Garrett Broshuis was an All-American pitcher for the Missouri Tigers, then spent six years toiling in the San Francisco Giants’ minor league system, often putting in 60-hour weeks and earning less than $1,000 per month. Now, Broshuis is a lawyer at Korein Tillery, and he’s filed a class-action lawsuit against Major League Baseball, alleging that minor leaguers are paid far less than minimum wage.
What was it like pitching at Mizzou? I red-shirted my first year there. Then I was just OK my next two years. Before my last season there, I was supposed to go to the Cape Cod league, which is the most famous summer collegiate league. Instead, I stayed home. I worked my tail off in the gym, got in the best shape of my life. Everything just clicked then the next year. I had a perfect 11–0 season and was an All-American.
Are you a CITY SC fan?
Subscribe to the CITY Scene newsletter to get a fan’s guide to the pro soccer scene in St. Louis.
Did it bother you then—or does it bother you now—that college athletes aren’t paid? At the time, I was all about the college athlete system. There is certainly a benefit to getting a scholarship. But when you’re an elite football or elite basketball player at a big-time college, the value you’re providing is so far in excess of what you are actually being provided.
What was it like to be drafted? It’s an incredible sensation. It’s something that you work toward your entire life. There is no word to describe it other than surreal.
Your signing bonus of $160,000 as a fifth-round pick was more than you earned in all six years in the minors. There are currently 40 rounds in the draft. If you are lucky enough to be one of those higher draft picks, you get a decent signing bonus up front. Since I was in the fifth round, I got a signing bonus, and it helped me live my entire time in the minor leagues. But a lot of guys aren’t that lucky. If you’re after the 10th round, a lot of guys are signing for $1,000 and a plane ticket. Then all of a sudden everybody’s salary starts at $1,100 per month. How do you live on that?
How did your first minor league season compare to college? If you talk to a lot of guys who go to decent Division I programs, they’ll tell you that their lifestyle was better in college than it was once you get into the minor leagues. In college, you have room and board provided as part of your scholarship. Generally, you’re getting enough to eat and you have a decent place to live. But then it’s a step down once you get into the minor leagues, because you either have a host family, where you might be sleeping on somebody’s futon in their basement with a couple of other guys, or you might be cramming five guys into a two-bedroom apartment to save money. A lot of guys barely have any money to pay for food. They’re eating at McDonald’s or Subway every day.
Could you describe the overall minor league experience? It’s a special opportunity, but it’s very stressful and very difficult, too. You are one of a couple hundred guys, and you’re competing against all of those other guys. You magnify the importance of every day. You’re putting so much pressure on yourself to perform. The night before I started, I usually didn’t sleep, and the night after I started, I usually didn’t sleep, either.
These days, minor league salaries start at $1,100 per month, only during the season. What we allege in our court documents is, most guys are making $7,500 or less a year.
And that amounts to less than minimum wage? Guys are getting there a little after lunch a lot of times for a game. Let’s say they get there at 1 o’clock for a 7 o’clock game, which isn’t unusual. Then you play a three-hour game and do stuff after the game. A lot of times, you aren’t leaving until 11 o’clock. Well, that’s a 10-hour day. It’s easily 60 hours a week. It’s not hard to do the math. It’s a few bucks an hour.
Is it true that minor leaguers aren’t paid during spring training? Minor leaguers do not get paid at all during spring training. They are sitting down there working 50, 60 hours a week working without pay at all.
And to make matter worse, guys have to pay clubhouse dues. You have to pay your clubhouse manager clubhouse dues on a daily basis. It might be $10 or $12 a day. That adds up to $300 or $400 a month a lot of times. That covers the laundry that the clubhouse manager is doing and the crappy food that you’re eating before the game.
How do guys make ends meet? They can’t. You eat so many peanut butter–and–jelly sandwiches that your muscles start turning into peanut butter, I think. Some guys will borrow from their parents. Some guys will resort to credit card debt.
Did you have offseason jobs? One offseason, I got my personal trainer certification, just because I needed a gym membership. I spent two winters working for a cognitive psychologist at Wash. U., doing terrific Alzheimer’s research. I was making more per hour working at a lab and taking people through experiments, than what I was actually making per hour during the season. I also gave a lot of pitching lessons.
When did you decide to become a lawyer? I had a Venezuelan throwing partner. He had a girlfriend back home who was pregnant, and he was just trying to save up $20 a month to send back to her. He had trouble saving $20. It just didn’t seem right at all. As the years passed, I would talk it over with my teammates more and more. I sort of knew my last year that the writing was on the wall for my baseball career. So on the bus trips, I started studying for the LSAT. Three days after my last season ended, I took the LSAT and started applying to law schools.
Pro baseball and law school are both highly competitive. How did they compare? The first year of law school, for most people, is the most competitive thing they have ever done. But it wasn’t the most competitive environment I had ever been in. I was so accustomed to day in and day out just working so hard toward something. That really helped me through. It’s easy to work hard one day, but to work hard day after day toward something, that’s a much more difficult thing to do.
What is the argument in your lawsuit? At its heart, it’s a basic minimum wage and overtime lawsuit. It seeks to apply the same minimum wage and overtime laws that Walmart has to comply with, that McDonald’s has to comply with. Minor leaguers clearly are below the minimum wage during the season, and they aren’t paid overtime wages through the season even though they routinely work 60, 70 hour weeks. And during spring training, they aren’t paid wages at all, and during the winter, they aren’t paid wages at all.
What is the league’s defense? One of them that gets brought up a lot is a defense called the seasonal and amusement exemption. Basically it looks at how long the establishment is operating and when they are taking in revenue. Of course, it has to be like an amusement business. The classic example would be like a lifeguard at a beach. They’re only working a few months.
So your argument is that baseball players aren’t seasonal workers? It is called “baseball season.” This is a $9 billion industry that operates throughout the year. Each of these teams have hundreds of employees who are doing stuff throughout the year. Minor league baseball players themselves are required to do stuff throughout the year. Congress did not pass this exemption with this situation in mind. If Walmart and McDonald’s can comply with minimum wage, why can’t Major League Baseball comply with minimum wage laws?
And all your lawsuit seeks is for players to make minimum wage? Just to comply with the basic minimum. A full-time minimum wage worker in this country makes $15,000. That’s not a lot of money. Instead of living with a host family, maybe guys can live three to a three-bedroom apartment like a normal person. Instead of eating four peanut butter–and–jelly sandwiches a day, maybe he can eat a decent lunch like a normal human being. Which you would think would be a good thing for an athlete to be doing. They bring in nutritionists in spring training to tell you about how important diet is.
When will the trial be held? We have a trial date, which is February 2017. Big actions like this, when you are talking about this many plaintiffs and this many defendants and something that’s never been done before, it takes a while.
Some people might think, “You’re playing a game for a living. How bad can it be?” Is it a privilege to play? Yeah, it’s certainly a privilege to work as a baseball player. But you still have to pay your rent. You still have to pay your cellphone bill. If the guy selling hot dogs at that minor league game is making more per hour than the guy playing first base, then something is not right there.
Is your ultimate goal to help form a union for minor league players? I would love for there to be a union at some point. Applying minimum wage and overtime laws would certainly be a step in the right direction, and it would help a lot of guys out, but the best long-term solution would be a union. Hopefully, this lawsuit emboldens some guys to think collectively and then take that step.
