Phillies disinvite Pete Rose from Alumni Weekend - MLB

The Phillies are having their annual “Alumni Weekend” August 10-13. The focus of this year’s festivities was going to be Pete Rose — one of the heroes of the 1980 World Series championship team — who would be inducted to the Phillies’ Wall of Fame. The club was also going to hand out Pete Rose bobbleheads.

Not anymore. The Phillies just issued a press release saying that “due to recent events,” Rose and the Phillies have mutually agreed that Rose will not participate in Alumni Weekend and the bobblehead will not be given out. Rose said in the statement that he is “concerned that other matters will overshadow the goodwill associated with Alumni Weekend, and I agree not to participate.”

Those “other matters” and “recent events,” of course, refer to the revelation earlier this week that Rose was engaged in a sexual relationship with a teenage girl back in the 1970s. She claims, under oath, that she was 14 at the time the relationship began, which, then and now, constitutes statutory rape in Ohio. Rose claims that he believed she was 16 at the time which, in addition to not mattering legally — the perpetrator’s belief as to a minor’s age is irrelevant under Ohio law — is not all that much better when you realize that he was in his 30s at the time, married with two children.

Not that any of that was gonna make its way into the Phillies press release. Which, I presume, the Phillies wrote, Rose’s comments included, and informed him that that was how it was gonna go.

Which: good for the Phillies.

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NEW YORK – Minor league players reached a historic initial collective bargaining agreement with Major League Baseball on Wednesday that will more than double player salaries, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because details were not announced.

As part of the five-year deal, MLB agreed during the contract not to reduce minor league affiliates from the current 120.

The sides reached the deal two days before the start of the minor league season and hours after a federal judge gave final approval to a $185 million settlement reached with MLB last May of a lawsuit filed in 2014 alleging violations of federal minimum wage laws.

Union staff recommended approval and about 5,500 minor leaguers were expected to vote on Thursday. MLB teams must also vote to approve and are expected to do so over the next week.

Minimum salaries will rise from $4,800 to $19,800 at rookie ball, $11,000 to $26,200 at Low Class A, $11,000 to $27,300 at High Class A, $13,800 to $27,300 at Double A and $17,500 to $45,800 at Triple-A. Players will be paid in the offseason for the first time.

Most players will be guaranteed housing, and players at Double-A and Triple-A will be given a single room. Players below Double-A will have the option of exchanging club housing for a stipend. The domestic violence and drug policies will be covered by the union agreement. Players who sign for the first time at 19 or older can become minor league free agents after six seasons instead of seven.

Major leaguers have been covered by a labor contract since 1968 and the average salary has soared from $17,000 in 1967 to an average of $4.22 million last season. Full-season minor leaguers earned as little as $10,400 last year.

The Major League Baseball Players Association took over as the bargaining representative of the roughly 5,500 players with minor league contracts last September after a lightning 17-day organization drive.

Minor leaguers players will receive four weeks of retroactive spring training pay for this year. They will get $625 weekly for spring training and offseason training camp and $250 weekly for offseason workouts at home.

Beginning in 2024, teams can have a maximum of 165 players under contract during the season and 175 during the offseason, down from the current 190 and 180.

The union will take over group licensing rights for players.

Negotiating for players was led by Tony Clark, Bruce Meyer, Harry Marino, Ian Penny and Matt Nussbaum. MLB Deputy Commissioner Dan Halem headed management’s bargainers.