As if the Orioles needed more bad press…

[Chuck A]

I read about this a couple weeks ago.  The host "billet" families was cancelled this year due to the virus.  And the Orioles are far from being the only team involved with their minor leaguers having to find their own living arrangements.  Why dormitory housing is not provided is beyond me, BUT it is the way it has been forever so ... 

It is the same way it is in hockey.  In Juniors anyway (under 20 yrs old).  Billet families are the best.

[UMDTerrapins]

 

[UMDTerrapins]

20 minutes ago, Chuck A said:

I read about this a couple weeks ago.  The host "billet" families was cancelled this year due to the virus.  And the Orioles are far from being the only team involved with their minor leaguers having to find their own living arrangements.  Why dormitory housing is not provided is beyond me, BUT it is the way it has been forever so ... 

It is the same way it is in hockey.  In Juniors anyway (under 20 yrs old).  Billet families are the best.

An interesting (but outdated) fact sheet at: https://www.advocatesforminorleaguers.com/stats

[Ruzious]

Wow - just read this thread - minor league players really need a union, because the Players Association sure as heck don't represent them, and the owners don't give a bleep.  Very disappointing situation.  

[Hazmat]

2 hours ago, UMDTerrapins said:

 

[Legend_Of_Joey]

3 hours ago, Hank Scorpio said:

What's pathetic is that there has to even BE an organization called Advocates for Minor Leaguers.

This IS Twitter and it's hearsay... are we sure this is legit? 

I posted a thread about 2 weeks ago about this same issue in Delmarva, along with the issue that Myrtle Beach had. 
 

I think players are more willing to step up now and say something. 

[Moose Milligan]

I'm just here to say that I don't know how I feel about this new SG who seems to have a bit of a heart.  I feel like the SG from 2008 would be wondering why these guys can't pull themselves up from their bootstraps and budget better or have another side hustle in order to make living arrangements possible.

[ChrisP]

5 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

I'm just here to say that I don't know how I feel about this new SG who seems to have a bit of a heart.  I feel like the SG from 2008 would be wondering why these guys can't pull themselves up from their bootstraps and budget better or have another side hustle in order to make living arrangements possible.

Casey Kotchman would have handled it better than this current crop. 

[Moose Milligan]

5 minutes ago, ChrisP said:

Casey Kotchman would have handled it better than this current crop. 

Kotchman would have a tent and would be grilling out.

[Aglets]

Surprised no one has reported on this yet.  But on Roch's latest blog post from today, Elias was directly asked about this.  He gave a rather firm denial of the contents of the tweet and said that all of their minor league players have accommodations.  And that they have been in touch with everyone before that tweet went out and after.

 

So take that FWIW.

[forphase1]

Interesting.  Clearly someone is mistaken and/or lying.  Unfortunately with the current societal issues, it's hard to really know who or what to believe.  I can certainly see Elias not admitting to this situation if true as poorly presented, but at the same time I doubt a site called Advocates for Minor Leaguers is exactly fair and unbiased either.  I hope the truth, either way, comes out soon and this ugly episode can be put behind us.

[bpilktree]

This seems like something that could easily fixed with a number of people that could help out not just the team or players.  A hotel in the area which isn’t full like many do to the pandemic could give the players a room and the good publicity they could get would help them in the long run.  You have Bowie State on summer break they could easily open a floor in their dorms for the players atleast during summer session and just charge a small rate for cleaning and maintenance issues.  As people have said their are a couple guys that have got could pay for some rooms, yes they shouldn’t have to but that doesn’t mean they should not either.  Some of the major league guys could help out you could probably get 12 rooms for the month for about 10k.  So you looking at about 40-50k total if you had to do hotels for 4 months.  The team could do a fund raiser or just a go fund me and they could get enough money easily or set up donation station at Camden.  This seems to me to just trying to point the finger at someone rather then trying to fix a very fixable situation.  

[Jammer7]

So, is the tweet legit? Or is it just noise? @Legend_Of_Joey, can you say if this tweet has any credibility to your direct knowledge? Has any Orioles player spoken up about some mistreatment or neglect? Not asking for names, of course. 

I have known players in rookie ball who had host families. I always thought A ball and above the guys either had hotels with roommates, or four guys got together and shared an apartment. Of course those players also worked in the off season to make money as well. 

The only time a team used to provide housing was in Spring Training, or instructs. We now see the Dominican Academy will provide it, which is I believe is great. Those are kids from a variety of generally poor backgrounds. It protects the investment and gives them a chance to succeed. 

Keep in mind the player salaries are for March through September. So, $20K for seven months is not that bad to start. I remember in the 1980’s minor league players made about what I made as an E4 in the military. So, painting these guys as victims, well that is ridiculous. If they are not paying enough for your liking, find another job. Minor league baseball is not a social program. It is an opportunity. Perhaps there can be reasonable advances made, and I can advocate that, certainly. But these players are adults, not kids. Their family should be providing assistance and guidance. Since when are the team officials responsible for being the players parent? They should certainly assist within reason, but what is the average age of a AA player, 23 or 24? What is the age of personal accountability?

[Legend_Of_Joey]

37 minutes ago, Jammer7 said:

So, is the tweet legit? Or is it just noise? @Legend_Of_Joey, can you say if this tweet has any credibility to your direct knowledge? Has any Orioles player spoken up about some mistreatment or neglect? Not asking for names, of course. 

I have known players in rookie ball who had host families. I always thought A ball and above the guys either had hotels with roommates, or four guys got together and shared an apartment. Of course those players also worked in the off season to make money as well. 

The only time a team used to provide housing was in Spring Training, or instructs. We now see the Dominican Academy will provide it, which is I believe is great. Those are kids from a variety of generally poor backgrounds. It protects the investment and gives them a chance to succeed. 

Keep in mind the player salaries are for March through September. So, $20K for seven months is not that bad to start. I remember in the 1980’s minor league players made about what I made as an E4 in the military. So, painting these guys as victims, well that is ridiculous. If they are not paying enough for your liking, find another job. Minor league baseball is not a social program. It is an opportunity. Perhaps there can be reasonable advances made, and I can advocate that, certainly. But these players are adults, not kids. Their family should be providing assistance and guidance. Since when are the team officials responsible for being the players parent? They should certainly assist within reason, but what is the average age of a AA player, 23 or 24? What is the age of personal accountability?

I can’t speak for Bowie personally, but I do have direct knowledge of Delmarva and the Myrtle Beach situations with those teams informing players the day of, or just before a road trio, that they aren’t providing housing anymore, along with rumblings from other organizations.
 

However, what is interesting to me is Bowie backtracking a bit. Teams weren’t allowing Host Families this year but suddenly they are allowed after they get called out. All levels had Host Families as options, but usually the guys in AAA and some of AA didn’t use them. 
 

I don’t know if they still do it this season, but Bowie had a very amazing group of supporters who would do stuff like making care packages for players for road trips (toiletry items, blankets, pillows, snacks, ect) and do things when they were home, including a giant pot luck dinner every Sunday at the stadium. 
 

 

 

[Lurker]

2 hours ago, Jammer7 said:

Keep in mind the player salaries are for March through September. So, $20K for seven months is not that bad to start. I remember in the 1980’s minor league players made about what I made as an E4 in the military.

I don't know of any minor league players making $20k for 7 months work. The one minor league player that I know personally made $1400/month in AA and got a small bump up for AAA. That is nowhere near $20k for 7 months of work. Keep in mind, these minor league players are responsible for their own housing costs and they generally pay a locker room fee to the ball park and also have to pay for the laundering of their uniforms.

When this player was in the Cal league, he was only getting paid $1100/month and had to pay $300/month for laundry services. Oh year, he shared a two bedroom apartment with 5 other players on the team.

Being a minor league player is a huge grind, with potentially a large payoff.