Reese Kaplan -- Good Press Release Lacking Truth from MLB

Do you ever experience so much questionable truth from someone who has achieved fame in public via politics, business, entertainment, literature or some other modality that you find yourself simply questioning whatever is said for veracity and hard-core positioning to convey a very narrowly interpreted truth?

Well, yesterday Major League baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred released a letter his staff obviously penned and vetted for his signature about the difference of this non-Opening Day as compared to years’ past.  It started off well as many of us are indeed exchanging tales from previous home openers, fantasies about how the Opening Day would have proceeded if it actually took place, and a reminder that staying alive is actually a bit more important than being entertained by baseballs being thrown, hit and caught. 

Here’s Manfred’s opening:

“Opening Day holds an important place in our hearts.  It signifies the arrival of spring, the promise of new beginnings, the return of following your favorite team on a long journey filled with twists and turns, and the hope that your team will put together a magical season you will remember forever.”

There’s nothing wrong there.  It’s almost poetic in the images it conjures in your head and is non-team-specific in suggesting the universality of what we’re all feeling. 

He then says:

“Today is unlike any Opening Day in Major League Baseball’s long history.  We need to call on the optimism that is synonymous with Opening Day and the unflinching determination required to navigate the entire baseball season to help us through the challenging situation facing all of us.”

OK, here’s where he starts to go off-board a bit.  The thought opens well enough, but then seems to meander into an implied message that the baseball season is more important than the pandemic. 

He follows that with thoughts about the COVID-19 situation and what national health organizations are doing to combat it, including links to their websites. 

Then he goes way off the deep end entirely by talking about what Major League Baseball has done:

“we have met the needs of Minor League players by creating a level of uniform compensation for them.”

Huh?

Dive a little deeper into what MLB has done and you see the very thinly veiled braggadocio glossing over the facts.  MLB has determined that uniformed players on actual minor league rosters will be paid the subhuman wages they would otherwise have earned had the virus not derailed Spring Training.  I suppose that’s a uniform (bad) compensation for them and the fact that they are offering anything at all should be somewhat praiseworthy.  However, it doesn’t address the below minimum wage compensation most minor leaguers get when you factor in the hours worked and divide their wage by that number to find it falls below the federal standard from which MLB is exempt.  Most minor leaguers get $100 to $200 per week for their Spring Training wage.  This agreement will up some to as much as $400, or less than what a store clerk or postal worker would earn.

For those folks who may have missed it, former Met Ty Kelly is now working on behalf of Advocates for Minor Leagues, a new group dedicated to improving the working conditions of the young ballplayers attempting to climb into the majors.  It is a joint venture between former players and a baseball documentarian.  Together they hope to raise the minimum wage above the annual $7500 of compensation paid to many minor league ballplayers, as well as giving them improved living conditions that don’t require sharing apartments like overcrowded college dorm rooms after a big blowout.