美国国家公共电台 NPR Fight Against Low, Low Pay In Minor League Baseball Continues Despite New Obstacles

 

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

You may have heard in recent years that minor¹ league baseball players don't exactly share in the riches of the game. Most minor leaguers make an estimated $7,500 per year. Major League players average more than four million. A law passed by Congress a few months ago essentially² locked in low minor league pay. But that hasn't stopped a small group of people fighting to help those players. NPR's Tom Goldman reports.

TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE³: In an era of growing sports activism, creating a new website isn't exactly a kneeling-during-the-national-anthem moment.

JEREMY WOLF: And then we click preview, and then we click publish.

GOLDMAN: Still, when former minor league player Jeremy Wolf launched morethanbaseball.org in April, it was an opening salvo in a fight to help minor leaguers.

WOLF: There's no one out there supporting us. And so that's what I want this to be, is just that kind of backbone⁴, that support.

GOLDMAN: 24-year-old Wolf lived and loved the minor league life before he was released by his team last year after a back injury. He made a below minimum-wage salary, ate cheap, bad food. The ceiling leaked in his hotel. Wolf was a good-hitting outfielder, as long as there were enough bats. At his first stop in the minors⁵ in Tennessee, the team didn't supply them. So Wolf had to barter⁶ with teammates.

WOLF: I'll trade you batting gloves for a bat, or I'll trade you some shorts for a bat because I needed a bat to hit.

GOLDMAN: Stories of doing without are common in the minors. Traditionally, players accept it as a price for chasing Major League dreams.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The House has passed a $1.3 trillion spending bill ahead of...

GOLDMAN: But then, along came Congress in March and made doing without law. Buried on page 1,967 of the spending bill, the Save America's Pastime Act exempted⁷ Major League Baseball from federal wage and overtime⁸ rules. MLB reportedly paid millions lobbying for the act, which formalized what has been status quo in the minors - no overtime, no pay during spring training and the off-season.

Baseball's rationale is that minor leaguers are seasonal⁹ workers. Minor leaguers insist they're professional athletes who work year-round on their craft and many hours of overtime during the season. So Jeremy Wolf said enough. And he's getting help from others, including longtime union activist¹⁰ Bill Fletcher.

BILL FLETCHER: The situation facing minor leaguers will not be resolved through litigation, and it won't be resolved through legislation. It's going to be solved through organization.

GOLDMAN: Organizing minor league players - they don't have a union - is much easier said than done. They may grumble¹¹ among themselves, but they know speaking out publicly about the system could cost them jobs.

JONATHAN PERRIN: So this is kind of it. This is, you know, the living room, with the only furniture being a twin mattress¹². So...

GOLDMAN: Jonathan Perrin knew it was, in his words, a little bit of a risk when he agreed to let me interview him in May. He was a relief pitcher¹³ for a Triple-A minor league team in Colorado, where he shared an apartment with three teammates. Currently he's pitching in Double-A. He's one of the few active players to speak about the pay issue.

PERRIN: I'm not sitting here saying everybody should get 50 grand or whatever.

GOLDMAN: You're OK with minimum wage for an entire year?

PERRIN: Right. Yeah. I mean, we know what we signed up for. But just help give us a chance to continue to develop and not have to be, you know, drawn¹⁴ in so many different directions, trying to pay our bills during the times when we're not actually playing.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: The O2 - swing and a miss. Strike three - 14 strikeouts for Jon Perrin.

GOLDMAN: In his three years playing minor league baseball, Perrin has spent his off-seasons working in restaurants, substitute teaching, even - ironically - doing some financial advising. According to Forbes, Major League Baseball revenues last season topped $10 billion for the first time. Perrin understands that Major League owners who pay minor league salaries don't want to spend more than they have to. But, he says, by paying minor leaguers for the off-season and for housing, those players can get better quicker and make baseball better.

PERRIN: That's how I would look at it. It's an investment in your prospects¹⁵, in your lower-level guys to eventually create a better big-league product.

GARRETT BROSHUIS: Any time you see some players standing¹⁶ up, that's encouraging for me.

GOLDMAN: Attorney Garret Broshuis largely has been alone in the minor league fight since 2014. That's when he filed a lawsuit¹⁷ against Major League Baseball. The suit still is active. It's why MLB wouldn't comment for this story. Neither would the players association. The union and Major League players, most of whom started in the minors, have not offered public support for minor leaguers. It's frustrating¹⁸ for Broshuis and Jeremy Wolf and the few others speaking out.

But Wolf says several labor¹⁹ unions have shown interest in his efforts. And then there's the website, which Wolf says isn't about anger. It's about speaking out to make things better and perhaps starting a movement. Tom Goldman, NPR News.

1 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

2 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 backbone   

n.脊骨，脊柱，骨干；刚毅，骨气

参考例句：

• The Chinese people have backbone.中国人民有骨气。
• The backbone is an articulate structure.脊椎骨是一种关节相连的结构。

5 minors   

n.未成年人( minor的名词复数 )；副修科目；小公司；[逻辑学]小前提v.[主美国英语]副修，选修，兼修( minor的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The law forbids shops to sell alcohol to minors. 法律禁止商店向未成年者出售含酒精的饮料。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He had three minors this semester. 这学期他有三门副修科目。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 barter   

n.物物交换，以货易货，实物交易

参考例句：

• Chickens,goats and rabbits were offered for barter at the bazaar.在集市上，鸡、山羊和兔子被摆出来作物物交换之用。
• They have arranged food imports on a barter basis.他们以易货贸易的方式安排食品进口。

7 exempted   

使免除[豁免]( exempt的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• His bad eyesight exempted him from military service. 他因视力不好而免服兵役。
• Her illness exempted her from the examination. 她因病而免试。

8 overtime   

adj.超时的，加班的；adv.加班地

参考例句：

• They are working overtime to finish the work.为了完成任务他们正在加班加点地工作。
• He was paid for the overtime he worked.他领到了加班费。

9 seasonal   

adj.季节的，季节性的

参考例句：

• The town relies on the seasonal tourist industry for jobs.这个城镇依靠季节性旅游业提供就业机会。
• The hors d'oeuvre is seasonal vegetables.餐前小吃是应时蔬菜。

10 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

11 grumble   

vi.抱怨；咕哝；n.抱怨，牢骚；咕哝，隆隆声

参考例句：

• I don't want to hear another grumble from you.我不愿再听到你的抱怨。
• He could do nothing but grumble over the situation.他除了埋怨局势之外别无他法。

12 mattress   

n.床垫，床褥

参考例句：

• The straw mattress needs to be aired.草垫子该晾一晾了。
• The new mattress I bought sags in the middle.我买的新床垫中间陷了下去。

13 pitcher   

n.(有嘴和柄的)大水罐；(棒球)投手

参考例句：

• He poured the milk out of the pitcher.他从大罐中倒出牛奶。
• Any pitcher is liable to crack during a tight game.任何投手在紧张的比赛中都可能会失常。

14 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

15 prospects   

n.希望，前途(恒为复数)

参考例句：

• There is a mood of pessimism in the company about future job prospects. 公司中有一种对工作前景悲观的情绪。
• They are less sanguine about the company's long-term prospects. 他们对公司的远景不那么乐观。

16 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

17 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

18 frustrating   

adj.产生挫折的，使人沮丧的，令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's frustrating to have to wait so long. 要等这么长时间，真令人懊恼。
• It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience. 那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》

19 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。