Old-Timers Stage Pension Protest

Pete Coscarart, 85, a Dodger when the team played at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, former Pittsburgh Pirate and Boston Brave Sam Jethroe, 84, and a group of men who played in the major leagues in the 1930s and 1940s, marched to Dodger Stadium on Sunday before the Dodger-Pirate game to protest what they believe has been “shabby treatment” from the players’ union and team owners over their pension rights.

“They’ve just forgotten us,” Coscarart, a National League All-Star team in 1940, said at a news conference in Pasadena prior to the march.

Coscarart played nine seasons in the majors as a second baseman and shortstop. He spent the first four years with Brooklyn and the final five with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Jethroe played only four seasons in the majors--three with the Braves--before ending his career with Pittsburgh in 1954. The switch-hitter played in only two games for the Pirates, getting one at-bat.

Jethroe, the 1950 NL rookie of the year with the Braves, failed to qualify for a pension because he didn’t play four full major league seasons.

“They said I don’t have enough time to get the pension. I thought I had enough time,” Jethroe said, adding he’s worried about his wife of 50 years, who will have no financial support if he dies.

Players who retired before 1947 receive no pension because the major league pension system was established that year, said attorney John Puttock of Huntington Beach.

Under the latest pension rules, these major league retirees would only have to coach or play for one day to qualify for the pension, Puttock said.

“They walked the steep hill in silent protest over the shabby treatment they have received from both the union, who could care less what happens to them, and the owners, who think they are too old to coach a major league team for one day,” Puttock said.

Coscarart was cut out of the pension after he and Al Gionfriddo tried to organize Pirate players into a union in 1946, Puttock said.

“Pete and Al were labeled as troublemakers and sent to the minor leagues as punishment because they demanded players receive a minimum wage of $5,500 a year and pay for their meals at spring training,” Puttock said.

Former Dodger pitching great Don Newcombe, who was Jethroe’s roommate while both played in the minor leagues in Montreal, said baseball should somehow help men like Jethroe.

“Here’s a guy who was rookie of the year in 1950 and who made a significant contribution to baseball,” said Newcombe, now the Dodgers’ director of community relations. “And now that he’s old and has not been able to acquire a livelihood, it seems to me that baseball should help him in some way.”

According to Puttock, several major league retirees filed a lawsuit several years ago to be included in the pension, but the judge dismissed the suit because the statute of limitations had run out.

Some owners and union officials have sympathized with the plight of the retirees and believe some kind of compensation would be appropriate, but they can’t agree on who should pay for it. The owners have said the players’ union is responsible, while the union has said the owners need to be accountable.

“Baseball should not want it known that these men are in dire need, and they’re not helping them,” Newcombe said.

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Outfielder Jermaine Dye, who has struggled since Kansas City acquired him in a trade with Atlanta, was optioned to triple-A Omaha to make room for Jermaine Allensworth, who was obtained in a trade with Pittsburgh on Saturday.

Dye was hitting just .213 with two home runs and 15 RBIs and was one for 28 when Manager Tony Muser benched him on June 21.