Coming in 2018, Joe Hudson played professional baseball for five years as a minor league. He has less than $ 1000 in his bank account.
Many minor leaguers are grossly underpaid, and previously earned, on average, between $ 6,000 and $ 15,000 per year, depending on their level. This is only the time that they will receive checks.
Hudson, like most of his colleagues, was forced to take second and third jobs to work; Hudson washed the 8 iron at a golf club, worked as a caterer, and gave his fair share of baseball lessons. At the time, he was demoted from AAA to the Los Angeles Angels Double-AA team in Mobile, Alabama, and he needed a place to live. Fortunately, he knew a man who had a two-bedroom apartment shared between five companions. Hudson was told he could put an air mattress in the dining room, as there was no table.
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“I jumped at the chance,” said Hudson. “It was a stressful time, making me a little bed on the floor that, you know, full of blankets, a little thin air mattress and a $ 5 Walmart pillow, just passed. “
After years of watching small leaguers like Hudson wrestle, Major League Baseball – which is in its mid-October period – has taken a big step forward to provide more help.
“In mid-September, the owners discussed the issue of player accommodation and unanimously agreed to begin providing accommodation for some of the league’s minor players,” Major League Baseball said in a statement released on Sunday. “We are in the process of finalizing the details of this policy and expect it to be announced and implemented for the period in 2022.”
“It’s a historic victory,” said Harry Marino, executive director of Advocates for Minor Leaguers, and former player with the Baltimore Orioles and Arizona Diamondbacks organizations. The change follows a series of year-long revelations and reports about the daunting challenges many struggling small leaguers face: many people living in roaches, areas with lost electricity and running water, jumping meals to save money, while trying to play a professional. sport Hudson saw his teammates spend the night in their cars.
In 2018, Hudson recalled standing in a grocery store knowing that if he spent more than $ 200, he would have a hard time maintaining his home.
“I have to stop eating, I have to stop eating, I have to skip meals in 2018, to make sure I pay my rent,” said Hudson, who spent last season playing catcher for AAA with Pittsburgh. . in Indianapolis. “It was the most difficult period of my career. And thank goodness I got called into the majors later because I could say for sure that if I didn’t, I would have to quit the game. “
These conditions require a physical – and a constant mind. Minor league players, as well as some major stakeholders like David Price and Chris Taylor of the Los Angeles Dodgers, called attention to the housing issue by wearing #FairBall bracelets at games.
“The reason this is happening is that the players come together and use their combined voices to advocate for this change, to tell their stories and to lobby for it,” said Marino.
Major League Baseball’s exemption from antitrust laws allowed the organization to set a relatively low league salary. MLB lobbied Congress to exclude minor leaguers from federal minimum wage laws, even though, in October 2020, the Supreme Court allowed a class action lawsuit over costs filed by players to be sued. minor league.
The MLB is aiming for a 38% to 72% pay hike for minor leaguers this season. But the weekly minimums have been lowered further: for A-ball level players, for example, the minimum has dropped from $ 290 to $ 500 per week.
Of the top major league players earning over $ 30 million a year, can they give more to help their minor league teammates?
“Honestly, no,” said Hudson, who took enough time on duty to be declared a minor free agent in the league and make more money: he’s made about $ 22,000 a month this year. . “It takes more sacrifice, effort and hard work to reach the big leagues. As a minor league, I don’t want to take any more money from the guys. ”
MLB owners, Hudson points out, are billionaires. “There are the best owners in the league who have the resources to accelerate on small wheels for sure,” he said.
MLB has reduced the number of minors in the league from 162 to 120 this season, a move that has been criticized for reducing opportunities for players to make money and reducing community assets in small towns across the country. country. Defenders like Marino insisted that a fair salary for the small leaguers was the most important goal. But housing is an important victory.
“Our union must play an important role in monitoring the implementation of this policy, to ensure that housing is truly covered and managed in a way that adequately and genuinely addresses the problem for all stakeholders”, said he declared like Marino. “Of course, the ad suggests that’s the point. But we are not going to walk. ”
