In order to “Save America’s Pastime,” those who play it must be paid peanuts.

That’s the takeaway message from a bill introduced late last month — the heroically titled “Save America’s Pastime Act” — which calls on Congress to exempt Major League Baseball from minimum-wage and overtime laws in how it pays its minor-league players.

Unlike their unionized major-league counterparts, who make millions of dollars every season, professional minor leaguers play for salaries of less than $10,000 while chasing their big-league dreams.

Republican Congressman Brett Guthrie’s bill comes two-and-a-half years after a lawsuit filed by three former minor-league players alleged MLB failed to pay them a minimum wage or overtime. Earlier this year, the lawsuit became a class action, and more than 2,300 active and former minor leaguers have since signed on.

If there was any doubt the league was worried about the potential ramifications of the lawsuit, Guthrie’s bill quashed them. The bill doesn’t mention the lawsuit by name, but it is clearly aimed at circumventing an unfavourable outcome.

“Instead of fighting this in court, Major League Baseball is trying to change the rules of the game during the middle of the game,” says Garrett Broshuis, the lawyer behind the class action and a former minor-leaguer himself.

“It’s really a despicable bill.”

Originally a bipartisan effort, the Democrat co-sponsor, Cheri Bustos, withdrew her support a day after the bill went public following a swift barrage of online criticism.

“While it’s important to sustain minor league baseball teams that provide economic support to small communities across America,” she wrote in a statement, “I cannot support legislation that does so at the expense of the players.”

Guthrie’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Minor-league baseball players, who are not unionized, are required to sign uniform, seven-year contracts once they are drafted. Depending on the level at which they play and years of service, many minor-leaguers make between $800 and $2,500 per month (U.S.), which the lawsuit contends amounts to less than the U.S. federal minimum wage of $7.25 hour.

They are not paid for the roughly six weeks of mandatory spring training, post-season instructional leagues, nor any off-season conditioning. They also do not receive overtime pay despite often working 60 to 70 hours in a typical week.

High draft picks receive one-time signing bonuses of six and seven figures, but thousands of minor leaguers sign for $10,000 or less, leaving them with annual incomes that put them below the U.S. poverty line.

The bill suggests that if minor-league salaries were raised to meet the minimum wage, it would put small-town, minor-league teams out of business. But minor-league players and coaches are employees of their major-league affiliates. The big-league clubs pay the salaries, while the minor-league owners simply operate the ballpark, ticket sales and concessions.

Broshuis called the bill “appalling” and “deceiving.”

“Especially how they called it the ‘Save America’s Pastime Act’ when (Major League Baseball) is doing better than it ever has, and acting like minor-league baseball is going to suddenly close its doors if the teams had to start paying just the minimum wage, which is outrageous,” he said.

Major League Baseball collected a record $9.5 billion in revenue last season, according to Forbes magazine. It was the 13th consecutive year in which revenue rose.

The class-action lawsuit, which continues to slowly wend its way through the courts, is not scheduled to go to trial until next year. Broshuis said the legal system’s sluggish pace “provides a chance for an organization like Major League Baseball that has a lot of power to try to flex that power in Washington, D.C.”

MLB’s commissioner’s office has been lobbying Congress since December, according to the House of Representatives’ official lobbying registry. The league’s Political Action Committee contributed $2,000 to Bustos’s most recent election campaign and $3,000 to Guthrie’s. The league made similar donations to 60 other representatives in Congress.

In a statement supporting the bill, MLB says that for the “overwhelming majority” of its minor-league employees, playing baseball is not a career, “but a short-term seasonal apprenticeship in which the player either advances to the Major Leagues or pursues another career.”

MLB’s statement likens its minor-league players to “artists, musicians and other creative professionals” who are not paid a minimum wage.

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“Like those professionals, it is simply impractical to treat professional athletes as hourly employees whose pay may be determined by such things as how long their games last, when they choose to arrive at the ballpark, how much they practise or condition to stay in shape, and how many promotional or charitable appearances they make.”

A league spokesman said they had no comment beyond their statement.

Presumably the league is referring to people working for themselves in pursuit of a creative career by taking short-term, low-paying gigs. Minor-league baseball players are similarly chasing a long-shot dream, but unlike aspiring artists, they are doing so as employees of a multi-billion-dollar corporation, which requires them to sign standardized contracts binding them to a major-league organization for the first seven years of their professional careers.

Broshuis believes a more accurate comparison is McDonald’s or Wal-Mart, or any other company required to pay their employees a minimum wage.

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TIMELINE

February, 2014: Lawyer and former minor-league pitcher Garrett Broshuis files a lawsuit against Major League Baseball on behalf of three former players alleging the league failed to pay them a minimum wage and overtime during their minor-league careers.

October, 2015: The lawsuit is certified as a class-action.

December, 2015: Major League Baseball begins lobbying members of the U.S. Congress to have minor-league players classified as “seasonal” workers and therefore exempt from hourly wage laws.

February, 2016: The class-action closes to new parties after more than 2,300 current and former players sign on.

June 24: Republican Brett Guthrie introduces the “Save America’s Pastime Act” in Congress with bipartisan support. The bill aims to exempt Major League Baseball from federal minimum-wage laws.

June 30: Democrat Cheri Bustos, who was the bill’s original co-sponsor, withdraws her support in response to swift backlash.

February, 2017: The class-action lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial.