This is the story of three Sacramento, California guys–an 89-year-old Mexican American Hall of Famer, a former Black outfielder for the New York Mets, and a White pitcher–all of whom fell shy of a Major League Baseball (MLB) pension by just 30 days of service.
By the way, the only reason I’m letting you know about their ethnic identities is that it’s proof positive that Tony Clark, the executive director of the union representing current ballplayers–the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA), doesn’t care who you are. When it comes to taking advantage of old men, Clark is an equal opportunist.
Cuno Barragan (Baseball Almanac)
Let’s start with Cuno Barragan, a Sacramento native who played in the big leagues from 1961 to 1963 with the Chicago Cubs. A Mexican American Hall of Famer, Barragan, who now resides in Carmichael, California, graduated from Sacramento State College. A former catcher, he turns 90-year-old this year.
Barragan’s only home run in the big leagues came during his first-ever at-bat before a reported crowd of 5,400 at Wrigley Field on September 1, 1961. Barragan would most likely be a footnote in the annals of the national pastime if it weren’t for one thing: he’s among the 609 retired ballplayers not receiving MLB pensions.
Courtesy Pinterest
Ditto for Leon Brown, 72, who played for the Mets in 1976. A graduate of Grant Union High School and California State University, Brown made a princely salary of $19,000 that season.
But the situation of Sacramento Hall of Famer Lowell Palmer takes the cake. A pitcher for four teams who had 3 1/2 years of service–thanks to his having appeared in 106 career games–Palmer’s gross payment amounts to $8,750 a year. After taxes, he comes home with $6,262. Meanwhile, vested retirees can receive up to $245,000.
The only other source of income for Palmer–who made 25 starts, threw two complete games in 316 and two-third innings and earned five victories (including one shutout)–is the $18,000 he receives each year in Social Security. He has filed for bankruptcy on two occasions, has had 28 surgeries (including open-heart surgery), and cannot lift either of his arms above his shoulders.
Courtesy eBay
Fast forward to the present. I am thinking of Barragan, Brown, and Palmer these days because they have, in my opinion, all but been forgotten by Clark and the players’ union.
Regrettably, for Barragan, Brown, and Palmer, the vesting rules for a pension changed in 1980. It used to be a player who needed four years of service to be eligible. Then, the length of service changed to 43 days. It was a sweetheart deal the league offered the MLBPA with one notable caveat: the pre-1980 players like Barragan were not retroactively included.
So, for the past four decades, post-1980 players like Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor — he of the 10-year, $341 million contract extension — have only needed 43 game days of service on an active roster to get a pension. And, to boot, their designated beneficiaries get to keep that pension.
Instead of MLB pensions, effective April 2011, all tht pre-1980 players get is a yearly payment of up to $10,000 for every 43 game days of service they accrued on an active MLB roster. Given the time he spent with the Cubs, it’s more likely that Barragan gets a bone of $5,000 thrown at him. As for Brown, he earns $2,500.
Again, that’s before taxes are taken out. What’s more, the payment cannot be passed on to anyone. So when Barragan dies, his designated beneficiary will not receive the bone he’s being thrown. But do you hear this issue being bandied about in the collective bargaining negotiations (CBA) now going on? Of course not.
Lockout or not, what makes this unseemly is that the national pastime is doing great financially. The average salary is $3.7 million and the minimum salary is $575,500. In its 2021 edition of MLB team valuation, Forbes reported that each of the 30 big-league clubs is valued at an average of $1.9 billion.
If anyone can help these forgotten retirees, it’s the players on the union’s eight-member executive committee, players such as Lindor, Marcus Semien, Andrew Miller, Max Scherzer, and Gerrit Cole. All of them can go to Clark and insist that this injustice be remedied once and for all.
After all, it’s because of the guys like Cuno Barragan, Leon Brown, and Lowell Palmer–guys who grew the game and walked picket lines so the free agency could occur–that Semien, Cole, Scherzer, and Lindor are in the position to be getting the big money they make.
_________
Freelance writer Douglas J. Gladstone of New York is the author of A Bitter Cup of Coffee: How MLB & The Players Association Threw 874 Retirees a Curve.
