Todd Pratt - MLBPA Doesn't Care About Me

[Max Power]

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseb...7-bodley_x.htm

Philadelphia backup catcher Todd Pratt is a good example."I'll stick by the union if we walk, but sometimes I don't feel like the union sticks by players like me," Pratt told The Philadelphia Inquirer."I'm just sick to my stomach about this," he adds. "I relate more to the people in the stands than to either side. I can't believe that both sides can't figure this thing out. It's a joke."Pratt, now 35, was 27 and a backup catcher when the players struck in 1994."The only thing I remember is losing money for nothing," he says. "Nothing got solved. It seemed like everything the union said and did was already prepared before the strike even started. I feel the same way I did then."Pratt, who is earning a career-high $650,000 during a season when the average is $2.3 million, says the union told players like him that salaries would be spread out among everybody, "but they weren't." He adds when the Phillies voted on a day for the strike date, "it definitely wasn't Aug. 30."

Back-up catchers should been seen and not heard...............

[SmedIndy]

He does have a point, but at his salary he shouldn't grouse.

If I could make, for just one year, what he's making, and then go back to my salary now after that one year, I'd be able to do so much for me and the family it'd be ridiculous. No debts, college funds started for Katie and all my neices, nephews, great nieces and great nephews, you name it.

[KCBOOMER]

Fehr and Orza will see that this poor bastard is ostracized. Now you know why they oppose secret ballots.

[Max Power]

Originally posted by SmedIndy
If I could make, for just one year, what he's making, and then go back to my salary now after that one year, I'd be able to do so much for me and the family it'd be ridiculous. No debts, college funds started for Katie and all my neices, nephews, great nieces and great nephews, you name it.

Shoot, I would like to make for one year just what he probably pays in taxes!

[soxfan121]

Todd Pratt speaks the truth! The MLBPA is, and has always been, a a top-level union, more concerned with the Alex Rodriguezs ang Manny Ramirezs than about the "rank-and-file".

There are many more players like Todd Pratt in the majors than there are players who whose agenda is being pushed by the MLBPA. Kudos to Pratt for saying something about how the union does little for guys like him and more for guys like Arod.

[TimmyB]

So, as noted in one of cubfan33's threads, it only took less than 33% of the owners to scuttle a good plan.

Makes me wonder what % of the players fall into the same hard-liner category.

[TimmyB]

P.S. It is still hard to sympathize with a guy making easily 10x + what I see in a year+.

[soxfan121]

Originally posted by TimmyB
P.S. It is still hard to sympathize with a guy making easily 10x + what I see in a year+.

Easier than it is to sympathize with any of the billionaires who own the teams, or for that matter, players who make 1000x what I "see in a year".

[poorme]

i'm not gonna boo-hoo for a guy making 650K, but i'd be PO'd if I thought my union was only working for the highest paid members. funny how they are the strongest union in america, but dont' really have the same union values as most others. the union I belonged to had a pay structure. you had X years seniority and you got a fixed salary. now that would be something to see in the M L Bee!

[TimmyB]

Originally posted by soxfan121
Easier than it is to sympathize with any of the billionaires who own the teams, or for that matter, players who make 1000x what I "see in a year".

Yup. Even less sympathy there...

[moose]

Originally posted by Max Power
Back-up catchers should been seen and not heard...............

all but tom glavine and tony clark should be seen and not heard.

it's not ok for schilling to blabber about boras, and it's not ok for pratt to blabber about this... that's why we have REPRESENTATIVES.

by the way, that IS why there are no secret ballots

[b-ball-lunachik]

Originally posted by moose

all but tom glavine and tony clark should be seen and not heard.

ditto...i wonder if pratt realizes he's making $650,000 a year because of the union standing together in the past...

[VNV Nation]

Why is it that we live in a society that supposedly values free speech, but invariably people want to shut up anyone who has a different point of view?

You've got every other player out there pretending to be an economist or Joe Hill. Why don't you want to shut up John Burkett? In any discussion the minority opinion should be heard. It's disgraceful that the owners have a gag order and it's 10 times worse that a so-called union would even want to keep its members from talking.

I also find it humorous that the player apologists have taken the "at his salary, he should just shut up" angle while totally rejecting this argument when the unwashed public says this about all players.

Eventually, the rank and file of the union were going to figure out that the MLBPA doesn't care about them.

[SmedIndy]

I did acknowledge he has a point; I just don't think he should be described as having a "modest" salary. Perhaps the people who wrote the story were at fault. But except for the negotiatiors, complaints like Pratt's probably need to be aired out in their own house, not in public. No one will have sympahty. It's counter productive to Pratt and the negotiations.

[VNV Nation]

As a fan, these are the players I want to hear from. I'd also love to hear what Steinbrenner has to say about all of this.