One evening in September 1952, I tuned into “
Bobby Benson and the B-Bar-B Riders
,”
a well-known children’s radio program, and heard an interview with 20-year-old Mickey Mantle, who studiously answered questions about playing for the New York Yankees.
Mantle was injured in 1951
, but the next year his 23 home runs and .311 batting average made him a timely replacement for Joe DiMaggio, his celebrated, recently retired teammate. While an avid Yankee fan, I’d never heard Mantle speak, and those minutes were memorable.
Baseball people found Mantle impressive.
Casey Stengel
, the Yankees renowned manager, colorfully characterized his switch-hitting prospect by saying, “If that kid hit only right-handed, he’d be tree-mendous. If he only hit left-handed, he’d be tree-mendous. But since he does his hittin’ both ways, he’s just tree-mendous.” When he was young and promising, Mantle received modest media coverage, but comparison with a current young star athlete is striking.
Carlos Alcaraz
, a 19-year-old Spanish tennis player, whose sport is less popular in the U.S. than baseball, has received extensive American publicity for two years. A journalist wrote, “Like a steam engine rumbling down the tracks, Carlos Alcaraz has been coming for the world’s top tennis prizes for some time now.” He mentioned three recent victories, including “the latest chapter in his exploding career, winning his first Grand Slam title at the [2022] U.S. Open.”
It seems clear that the increased media attention to pro sports has had a very positive impact on team members’ salaries.
When Major League Baseball began, players needed off-season jobs.
Early in the 20th century, that included two of the game’s best all-time pitchers. “Christy Mathewson pumped gas at a service station … [and] Walter Johnson dug postholes for the Idaho Telephone Company.” Several decades later the pattern for superstars persisted, with Willie Mays selling cars and Stan Musial Christmas trees.
In 1968 the Major League Baseball Players Association signed a collective-bargaining agreement with team owners
, raising incomes.
By 1979 the average salary rose to $113,000
, reducing need for off-season work.
While nowadays major-league baseball players generally do very well financially,
their minor-league counterparts have always suffered low pay and poor working conditions but never unionized
. A leader in a recent initiative indicated that overall the players were pessimistic, feeling “Major League Baseball and the owners have too much power.”
Gradually, however, the prospect of union representation materialized. While several nonprofits and the MLBPA proved supportive, minor leaguers promoting unionization believe the crucial factor was consultation with their teammates — learning about their troubles and, in turn, explaining “why they felt a better future could be possible with a union.” In August 2022, MLBPA agreed to represent minor leaguers as a separate bargaining unit, and over time we’ll see the results.
While all pro athletes welcome increased earnings, the extensive media coverage can be double-edged,
creating troubling pressures and demands
. Nonetheless, since the press is a significant factor in career development and financial success, players need to deal with it constructively.
Many of them have learned…
Read More: Changing the image of professional athletes