, 52 weeks per year at $5.15 per hour would earn $10,712 per year.  Someone lucky enough to get the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour would make $15,080 per year – DOUBLE what most minor league ballplayers get paid. 

Yes, it was a provision when the President signed the Save America’s Pasttime Act as part of his $1.3 trillion spending bill.  As a result, ballplayers are working for less than minimum wage, must provide their own equipment and get a per diem for meals that relegates most ballplayers to the dollar menu at their favorite fast food chain.  In the over 2200 page document it states that minor league ballplayers are exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act that dictates wages and working conditions. 

To get a perspective on what it means to be a ballplayer, what can they say when one of the fellow players suggest they go out for a beer?  They can’t afford Uber.  Most don’t have their own vehicles.  They’re not getting suds in the corner bar but usually the trendiest clubs around where a single glass might cost $9 or more.  Given the paltry salary and per diem, they’d better hope the bartender keeps the pretzel bowls filled. 

Photo by Ted Van Pelt

Fortunately, former Mets farmhand Jeremy Wolf created a non-profit organization called More Than Baseball which, among other things, brings food trucks around to help feed the minor leaguers in Major League Baseball spring training camps.  Wolf recently said, “Though two meals are promised in every contract, there were times where we played a game and went home without food.”

As bad as this situation seems, mind you that the players only receive a check during their minor league season.  That means NOTHING is paid to them during spring training at all.  Major League Baseball is bringing in record revenues and the hope is that during the upcoming negotiations for the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that Wolf can participate. 

Wolf tries to raise money which is then distributed to many of the 4000 minor league players who need any additional dollars available to help them survive.  He’s trying to create a donation subscription service to get people to contribute on a regular, ongoing basis.  How shameful is it that minor league ballplayers are going to need an extended TV commercial scored by Sarah McLachlan with young ballplayers with sad puppy eyes to get people to pay attention to their plight?