{"id":32946,"date":"2019-08-04T14:15:47","date_gmt":"2019-08-04T18:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/?p=32946"},"modified":"2019-08-04T14:15:47","modified_gmt":"2019-08-04T18:15:47","slug":"mr-rogers-neighborhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2019\/08\/04\/mr-rogers-neighborhood\/","title":{"rendered":"Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like a lot of movie fans, I\u2019m very excited about the forthcoming Mister Rogers biopic, It\u2019s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood<\/em>, starring Academy Award-winner Tom Hanks, which opens on November 22.<\/p>\n

There is another Mister Rogers out there who is the complete antithesis of the legendary children\u2019s television show host.<\/p>\n

Steve Rogers was a former Montreal Expos hurler who won over 150 games with the club. Famously, when he was eligible to be voted into the Hall of Fame, he didn\u2019t receive one vote from any of the Montreal beat writers who covered the Expos.<\/p>\n

That alone speaks volumes about his people skills.<\/p>\n

A graduate of Tulsa University, Rogers\u2019 degree in petroleum engineering attests to the fact he is a smart guy.<\/p>\n

But onetime Oakland Athletics infielder Jimmy Driscoll isn\u2019t impressed with the pedigree of Rogers, who is the pensions liaison to the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players\u2019 Association (MLBPA), Tony Clark.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis degree fits him to the tee,\u201d says the 76-year-old Driscoll. \u201cHe\u2019s just a gas jockey, he’s a real slick customer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Driscoll is among the 600 plus retirees who played Major League Baseball (MLB) who are not receiving MLB pensions. Other former Athletics affected include Jerry Lynn Tabb\u2014 Rogers\u2019 very own teammate on the 1971 Tulsa team that won the College Baseball World Series. Tabb was the Most Valuable Player during that College World Series and later played with Team USA at the \u201871 Pan American Games.<\/p>\n

It is Rogers\u2019 job to go to bat for men like Tabb. A job which, in my opinion, he has not done very well.<\/p>\n

Rogers and Sal Bando were, respectively, the National League and American League Player Representatives when vesting rule changes occurred in 1980. Prior to that, you needed four years worth of service to be eligible for a MLB pension. But ever since, all that\u2019s been required is 43 game days of service on an active MLB roster.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the late Michael Weiner, who was Clark\u2019s predecessor, the league and union in April 2011 partially remedied this situation. Men like Driscoll have been receiving $625 ever since in what is called non-qualified retirement monies for every 43 game days of service they accrued on an active MLB roster, up to $10,000. But it pales in comparison to the $225,000 vested retirees can earn.<\/p>\n

A fact which the MLBPA doesn\u2019t seem in any rush to change, in spite of the fact that so many men like Driscoll are without health insurance, defaulting on their mortgages and filing for Chapter 11.<\/p>\n

Driscoll, for one, is disgusted by the union\u2019s treatment of this group. \u201cWe\u2019re the lost boys of baseball,\u201d he\u2019s told me on countless occasions.<\/p>\n

See, in Steve Rogers\u2019 neighborhood, it\u2019s perfectly alright for the players\u2019 union to pay its 72 staff members $16 million in salaries (according to its own 2015 IRS filing) but not pay pensions to the men like Driscoll and Tabb.<\/p>\n

In this Mister Rogers\u2019 neighborhood, the 25th man on the bench earns a minimum salary of $555,000 \u2013 thanks, in part, to the men like Driscoll and Tabb, who stood on picket lines, endured labor stoppages and went without paychecks all so that free agency could be ushered in.<\/p>\n

In this Mister Rogers\u2019 neighborhood, men he played with and against \u2013 like former Expos hurler Santo Alcala or California Angels pitcher Wally Wood \u2013 never received their non-qualified payments until somebody else had to tell the union they were due the monies. That is because the union has no quality control mechanism to ensure that everyone entitled to their money receives their money.<\/p>\n

In Wolf\u2019s case, former Angels pitcher Paul Doyle said that Rogers told him that his onetime teammate had \u201cjust fallen through the cracks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Great empathy, right? I told you he had dubious people skills.<\/p>\n

Just two months ago, after writing a guest commentary for the Pikes Peak Bulletin<\/em>, I helped Don Wallace, a former player who lives in Manitou Springs, Colorado, get nine years worth of back payments due him.<\/p>\n

Rogers didn\u2019t know about him either until I instructed Wallace to call the MLBPA.<\/p>\n

Remember how Fred Rogers always used to sing to his audience and ask if they would be his neighbor? Be in Fred Rogers\u2019 neighborhood? Of course. Be a neighbor of Steve Rogers?<\/p>\n

No way.<\/p>\n

Douglas J. Gladstone is a freelance magazine writer and author of two books, including <\/em>\u201cA Bitter Cup of Coffee; How MLB & the Players Association Threw 874 Retirees a Curve.\u201d Feel free to visit his website at www.gladstsonewriter.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like a lot of movie fans, I\u2019m very excited about the forthcoming Mister Rogers biopic, It\u2019s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, starring Academy Award-winner Tom Hanks, which opens on November 22. There is another Mister Rogers out there who is the complete antithesis of the legendary children\u2019s television show host. Steve Rogers was a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":752,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t