“The farm system, which I have been given credit for developing, originated from a perfectly selfish motive: saving money.” – Branch Rickey

All great cons start with a lie, and the one blasted out in an email Wednesday afternoon came right out of sports’ scurrilous, fear-mongering playbook. Major League Baseball pulled this sort of nonsense when it wasn’t making as much money as it desired. The Bowl Championship Series used it as the ace of spades in its house of cards. And now Minor League Baseball, venerable purveyor of cheap family entertainment, wants to sell the public on an idea so desperate, so deeply fallacious, that it almost hurts to type: If players start making minimum wage, Minor League Baseball could cease to exist.

The email was sent to lavish praise on a proposed bill from the House of Representatives called Save America’s Pastime Act, even if it only saves money for the rich, is entirely un-American, espouses ideas long past their time and acts on behalf of an organization that on a daily basis sees thousands of kids scraping by, living in cramped quarters, and instead of supporting them chooses to spend its time and energy lobbying Washington to cripple their cause.

That the cause – a lawsuit aimed at lifting the salaries of minor league players, some of whom get paid as little as $1,150 a month – is noble and redeeming and worthwhile makes the email all the more odious, and yet there it was, in all of its fetid glory, peddling this bit of Beltway spin.

“This suit threatens baseball’s decades-old player development system with an unprecedented cost increase, which would jeopardize the skills-enhancement role of the minor leagues and the existence of Minor League Baseball itself,” the email said. “As a result of this lawsuit filed on behalf of thousands of current and former players, many cities would be in jeopardy of losing their Minor League Baseball teams, resulting in the elimination of tens of thousands of jobs nationwide, shuttering taxpayer-funded ballparks and creating a void in affordable family-friendly entertainment.”

The forceful wording and scare tactics can’t hide the truth: MLB and MiLB are frightened enough of the litigation to do everything they can to maintain a status quo that should’ve changed years ago. The suit, filed in 2014 on behalf of three players and expanded to more than 2,300 after a district court judge certified it as a collective action in October 2015, charges that Major League Baseball – which pays the salaries of all minor league players – should abide by the Fair Labor Standards Act, which sets the national minimum wage. House Bill 5580 wants to amend the nearly 80-year-old FLSA by specifically exempting minor league baseball players from the law.

“The whole premise of the proposed bill is just so outrageous I’m still shocked,” said Garrett Broshuis, a former minor league pitcher and now one of the lawyers working with the plaintiffs in Senne vs. MLB, the players’ suit. “It starts with the title. This isn’t about saving America’s pastime. This is about billionaire major league owners working with millionaire minor league owners to keep their pockets fat and keep minor leaguers living in poverty. The vast majority make salaries that place them below the poverty line. There’s nothing in here that’s going to bankrupt minor league teams.”

The argument from Minor League Baseball goes something like this: If MLB loses the suit and not only is forced to raise wages for current players but give back pay to past players, the losses could pile up to nine figures. Gut-punched by the financial hit, MLB would start insisting minor league teams help pay the salaries of the players. Financially strapped teams, unable to bear the burden, would fold. Jobs disappear. Stadiums turn into ghost towns. Ballplayers are to blame.

Here’s the problem with it: MiLB is a wildly successful endeavor for MLB. Depth in today’s game is paramount, and the idea any major league franchise would willingly neuter its farm system fundamentally ignores the reality of just how vital player development truly is. By trying to argue this point, Minor League Baseball is essentially calling Major League Baseball too stupid to know how to run its business in a way that has behooved it for more than a century. The affiliate system works, and blowing it up would be among the nose-cuttingest, face-spitingest things they’ve done.

Story continues