Local Author Advocates for Retired MLB Players
The cover of the 2019 edition of “A Bitter Cup of Coffee,” written by Douglas J. Gladstone. Image via Word Association Publishers/Amazon.
HOUSTON, TEXAS — Douglas J. Gladstone, a freelance writer from Gansevoort, is advocating for retired MLB players who he says are getting stiffed out of pensions.
Gladstone discussed the issue, detailed in his book “A Bitter Cup of Coffee,” at the Houston Public Library last Friday alongside two retired ballplayers, David Clyde and Scipio Spinks.
According to Gladstone, in 1980 the Major League Baseball Players’ Association (MLBPA) told MLB that they would strike unless their demands were met regarding a collective bargaining agreement. A strike was averted when the league’s negotiator approached Marvin Miller, who was the head of the players’ union, and made him the following offer: call off the strike and MLB will allow its players to be vested into the pension plan after just 43 game days on an MLB roster (the previous eligibility requirement was 4 years).
The offer was accepted, but the deal did not retroactively include players who were on an MLB roster for 43 game days prior to 1980. Thus, post-1980 players benefited from the new deal, but more than 500 other players, such as Clyde and Spinks, did not benefit because they played prior to 1980.
After the first edition of Gladstone’s book was released in 2010, MLB and the MLBPA announced that these pre-1980 players would begin receiving annual stipends. However, those payments, Gladstone said, are significantly less than those received by vested retirees. The stipend also doesn’t allow players to designate a beneficiary for when they pass away.
Gladstone, who described himself as a “pro-union man,” said he thought the MLBPA was “stiffing the pre-1980 players.”
“I’m pleading with you,” Gladstone said at the event in Houston, “to help me end this blight on the national pastime.”
By day, Gladstone is an assistant public information specialist with a public retirement system in New York. An updated edition of his book, “A Bitter Cup of Coffee,” was released in 2019. For more information on the book, or to view a comprehensive list of pre-1980, non-vested MLB players who do not receive pension or benefits, visit bittercupbaseball.com.