Most minor-league MLB players below poverty level
So you've been selected in the Major League Baseball amateur draft, and after signing your very first professional contract with the team you now swear will have your allegiance forever, they send you off for an adventurous taste of life in the minor leagues.
You think you're about to hit the big time.
In most cases, you're actually about to hit rock bottom.
Financially speaking, it doesn't get much worse than breaking into professional sports as a baseball player. While other leagues, such as the National Football League and the National Basketball Association, pay their first-year players handsomely, the typical minor-league baseball player earns less money than the national poverty level.
It's not nearly that bad for minor-leaguers trying to skate their way up to the National Hockey League, but salaries are so miniscule throughout baseball's farm systems that most players earn only between $3,000 and $7,500 for a five-month season, yet they are expected to work out all year and the following off-season.
Fast-food workers, by comparison, earn between $15,000 and $18,000 a year — or about two to three times what Johnny Fastball from Enid, Okla., makes.
"You hear the stories all the time about chasing the dream and, 'Oh, the minor leagues are glorious,' " Diamondbacks second baseman Aaron Hill said. "Well, a lot of guys have second jobs. Heck, almost all of them do.
"Back when I was playing in the minor leagues, we had seven guys staying in a two-bedroom apartment. That may have been a little extreme, but almost everybody has roommates. You have to, otherwise you couldn't live on what they're giving you."
While salaries in the big leagues have skyrocketed over the years, paychecks haven't changed all that much for minor-leaguers since 1975. Back then, a player in Double-A — two steps below the majors — earned $1,000 a month. That same player today makes only $1,500 a month.
"But then you've got clubhouse dues, which is $30 bucks here, $40 bucks there," said Hill, talking about the expected tips for clubhouse attendants after every series on the road, and the monthly gratuities for the "clubbies" at their home stadiums. Some players literally go hungry when their cash runs out.
"Before you know it, whatever cash you had left is gone. And it's not like they put out these awesome spreads for you," Hill said, referring to the food offered in minor-league clubhouses. "PB and J (peanut butter and jelly) was it. If you got lucky, maybe there were some bananas around. If you were lucky, maybe you'd get a little honey to put on it.
"If you were real lucky, you'd get a bag of Doritos."
One of the only places in the minor leagues that's an exception to the rule is for youngsters breaking into pro baseball here in the Arizona Rookie League, which runs through the end of the month. But that honeymoon doesn't last very long.
Though all they mostly do is eat, sleep and play baseball at its most introductory pro level, the Rookie League players usually are afforded decent accommodations and nutrition. They're basically on their own once they branch out and begin their minor-league careers elsewhere.
According to two Diamondbacks' prospects selected in this year's amateur draft, second-round picks Cody Reed and Marcus Wilson, lodging consists of a free hotel room at the Days Inn & Suites near the Salt River Fields at Talking Stick baseball complex in Scottsdale — with a roommate — and two healthy square meals a day — except when the team doesn't play.
Reed, a left-handed pitcher from Ardmore High School in Alabama, initially had signed a letter of intent to pitch for Arizona State University before deciding to turn pro.
Wilson, an outfielder from Junipero Serra (Calif.) High School, originally had committed to play college baseball at Vanderbilt.
Both received substantial enough signing bonuses from the Diamondbacks, although they know the real payday awaits when and if they ever make it to the majors.
Until then, it will be an arduous journey with stops in Class A ball and then the Double-A or Triple-A leagues at minimal salary before they actually become a heartbeat away from the real deal and striking it rich.
"I'm hoping I get there pretty quick, but if it takes longer than I think, I'll be fine with that, too," Reed said. "I'm hoping it's only two or three years before I get to Double-A ball. That's the goal, anyway."
Not all minor-leaguers are hurting for cash. High draft picks receive six- and seven-figure signing bonuses to offset the low wage scale. Even some lower-round draftees get lucky if they hire the right agent or broker a smart signing-bonus deal themselves.
But that money only goes so far.
Nick Ahmed, a shortstop for the Diamondbacks, received a $417,000 signing bonus from the Atlanta Braves when they made him a second-round pick in 2011. Almost half of that, however, went to taxes and fees for his agent.
Fortunately, Ahmed's father, Mark, is a financial adviser and taught his son how to invest the remaining money.
"I'm lucky my dad was there to help me and show me how to be smart with my money," Nick Ahmed said. "It's nice to know I wasn't going to be one of those sad stories where guys squander away their first contract.
"I tried to make it on my own the first summer in (Class) A ball, but I ended up living with three other guys in an apartment. We split a two-bedroom place between us. It wasn't the nicest apartment, but it had beds and we had a roof over our heads."
Going to court
There isn't much else a minor-league baseball player can afford, which is why earlier this year, three former minor-leaguers sued Major League Baseball, Commissioner Bud Selig and three teams (the Kansas City Royals, San Francisco Giants and Miami Marlins) in U.S. District Court for violations of wage and overtime laws.
The lawsuit was filed in February and has since expanded twice, with more individuals signing on; hearings are scheduled to commence in September. It claims salaries are so low down on the farm that baseball is forcing "many minor-leaguers to live in poverty."
"No one is saying that minor-leaguers should be getting rich," Garrett Broshuis, an attorney and former minor-leaguer who helped build the case, told NBC News. "But if McDonald's and Wal-Mart can pay a minimum wage, then Major League Baseball can, too."
Baseball has been able to keep minor-league salaries to a minimum largely because of its historical exemption from federal antitrust law. Not having a players' union in the lower levels of the game has also meant there is no one to advocate for better pay and compensation.
"It is pretty bad in the minor leagues," said Detroit Tigers pitcher Max Scherzer, "and it doesn't help that minor-league players have never had a union. But we're doing what we can for them up here, by making sure guys in the draft are getting sizable signing bonuses to help balance some of those low salaries.
"It isn't easy, I know," added Scherzer, a 2006 Diamondbacks' draft pick. "I've had cousins and I've had really good friends in that situation, and the deck is stacked against you. You're playing for the love of the game, and sadly a lot of guys don't stick with it because they just can't afford to keep doing it.
"A lot of them quit."
Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa, now the Diamondbacks' chief baseball officer, spent the majority of his playing career toiling in the minors. He knows what the long, lonely bus rides and cheesy motel rooms are like.
Interestingly, however, he doesn't think minor-league players are in need of a pay raise. If anyone is, he said, it should be the managers, coaches and other minor-league instructors.
As for the players, he said their time will come soon enough.
"If you're good enough to get to the big leagues, then that's it. It's the best baseball in the world. They certainly have a pot of gold waiting for them," La Russa said. "If I had (my) druthers, I think the quality of the instruction, both physically and mentally, that they can get from the day they sign to the day they get to the big leagues is so important that I would love to see the coaches and coordinators get compensated. And it has improved there."
The players, meanwhile, are still waiting for a few crumbs of the pie. MLB players have seen their salaries increase by more than 2,000 percent in the past four decades. On average, the minor-league player has seen his paycheck increase by an average of only 75 percent over that time, even though consumer prices have increased nearly 400 percent.
There are small fringe benefits along the way. Friendly folks in most small towns with lower-level minor-league teams recognize that many ballplayers are hurting for cash and they often reach out and help when they can.
Ahmed, the Diamondbacks' rookie, said that was the case back in Danville, Va., when he played Class A ball for the Danville Braves in the Appalachian League. Players would frequent a sports bar and restaurant in town called Kickback Jack's, where the people there have always embraced and looked after the young Braves prospects.
Chris Dahm, the managing partner at Kickback Jack's, has regularly sent boxes of pizzas over to the Danville clubhouse, charging as little as $3 for a regularly priced $12 pie.
"That's the way it is around town," Dahm said. "A lot of the local businesses want to look after those guys. It's not a big club, it's not a big town, but it's something we can all get around, and if one out of 20 of these kids ends up in Atlanta, we get to say, 'Hey, remember when he was here playing in Danville?'
"As long as they come in here and treat us right, we'll always look after them. And a lot of the ballplayers come through here. We've got kids from North Carolina and Virginia, plus a lot of them from South and Central America, and they've got nothing. It's kind of sad, really."
Living the dream
Before he began his 18-year playing career in the majors as a catcher, Brad Ausmus spent 5½ years grinding it out in the minor leagues.
And yes, he was poor.
A 47th-round pick of the New York Yankees in the 1987 draft, he would end up playing in the majors longer than any of the 1,150 players drafted ahead of him did. But the early days were tough.
"I was naive," said Ausmus, now manager of the Tigers. "In my mind, I was going to make it eventually and I just kept slogging away. My first year, I think I got paid $700 a month. I didn't know any better. And because I was naive, I just assumed the best and that eventually I would make it.
"I didn't realize how stacked the odds were against me."
Ausmus said he'll always have a soft spot in his heart for the minor-leaguers who tough it out and stick with the game. He points to a first baseman named John Lindsey, who toiled for 16 seasons in the minors before finally getting promoted in 2010 to the majors with the Dodgers, where Ausmus spent his final season in the big leagues.
"You wouldn't believe how excited we all were for him," Ausmus said. "We threw him the biggest party you could imagine when he got called up, and wouldn't you know it, he got a hit in his first game, too."
Lindsey is still playing baseball at age 37. Only now, he's doing it with the Diablos Rojos in the Mexican League.
Hall of Famer Frank Thomas didn't spend much time in the minor leagues, but the former slugger who rose to stardom with the Chicago White Sox still can empathize with those who have to take the long, exhausting route to get to the "Show."
Asked what advice he would give to a ballplayer who is about to begin his professional journey, Thomas said, "I just want to tell the guys to keep following their dreams and keep believing, because there will be a lot of scouts, so be prepared for that journey and make sure it's in your heart that you want to continue that journey. If it is, then keep following your dreams because baseball is such a wonderful game.
"Fortunately, there are the minor leagues so you can continue to dream. Everyone's not going to make it to the big leagues, but just playing this great game is a wonderful thing and yes, I do tell guys in the minor leagues to just keep working hard, to keep outworking everyone, because you just never know what might happen."
It happened for Ahmed this season, a lot more quickly than he imagined. He still almost can't believe it.
"I've been here for a little while now, and I'm still enjoying it like I just got here," he said before recently being sent back to Triple-A Reno. "I don't think I'll ever stop enjoying it. Sometimes I want to pinch myself and look at the guy next to me and say, 'Is this serious? Can you believe we're sitting in a major-league clubhouse right now?'
"But then I look at them and they're kind of used to it, I guess, so I don't say anything."
Follow the money series
SATURDAY: Paola Boivin's story on deferred money written into contracts – did you know the Diamondbacks are still paying a player who retired in 2001? -- and the issues it raises.
SUNDAY: Bob McManaman explores the actual dollars paid to minor league baseball players from a first contract through a major league promotion.
MONDAY: Sarah McLellan examines the "per diem" – the daily allowance handed out to cover living expenses during travel for work in pro sports. Escalating salaries and a boon in league revenue have led to its steady rise. So what do today's millionaire athletes do with that additional $100 or so, per day, in baseball, football and basketball?
ON THE BEAT
Bob McManaman has covered sports for The Arizona Republic since 1981 and has been a beat writer and national writer for the Cardinals/NFL, Diamondbacks/MLB, Coyotes/NHL and many other sports. He was born in Chicago but grew up in Phoenix.
How to reach him
bob.mcmanaman
@arizonarepublic.com
Phone: 602-444-8326
Twitter: @azbobbymac