Once
upon a time, Tony Clark was an exceptionally talented ball player with five
teams who, over the course of his 15-year career, played in 1,559 games, hit
.262, homered 251 times and collected 824 runs batted in.
Now, in his 12th season as executive director of the Major League Baseball Players’ Association (MLBPA)– the union representing both current ballplayers and minor leaguers -- he is now an unexceptional labor leader stiffing 503 nonvested, retired ballplayers who played prior to 1980 out of Major League Baseball (MLB) pensions.
The majority of these pre-1980 players walked the picket lines and went without paychecks so that free agency could be ushered in. Which is more than a bit ironic since Clark signed free agent contracts five times – with the New York Mets, the New York Yankees, the Arizona Diamondbacks on two occasions and the San Diego Padres.
Now you would think that someone who has availed himself of the free agency process as much as Clark has would have more than a little sympathy for those pre-1980 guys, most of whom didn’t play when teams were shelling out bigtime contracts – these days, even the 26th man on the bench making the minimum salary is earning $760,000 a year. When these men played, it was more common for them to be earning between $9,000 and $12,000 a year. If that much.
But is Clark sympathetic to their plight?
No way.
In fact, in 12 years as union executive director, Clark has never commented about these non-vested retirees, many of whom are filing for bankruptcy at advanced ages and having banks foreclose on their homes.
Once upon a time, Clark used to be known as “Tony the Tiger,’ after the Frosted Flakes mascot. Now, I just call him “Teflon Tony,” ‘like the British press often referred to Prime Minister Tony Blair, because bad press just doesn’t stick to him. Especially about this issue.
In two collective bargaining agreement (CBA)s with the league that Teflon Tony has negotiated, the only thing he’s ever done to help these old timers is raise the payment these retirees get a paltry 15 percent, to $718.75 for every 43 game days each affected man accrued on a MLB roster, up to a maximum of $11,500. Clark’s predecessor, the late Michael Weiner, brokered the first payment with former Commissioner Bud Selig in 2012 – it paid the men $625 for every 43 games they were on a MLB roster.
Meanwhile, a vested retiree can receive up to $275,000, according to the IRS.
To my dying day, I’ll remain convinced that the only reason Clark did what he did is because, after I contacted her, the wife of a future Hall of Famer pitcher told her husband about this blight on the national pastime; the future Hall of Famer then went to bat for these old timers and insisted in a meeting with an MLBPA executive that, if it weren’t for them, he wouldn’t be earning the $43.3 million contract he signed during the 2021 off-season.
(I’ll let you figure out who that might be.)
Anyways, once upon a time, in 1970, Sam Parrilla, a native of Santurce, Puerto Rico, played for the Philadelphia Phillies. You probably never heard of him, especially because he was only on a MLB roster for 30 days in 1970 but, in his abbreviated time in The Show, he came up to the plate 16 times and collected two hits.
He isn’t among the 503 retired ball players currently receiving the bone being thrown them because, regrettably, not only didn’t Parrilla have 43 days on a MLB roster, but he was shot in 1994…way before that first agreement in 2012 was even struck.
You read that right: according to my friend and blogger Max Effgen, Parrilla would have been among 150 or so retirees who don’t even get that bone because they don’t have those 43 days on a MLB roster.
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| Sam Parrilla and Roy Gleason |
Though Parrilla is long deceased, “Teflon Tony” doesn’t even want to recognize former Los Angeles Dodgers player Roy Gleason, who turned 82-years-of-age this past April. Gleason, who had approximately the same amount of service time on a MLB roster as Parrilla did, is the only former MLB player ever to receive a Purple Heart.
What’s wrong with this picture? What is wrong with Clark?
With the average MLB salary last year reported to be $5.1 million, and with Clark reportedly receiving a yearly salary of $3.41 million, the union is forgetting to take care of the relatives of the men like Parrilla and Gleason, who helped grow the game. After all, unions are supposed to help hard working people in this country get a fair shake in life.
Sam Parrilla’s daughter is actress Lana Parrilla who, once upon a time, played the Evil Queen in ABC’s Once Upon a Time. Now, she’s readying to star in USA Network’s television adaptation of John Grisham’s The Rainmaker.
I don’t know if Ms. Parrilla knows anything about this issue. But if she’s inclined to, there are 653 retired men and their families who sure could benefit from her speaking out about this injustice.
As for Clark, I don’t expect much, if anything, from him. After all, he has had ample opportunities over the past 12 years to rain money down on these men. Too bad for them he’s proven to be nothing more than an evil king.
Douglas
J. Gladstone (@GLADSTONEWRITER) is the author of “A Bitter Cup of
Coffee: How MLB & the Players’ Association Threw 874 Retirees a
Curve.”
