Thanks to Gene Collier of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette!

Thursday, June 09, 2011


No royal treatment for King's family


By Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


In this, the first full summer without being able to talk about life and baseball with her father, Amy King still moves confidently in that somehow hollowed out world.


It's a hurting place, an empty place, sometimes, but he has been gone since August and now again she thrives, more because of him than in spite of him.


"He was such a survivor," Nellie King's youngest daughter said over coffee Wednesday. "He always said, 'Make the best of whatever life gives you,' and he was the master of that. I know it's my destiny now to be the caretaker to my mother, but I just think, 'What would he do?' -- and that would be to say, 'OK, let's go, here's what has to be done.'


"It's been transformative."


For a time, Nellie King survived pneumonia, colon cancer and Parkinson's disease, all of which I guess wasn't terribly surprising from a guy who had survived traveling with the late Bob Prince.


But the timing of Nellie's Aug. 11, 2010, death was little short of a pity. It came eight months and 10 days before baseball commissioner Bud Selig stepped to a microphone in New York and announced a decades-overdue player benefit that substantially would have lightened the financial burden of those sickened final years for King, his seriously ill widow, and the three grown daughters whose hearts ached as they watched.


"Sometimes in life, it's just the right thing to do," Selig said that day in April. "I believe baseball is a social institution, and with that comes social responsibilities."


I believe he believes that, but baseball took forever to act on that belief, at least when it comes to players of King's era, players who never drew a pension even as the game's profit margins and salaries grew to obscene levels.


"It's better than nothing, but, in my estimation, it's a partial victory," said Doug Gladstone, whose book, "A Bitter Cup of Coffee" doubtless helped bring about the April announcement. "They announced with great fanfare that all these men who still are not vested, we're going to cut you checks for up to $10,000 for two years contingent upon your service. It's better than nothing, but it's not a real pension. It doesn't provide health-insurance coverage, nor will any player's spouse or loved one receive a designated benefit after the player passes.


"You can call it a guilt payment or reparations or what have you. But the foot-dragging for 31 years -- you didn't do anything about this? It's like telling the Nellie King family, look, he died at an inconvenient time for us. He should have stayed alive for this."


Gladstone there refers to 1980, when Major League Baseball was trying to steer away from a looming strike that would close the game for two months the following summer anyway. Baseball offered to lower the vesting requirement to 43 days for pensions and one game for health benefits. Prior to that, players were vested only after four years of service. King played parts of four seasons for the Pirates, but did not qualify. Some 900 players were in the same abandoned boat. The union happily accepted the new pension requirement when the 1981 strike ended, but no one on either side, not before or since (until April), had the courage or the political skill to make the benefits retroactive.


"Here's Major League Baseball, with all these guys making all these big salaries -- you know they could have paid it," Amy said without anger. "That's a leadership issue. More practically, it's a health-care issue. Most of those guys had families."


Players in King's situation brought suit against baseball in 2004 and lost, and Selig was quick to point out in this go-around that baseball was under no legal obligation to pay these guys anything.


It's puzzling because baseball has for some time now made good faith attempts to be magnanimous with former players, even to the extent of providing benefits for veterans of the Negro Leagues, none of whom Major League Baseball even employed.


Modern players don't have to worry. They're vested just about as soon as they show up.


"My position is, in all my travels, I get the sense that the union didn't tell contemporary players about these guys. Either [former MLPA chief Donald] Fehr and [Marvin] Miller [Fehr's predecessor] didn't tell them, or they told them and they don't care. Players like Nellie King helped grow the game. They allowed these salaries to occur."


The mid-'50s Pirates teams for whom King pitched would seem almost like an historical abstraction for someone like Amy King, except that her father was always so much a part of the Pirates family.


"He was so proud of that," she said, "even knowing all this stuff. He was one of the most cherished members of the Pirates Alumni. I mean, they fired the man [along with Prince from the broadcast crew in 1975], but he always loved them. You can't beat the loyalty out of some people."


Uh-huh. And, when you talk with Amy King, you realize you can't beat the dignity out of some, either.

Jim Qualls, Chicago Cubs Outfielder and Tenant Farmer

A moving article by George Vescey in today's New York Times tells the story of former Chicago Cubs outfielder and pinch-hitting specialist Jim Qualls, who, like Nellie King, didn't qualify for a pension because he played in the big leagues for less than four years. Qualls is now a tenant farmer; his story was featured in Douglas Gladstone's powerful book, A Bitter Cup of Coffee. In today's New York Times article, Vescey interviewed Qualls:


“I didn’t qualify for a pension and I never expected one,” Qualls said the other day while waiting for the rain to subside so he could plant soybeans near the Mississippi River.

Qualls, who played in 63 games in bits of three seasons, is among approximately 850 former major leaguers whose lives have improved slightly in the past month because of a financial agreement for those who fell through baseball’s safety net. Some older players are emphatically not happy with the terms.

The issue is what contemporary athletes owe players who came before them. Some modern players acknowledge their predecessors’ low salaries and poor medical treatment. Others are busy building mansions and accumulating expensive cars and do not remember Jackie Robinson, much less Jim Qualls.

Douglas Gladstone: MLB-Union Agreement only a "Partial Victory"; Pirate Legend Nellie King's Family to be Stiffed

PRESS RELEASE

AUTHOR OF CONTROVERSIAL BOOK WHO WENT TO BAT FOR RETIRED BALLPLAYERS WITHOUT PENSIONS LABELS RECENT MLB-UNION AGREEMENT "ONLY A PARTIAL VICTORY."  PIRATE BROADCASTING LEGEND NELLIE KING'S FAMILY TO BE STIFFED IN MLB-UNION AGREEMENT FOR PLAYERS WITHOUT PENSIONS

In the wake of the recent joint announcement by both Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) that inactive, non-vested men who played between 1947 and 1979 will receive up to $10,000 per year, depending on their length of service credit, as compensation for their contributions to the national pastime, Douglas J. Gladstone, the author of the controversial A Bitter Cup of Coffee; How MLB & The Players Association Threw 874 Retirees A Curve, called the agreement "only a partial victory."

"We don't live in a perfect world, and this is far from a perfect solution to this problem. What was announced doesn't provide health insurance coverage, nor will any player's spouse or loved one receive a designated beneficiary payment after the man passes. So in my estimation, this is only a partial victory.

"I am, however, elated that these men are at long last finally going to receive some type of payment for their time in the game," continued Gladstone. "This was a wrong that should have been righted years ago."

Featuring a foreword written by the Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalist, Dave Marash, A Bitter Cup of Coffeetells the true story about a group of former big-league ballplayers denied pensions as a result of the failure of both the league and the union to retroactively amend the vesting requirement change that granted instant pension eligibility to ballplayers in 1980. As you may know, prior to that year, ballplayers had to have four years service credit to earn an annuity and medical benefits. Since 1980, however, all you have needed is one day of service credit for health insurance and 43 days of service credit for a pension.

Here's, in part, what the Midwest Book Review had to say about the book in its official review, which was published last May:

A wealth of interviews with former players, including heart-touching stories of the hard times some of them have endured, peppers this thoughtful and timely account, which gains especial relevance in light of the current debate about the state of health care in America.

 "I've said on numerous occasions that this whole disgraceful chapter in labor relations was a terrible inequity and injustice that stains baseball's history," said Gladstone.  "The announcement made on Thursday, April 21, 2011 is a step in the right direction, but I'd be interested in knowing what, if anything, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig and the head of the players union, Mr. Michael Weiner, plan to offer the families of Jay D. Schlueter, Bill Jennings, Nellie King and Jay Van Noy, each of whom died after my book was published. Regrettably, it appears they won't be receiving a plug nickel. And that is truly unfortunate."

Last August, the legendary Pittsburgh Pirate broadcaster Nellie King died at the age of 82. Most people weren't aware that Nellie was a pitcher before he started his second career in the radio and television booth. He had Parkinson's and was residing in Friendship Village, a retirement home in Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania while his wife of 58 years, Bernadette, was confined to the Devonshire of Mount Lebanon Assisted Living Center, in Pittsburgh. His profile is featured in the concluding chapter of A Bitter Cup of Coffee.

The book was published on April 14, 2010. Once again, thank you, in advance, for your attention to this email.  If you'd like to speak with Mr. Gladstone directly, feel free to contact him at 1-518-817-8253. The executrix of Mr. King's estate, his daughter, Amy, is available to be interviewed as well.