Eaton Endorses Exploitation

[Edgy MD]

https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/sports/article/21074129/minor-league-baseball-players-live-below-minimum-wage-to-chase-their-dreamsThe Washington CityPaper did a profile of three players playing for the Nationals' High-A Carolina League affiliate, The Potomac Nationals. It reiterates the familiar tale of poverty-level salaries, substandard workplace conditions, and hot-plate meals, but then Nationals outfielder Adam Eaton has to come in and shit on the flag, saying that it's good that minor leaguers suffer because he did also and it made him the awesome figure he has become.

If you do, complacency sets in,” Eaton says. “I think it's difficult, yes, and it's easy for me to say that because of where I am, but I wouldn't be where I am without that … If I financially am supported down there and financially can make a living and not have to get to the big leagues, I think I'm a little more comfortable. I think that I might not work as hard because I know I'm getting a decent paycheck every two weeks, and may not push myself nearly as hard.” “I don't disagree with [the notion] that they're being exploited, but I think it's for the betterment of everybody,” he adds. “I know it sounds crazy (Ed: you think?) … I think there's a middle ground … There's ground to be made up, but I think it still should be rough.”

Also, because of course:

Last year, President Donald Trump signed a spending bill that included the “Save America's Pastime Act,” which effectively excluded minor league baseball players from the protection of federal minimum wage laws. According to the Associated Press, players make, per month, $1,100 at rookie ball and Class A teams, $1,500 at Double-A teams, and $2,150 at Triple-A teams.

[A Boy Named Seo]

Adam Eaton is clearly only concerned with paying his mortgage, damn everyone else.

[Edgy MD]

He's got a point though. A multi-billion-dollar industry exempt from paying minimum wage to their marquee employees protects us all from complacency reaching the major leagues:



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[A Boy Named Seo]

If only Cano would've had it rougher in the minor leagues...

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

what a dingbat. I think there's something to Frazier's beef with him.

[Frayed Knot]

This is a bit like the (little reported) fact that the reason the NFL & NBA can get away with arbitrary -- HS graduation year + 1 in NBA, +3 in football (and note it's graduation year not actual graduation) -- and

otherwise illegal age-minimum requirements for their leagues is that it's a clause that's been agreed to by their respective player associations. Lawsuits have been lost by players trying to bust those limits specifically

because those clauses were reached via a collective bargaining process rather than by simple top-down fiat as with the old baseball reserve clause.

Basically the players (particularly in the NBA) have decided that once they get in, the fewer new applicants that are allowed to apply, the better it is for them.





And, really, Eaton, if things were tweaked to allow minor leaguers to earn 20K/year ... 30K, etc. (instead of the ~8K to $15K or so as listed above) is that REALLY going to dampen the drive of these kids to

make 1/2mil+/yr to start and potentially many multiples of that?!?

[seawolf17]

Fuck Adam Eaton. The main reason that MILBers continue to be exploited is that many of them are Latino and the MLB players' union doesn't give a flying fig and neither do the white MLB team owners.

[Fman99]

=seawolf17 post_id=14220 time=1561554341 user_id=91]
Fuck Adam Eaton. The main reason that MILBers continue to be exploited is that many of them are Latino and the MLB players' union doesn't give a flying fig and neither do the white MLB team owners.

[Vic Sage]

=Fman99 post_id=14225 time=1561556692 user_id=86]
=seawolf17 post_id=14220 time=1561554341 user_id=91]
Fuck Adam Eaton. The main reason that MILBers continue to be exploited is that many of them are Latino and the MLB players' union doesn't give a flying fig and neither do the white MLB team owners.