Statement from MLBPA Executive Director Michael Weiner Regarding Biogenesis Suspensions

New York, NY, Monday, August 5, 2013 … Major League Baseball Players Association Executive Director Michael Weiner today issued the following statement regarding the Biogenesis suspensions. “The accepted suspensions announced today are consistent with the punishments set forth in the Joint Drug Agreement, and were arrived at only after hours of intense negotiations between the […]

Revised MLB Anti-Doping Plan Has All-Star Ban

Revised MLB anti-doping plan has All-Star ban (via AFP) Major League Baseball players who violate the league’s anti-doping program will be ineligible for that season’s All-Star Game under one of several revisions to the program announced on Thursday. Human growth hormone blood tests were added during pre-season training, the off-season and for reasonable…    

Stanley “Doc” Glenn Fondly Remembered in Quebec

Word came down the other day that 84-year old Stanley “Doc” Glenn had passed away on April 16. Glenn, a rangy 6’ 2” son of a Virginia fisherman who once described himself as a journeyman catcher, was in fact a superior defensive rearguard with a great arm. During the 1940s he made his mark with […]

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL AND MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL PLAYERS ASSOCIATION REACH AGREEMENT REGARDING PAYMENTS FOR PRE-1980 PLAYERS

My friend Doug Gladstone, author of A Bitter Cup of Coffee: How MLB and The Players Association Threw 874 Retirees a Curve, has been championing the cause of MLB players who retired between 1947 and 1980 and who didn’t qualify for a pension if they had less than four years of service time.  It looks […]

Major League Baseball And Major League Baseball Players Association Announce New Protocols On Concussions

New York, NY, Tuesday, March 29, 2011 … Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) announced today that they have adopted a series of protocols under its new joint policy regarding concussions, which will be in effect from Opening Day forward. On behalf of MLB and the MLBPA, a committee […]

Marvin Miller Again Denied Hall of Fame Induction

From the MLBPA: New York, NY, Monday, December 06, 2010 … The following statement was issued today by Major League Baseball Players Association founding Executive Director Marvin Miller regarding the Hall of Fame Expansion Era Committee election results. “The Baseball Hall of Fame’s vote (or non-vote) of December 5, hardly qualifies as a news story. […]

“Helping Those Who Have A Greater Need Than Our Own”

What’s the measure of a person?  How do you gauge his or her character? It’s the sort of question that people have been debating for years. Indeed, no less than the founder of the American Newspaper Guild, the late Heywood Campbell Broun, once weighed in on the topic. “Sports do not build character,” he remarked. […]

Touring The Bases With…Doug Gladstone

Doug Gladstone is the author of A Bitter Cup of Coffee: How MLB and The Players Association Threw 874 Retirees a Curve, in which he champions the cause of former major league players who don’t qualify for a pension because they didn’t meet the required service time.  An excerpt from an article Doug wrote for […]

The Test of Leadership

“Management is doing things right,” the late management guru Peter Drucker once said. “Leadership is doing the right things.” I was reminded of that sage phrase after being emailed recently by Wanda Burbach, the wife of former New York Yankee pitcher, Bill Burbach. Born in 1947, in Dickeyville., Wisconsin, Burbach played parts of three seasons […]

Wake Up and Smell The (Bitter Cup of) Coffee!

Former Pittsburgh Pirates player and broadcaster Nellie King passed away yesterday at Family Hospice Center in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania.  Nellie was 82 years old. Signed as an amateur free agent in 1946, King didn’t make his major league debut until 1954. Three years later, at the age of 29, he was out of baseball because […]

Mighty Casey Has Struck Out (Again)

Less than two weeks ago, on Monday, July 12th, Matt Holliday, he of the $120 million, seven-year contract, participated in the Home Run Derby exhibition as part of the annual All-Star Game festivities at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California. That same evening, some 1600 miles away from Anaheim, in Sutter, Illinois, 64-year-old Jimmy Qualls came […]

874 Retired Ballplayers Are Gulping Bitter Cups of Coffee

In the final episode of M*A*S*H, the pompous doctor portrayed by actor David Ogden Stiers gets a sendoff that’s arguably one of the most indelible images in television history. After seven seasons of “Major Charles Emerson Winchester” trumpeting his own self-importance, breeding and surgical skills, this upper-crust scion of a prominent Boston family leaves Korea […]

An All-Star Team of ex-Major Leaguers in Their 90s

A recent quick visit to Wikipedia produced a list of the ex-major leaguers who are 90 and up, and from there it was an easy process to put together an All-Star lineup for these guys, practically all of whom starred in the ’40s. I’m offering it for consideration and debate: Catcher: Mike Sandlock, who spent […]

Major Leaguers Join Forces with Wounded Warrior Project to Support and Honor This Generation of Wounded Veterans

From MLBPA press release: – Proceeds from exclusive apparel line to benefit wounded warriors – – Major Leaguers contribute an additional $100,000 through the Players Trust – New York, NY (Monday, April 19, 2010) – Major League baseball players are honoring the sacrifices made by our nation’s wounded warriors by launching an exclusive line of […]

Granderson, Happ and Mauer to Receive Prestigious 2009 Players Choice Awards

From MLBPA news releases: Joe Mauer to be Presented Players Choice Award as 2009 AL Outstanding Player In Joe’s honor, the Players Trust contributes $5,000 each to the Catholic Athletic Association, Friends of St. Paul Baseball, Gillette Children’s Foundation and Highland Friendship Club New York, NY, Friday, April 16, 2010 … In a pre-game ceremony […]

Baseball Union succeeds where John McCain fails

Since Congress won’t protect you—or major league baseball players—from dangerous supplements, the Major League Baseball Players Union has just sent out a list of 104 supplements its players should avoid. The union terms the supplements “dangerous/contaminated,” in a clear an attempt help its players steer clear of substances that would falsely test positive for performance enhancing […]

Cooperstown Rediscovered

For a young boy who loves baseball, there is no cooler place to grow up than near Cooperstown, N.Y., the home of baseball. My family spent many summer weekends boating on Otsego Lake and taking in the Norman Rockwell-like atmosphere of a village that lives and breathes baseball—just like I did. If you have a […]