Getting to MLB is not easy and things only get difficult more when you have a minor league system in which it is systematically exploited to the players in MiLB in order to keep the Major League machinery oiled and continue injecting players at the expense of others under the promise of getting a great salary in the Big Top and a good living condition. However, not everyone succeeds.
The players in MiLB lasted a long time enduring the abuses they have to undergo in order to fulfill a dream, but more and more they are raising their voices against the terrible conditions in which they play, now being the relief pitcher Kieran Lovegrove, a South African who plays for the Angels ‘Double A branch, who spoke to the workers’ rights organization More Perfect Union, detailing what minor league players suffer.
Lovegrove, 27, mentions that the vast majority of MiLB players live crammed into apartments that are for two people, but that they have to share between 6 or 7 partners to reduce expenses. In addition, he mentions that many of the minor league players suffer from depression and fatigue, which leads many to abuse drugs and even try to kill himself as he did in the offseason of 2015, where he had an attempt to suicide.
Lovegrove mentions:
The minor league level is equal to that of MLB, minus the regularity. You have pitchers throwing 100 mph and hitters hitting the ball over 450 feet. The difference is that we do it by eating dried chicken and macaroni, coupled with MLB’s $ 19 billion profit in 2019, and the owners’ combined wealth of more than $ 75 billion. All of this feels like a punch in the face for all of us who don our uniforms every day to stand up for these organizations to which we give our bodies, hearts and souls.
Will the standard of living for minor league players improve in the near future?
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