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It would have been even classier if they would have been first. At this point, the leaders have shown their hand and others may be shamed into following. But progress would be progress.
I think Toronto did it last season but it wasn’t at the rates announced recently. But it was a pay raise nonetheless. (Note to grammar police – I am not sure about that last word. 20 lashes with a wet noodle if it is wrong to cojoin three words….LOL)
I just saw this and it seems appropriate… 😉
So, they’re using the player’s names and likeness but the players aren’t receiving a penny from the deal. Wow. Even the NCAA had to stop doing this because potential lawsuits from their “student”-athletes.
(For the older people reading this, MLB The Show is a video game played on gaming systems like Playstation and XBox)
All minor league players will be included in this year's edition of the MLB The Show video game. How can that happen without deals to pay the players?
We explain it:https://t.co/sdhd5rVBMJ
— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) February 19, 2020
The bottom line is the same. Minor leaguers have no representation so they get taken advantage of. In this example, the video game makers profit.
The bottom line is the same. Minor leaguers have no representation so they get taken advantage of. In this example, the video game makers profit.
I don’t think they need a union to win this lawsuit. NCAA players didn’t have one. Their bigger issue is that they weren’t allowed to be paid. MiLBers don’t have that issue.
Now, those guys need to cough up some of their $300 a week and get themselves a high-powered attorney!
ATS if you read the article all MiLB players sign a contract that basically strips them of their rights. They sign away their likeness and names so I don’t see how a lawsuit will help them. The only thing that will help them is a union where they can stop this.
ATS if you read the article all MiLB players sign a contract that basically strips them of their rights. They sign away their likeness and names so I don’t see how a lawsuit will help them. The only thing that will help them is a union where they can stop this.
Right. While I’m sympathetic to their cause, in this case their status as paid professionals does leave them no real room to bargain.
Could minor leaguers theoretically sign endorsement deals? It would seem like it.
They signed contracts for how much they got paid, too, but yet the class action lawsuit(s?) live on.
For that specific term, it can be declared a contract of adhesion, and throw it out.
NCAA players signed similar things, and yet they won their lawsuit for the exact same thing. The difference is that NCAA players names and numbers were a much bigger part of the game than are minor leaguers in an MLB game. They can go back to putting random names and numbers, and game rev would hardly change.
ATS you’re gonna have to show me a scholarship contract the NCAA players signed that said the NCAA, etc. can use their names, faces, etc. for marketing purposes and the players get zero.
Here is an article from right after the lawsuit they won.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-ncaa-waivers-met-20150326-story.html
And here is the relevant passage. I don’t have time to find actual documents, but I’m sure they are somewhere in the ether.
Before the start of every season, college athletes must sign an NCAA “student-athlete statement” to affirm their eligibility. It covers things such as educational records and drug testing, and for years it included a passage in which athletes gave permission for the NCAA and related parties “to use (the athlete’s) name or picture to generally promote NCAA championships or other NCAA events, activities or programs.”
It allowed their images to be used for promoting ncaa events not for private entities (video game makers) to use their image. That is why the athletes won their suit. The minor leaguers sign over their rights for private use. That is why it would be much more difficult for them to win a law suit.
Here is an example of waiver. Also a good example of a contract of adhesion.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-northern-illinois-nil-waiver-20150326-htmlstory.html
These documents don’t come out at trial because the schools (and other entities that make you sign things like this) know that it won’t hold up. The purpose of these documents aren’t to win at trial.
The real problem that the minor leaguers have is that if they choose to make a stink of it, the video game will just take them out – and most of them like the fact they are in the game. Again, we are making them victims of our imagination.
ats wrote:
The real problem that the minor leaguers have is that if they choose to make a stink of it, the video game will just take them out – and most of them like the fact they are in the game. Again, we are making them victims of our imagination.
You speak very definitively and confidently about something it would be almost impossible to actually know.
While I was in Low A, my paycheck for the month was $1100 before tax, my rent + utilities was $300+ after sticking 7 dudes in 3 bed 2 bath apartment, and we were only there for 5 months but had to sign a 6 month contract.
Become a host family.
Help a minor leaguer. https://t.co/W6njSma0TK
— Eric Sim (@esim69) March 12, 2020
Host families would be really good for a lot of those guys – really good. Not only would they save money, they would eat better, they would party less, and they’d get in less trouble.
I’ve always wondered why they don’t have these more places (I was thinking they had some of them in the low minors, but I could be wrong). Many of the guys who played in college have already had experience living with host family during Summer ball, and many of those lead to life-long friendships. It would be good for fans and players (though there would certainly be some “incidents” that would have to be dealt with).
Great idea, and I really hope it takes off.
The host family program is not new. They’ve been doing it for years in Peoria, SC and JC. Always a good idea to bring more attention to it, though.
Yeah, it is pretty amazing how willing a lot of fans are to help out minor league ballplayers. People are pretty amazing sometimes.
A familiar non-roster player thinking aloud about the personal financial impacts of a delayed season for them (and all minor leaguers).
For those of you who think this is nothing, I hear you. But when my wife and I were in the minors, $800 (when you’re expecting $0) is life changing. https://t.co/duXtbBTVvK
— Collin McHugh (@Collin_McHugh) March 16, 2020
The Rays and Mets are continuing to pay their minor leaguers the usual stipends and allowances they receive during spring training.
Other clubs have yet to establish formal plans, but they and league officials say they are working on it. https://t.co/SKu4u0zlV7
— Kyle Glaser (@KyleAGlaser) March 17, 2020
The COVID-19 relief plan Pres Trump and Sec Mnuchin discussed in the press conference today will help most of these guys during this severe crunch. I assume they will qualify for it. Mnuchin said they plan to have the checks issued to people in a couple weeks. As the post above said, $800 is significant to many of these guy, and this should be more than that.
The $30M that MLB is committing — $1M per team — is earmarked for team employees impacted by absence, not yet minor leaguers. MLB still is trying to finalize a plan with the union for 40-man roster players b4 shifting to what to do about minor leaguers.
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) March 17, 2020
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