While the occasional article is free for everyone, the vast majority of this content is restricted to my Patreon subscribers, whose support allows me to write all of this in the first place. Please consider becoming a subscriber! -Marc Normandin
Category: MLB
Unlock with PatreonAmerican sports’ response to coronavirus is still lacking
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Despite the growing threat of coronavirus — which the World Health Organization is close to calling a pandemic, which now has over 1,000 confirmed cases in the United States despite America failing to test for the virus at the same rate as other afflicted countries — American sports leagues, for the most part, are going about business as usual.
Yes, the media is now barred from locker rooms and clubhouses across four major active sports (MLB, NHL, NBA, MLS), but fans are still attending those games. Media members can’t get within six-to-eight feet of a player to interview them, but 20,000-plus people still get to sit elbow-to-elbow, eating food from a concessions worker who can’t afford to take the day off if they have a cough, and then those 20,000 people disperse into the world once more, potentially carrying COVID-19 with them into their next interactions.
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The MLBPA filed another grievance against the Pirates
While the occasional article is free for everyone, the vast majority of this content is restricted to my Patreon subscribers, whose support allows me to write all of this in the first place. Please consider becoming a subscriber! -Marc Normandin
The History of Baseball Unionization: The Players Protective Association
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Major League Baseball players had few rights before the signing of the first collective bargaining agreement in professional sports in 1968. They didn’t get all of their current rights all at once, either: the battle was, and is, an ongoing one. Before the Players Association, before Marvin Miller, there were other attempts to organize baseball players against the bosses. In this series, we’ll investigate each of those attempts, and suss out what went wrong. Part 1 can be found here.
After the successes — but inevitable failure — of the Brotherhood of Professional Baseball Players and its player-led Players League, the National League was, in essence, the only game in town for professional baseball. It was the sole major league, at least, as it had vanquished the Players League by working with the capitalists the players had relied on to, well, not do that, and the combination of biggest pockets and best players put an end to the American Association’s chances of ever catching up. From 1892 through 1900, the NL’s monopoly on major league baseball was unassailable.
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We’re already seeing sporting events impacted by the coronavirus
While the occasional article is free for everyone, the vast majority of this content is restricted to my Patreon subscribers, whose support allows me to write all of this in the first place. Please consider becoming a subscriber! -Marc Normandin
The History of Baseball Unionization: The Brotherhood of Professional Baseball Players
This article is free for anyone to read, but please consider becoming a Patreon subscriber to allow me to keep writing posts like this one. Sign up to receive articles like this one in your inbox here.
Major League Baseball players had few rights before the signing of the first collective bargaining agreement in professional sports in 1968. They didn’t get all of their current rights all at once, either: the battle was, and is, an ongoing one. Before the Players Association, before Marvin Miller, there were other attempts to organize baseball players against the bosses. In this series, we’ll investigate each of those attempts, and suss out what went wrong.
There was an attempt to organize professional baseball players years before there was ever a Major League Baseball. Back in 1885, the National League reigned supreme. The league was in its 10th season, and had thrived in ways previous major leagues had not — and had done so in part due to the reserve clause. The reserve clause, established in 1879, gave NL clubs unlimited control over its players, severely weakening their ability to negotiate for more money, while making it impossible to play for another team at all. This is the same reserve clause that was banished from MLB nearly 100 years later, thanks to the efforts of Curt Flood, Marvin Miller, Andy Messersmith, Dave McNally, and the rest of the Players Association that fought for the right for free agency, the clause that made a player the property of their team in perpetuity.
Blue Jays black out all of Canada, and it’s a symptom of a larger issue
While the occasional article is free for everyone, the vast majority of this content is restricted to my Patreon subscribers, whose support allows me to write all of this in the first place. Please consider becoming a subscriber! -Marc Normandin
Giants raise MiLB player wages, subsidize housing (for some)
While the occasional article is free for everyone, the vast majority of this content is restricted to my Patreon subscribers, whose support allows me to write all of this in the first place. Please consider becoming a subscriber! -Marc Normandin
Anthony Rizzo calls out the Cubs, MLB, and he’s not wrong
While the occasional article is free for everyone, the vast majority of this content is restricted to my Patreon subscribers, whose support allows me to write all of this in the first place. Please consider becoming a subscriber! -Marc Normandin
Here’s why MiLB players won’t be paid for appearing in MLB The Show
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If you’re a fan of baseball video games, and have been waiting for minor-league players to finally be included in one, you’re in luck! The latest edition of MLB The Show is going to include full minor-league rosters for the first time ever. Oh, here’s just a tiny side note: those minor-league players aren’t going to be paid for the use of their likeness in the game, because MLB owns those and can do whatever they want with it.
Minor League Baseball’s players sign a uniform contract. MLB players also have uniform contracts, but the language contained within those has been negotiated over the course of decades through collective bargaining, and that uniform language is a base upon which they can build specifics. Not so with the minors, where the contract is the contract, and cannot be altered by the players: sign it or don’t sign it, but only one of those outcomes allows you to play pro ball under the MLB umbrella.
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