When the Reds drafted Chris Denorfia in the 19th round in 2002, they gave him $1,000, a new glove and a plane ticket to Sarastota, Fla. That was it. Welcome to professional baseball, kid. Show us what you got.
Playing minor league baseball “is not as glamorous a job as people make it out to be,” Denorfia, 42, now manager of the Yard Goats, said this week. “There aren’t that many guys who get life-changing money. Most of these guys just got a plane ticket and a dream.”
Wages and living conditions for minor league players wasn’t a back-burner issue, it wasn’t even in the kitchen until recently. Times are changing and things have improved but there has been increasing calls for more. This week, a federal judge approved a settlement of a class action lawsuit filed by 43 minor leaguers in 2014 calling for MLB to paying $185 million. After commissioner Rob Manfred, at the All-Star Game, rejected the notion that minor leaguers weren’t paid a living wage, four U.S. Senators, two from each party, including Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal sent the commissioner a letter seeking answers.
This week the MLB Players Association sent authorization cards to minor leaguers, the first step toward a vote to join the union. Union chief Tony Clark found the response “encouraging.”
“Players are starting to take more of a stand and for the right reasons,” said Yard Goats outfielder Brenton Doyle, 24, a four-year veteran of the minor leagues, “I think we deserve a right to say what can help and what can’t help, so, yeah, I definitely am [interested in unionizing]. It gives us a right to say what could improve the game from here on out.”
The Rockies have been on the progressive edge of improving conditions for their minor leaguers, especially in Hartford, where Dunkin’ Donuts Park remains one of the finest facilities. In 2021, MLB took over operation of the minor league system and instituted improvements. Double A players make a minimum $600 per week during the season and teams now pay for housing, with many of the Yard Goats living within walking distance of the ballpark.
“I can’t say enough for what the Rockies and the Yard Goats have done for these guys,” Denorfia said. “Some of them have their own places, studio apartments, That would have been unheard of, you would have had to be one of those bonus guys. We’re doing really well for our guys here and I know they appreciate it.”
A far cry from this is Denorfia’s early days in the pros. At his first stop, Potomac, Md., where rents were at D,C. levels, players making $1,200 a month for five months had to share a $2,000-a-month flat. “We’d get a two-bedroom apartment and stick as many guys as we could in there,” Denorfia said. “We’d get blow-up furniture from Target and somehow make it work.”
Remember, this wasn’t during The Great Depression, it was in the 21st Century. Denorfia remembers hearing of players from Latin America sending half of their $1,200 home each month. In the offseason, Denorfia lived with his family in Southington and waited tables at a local restaurant, hardly ideal for chasing a dream that requires year-around training. He never thought of giving up on his dream, but others had to.
“There definitely comes a point, do you get married?” Denorfia said. “Do you have a kid? With the salaries the way they have been in the past and to a certain extent still are, you just can’t do that.”
Denorfia made the majors and played 13 years, and has since been a coach, front office assistant and minor league manager. And he still has that glove. He was, of course, one of the small percentage that makes it. What, you may ask, about the signing bonuses? Only the top picks get in the millions. Whatever bonus money players clear after taxes they must spend for living expenses during their minor league careers. In 2022, minor leaguers make between $4,800 and $14,700 per year, and recent actions have been aimed at paying players during spring training and instructional camps. A $10-billion-a-year industry can do better.
The idea of unionizing is “intriguing,” Denorfia said. “Anybody that’s advocating for these guys is coming from a place of care. However it works out, I’m just glad that some of the issues that generations of players have dealt with in the minor leagues are getting addressed.”
More in The Sunday Read:
Able Made soccer-themed store at Westfarms helps serve area youth
Ucal McKenzie, a beloved soccer player and coach in Boston, died suddenly from cardiac arrest playing the game he loved in May 2009. His wife, Suzanne, has been working ever since to continue Ucal’s mission, using soccer to change young lives.
The Ucal McKenzie Breakaway Foundation she founded has been running soccer camps in Boston and Hartford each summer. This past July, partnering with Hartford Public Schools, the Hartford Athletic and others, the foundation ran its sixth camp in the area with about 100 boys and girls age 8 to 18 partaking at Trinity Health Stadium in July.
“We’re seeing kids return year over year,” Suzanne McKenzie said. “The feedback we get from players, parents and guardians, they really appreciate not only the soccer part, but the health education. We do hands only CPR and AED awareness, suicide prevention and sports recovery, even yoga for mindfulness.”
In 2012, McKenzie launched Able Made, soccer-themed gear and apparel, marketing online. The Able Made brand helps raise funding for the Breakaway Foundation’s camps and community programs. This week, Able Made’s first permanent store front opened in Westfarms Mall in West Hartford.
“It’s really a great example of putting the commerce in a close location to where we are making our impact in the community.” Suzanne McKenzie said. “I built the Able Made brand to support the foundation and this is a very location-specific impact.”
The Able Made store, in the center court area at Westfarms, offers “elevated athleisure,” clothes that can be worn at home or work.
“Everything is super-responsible,” McKenzie said. “We’re using very high-quality organic fabrics, pretty much 90 percent domestic manufacturing, our socks are made in North Carolina, a lot of the ready-to-wear pieces are made in New York City. Wherever we’re producing, it’s responsible and we have a good gauge on who we’re working with and their ethical standards. Proceeds of every sale are going back to support our foundation’s efforts.”
Prior to launching Able Made, McKenzie spent 17 years in the advertising and design consultancy. Her entrepreneurial skills and her passion found a purpose in continuing the work her husband began, using the powerful universal language that is soccer. She plans to bring the camp back to Boston and Hartford next summer and add one in New York.
“I think he would be really touched and I wish he was here to do the work himself,” she said. “The only reason we are able to do it is because of the work he was already doing. He was a soccer coach, but he also did a lot of outreach. Being a first-generation immigrant [from Jamaica] himself, he really connected with kids who were from that same background.”
Sunday short takes
* Don’t be surprised if the UConn men add another player to fill their 13th scholarship for this season.
*Aaron Judge. … Because it’s the Most Valuable Player, not the player of the year award.
* Bloomfield’s Jason Pinnock, who had some impressive moments as a rookie defensive back with the Jets last season, was waived and quickly claimed by the Giants this week. “I’ve always looked good in blue,” he Tweeted.
* Sacred Heart running back Julius Chestnut made the Titans roster as an undrafted free agent.
* Maddie Carroll, freshman from East Catholic-Manchester, leads the UConn women’s soccer team with three goals in the first four games.
* Michael Toglia, who who spent most of this baseball season in Hartford, got the call to Colorado and hit his first MLB homer this week.
Summer reading
Back when I covered the Giants for The Courant I remember coaches were so worried about teams spying on practices, which were then run outdoors in the parking lot of Giants Stadium, that the team would book and block the top-floor rooms of the nearby Sheraton Meadowlands. Maybe that was over-doing it, maybe not. A book released in mid-July, Spies On The Sidelines: The High Stakes World Of NFL Espionage, by Kevin Bryant, who used to work for the Department of Defense, is packed with anecdotes showing the length to which NFL teams have gone to collect intelligence.
Dom Amore can be reached at damore@courant.com
