ALT Funding annual stipends for all 466 surviving pre-1980 non-vested Major League ballplayers requires between 0.83% and 1.33% of MLB's 2026 Competitive Balance Tax (CBT) pool. Stipend & Benefit Breakdown - Quarterly Rate: $718.75 per quarter of accrued service time. That is 43 MLB roster days. - Average Accrual: ~10 quarters across an average of ~2.6 seasons. - Average Payout: $7,187.50 per player annually. - Maximum Cap: 16 quarters ($11,500 annually). - Survivor Protections: $0.00 — payments end immediately upon death, providing no surviving spouse or family benefit. With luxury tax collections surpassing $402 million in 2026, fully funding these non-vested pioneers accounts for less than 1.4 cents of every tax dollar paid by high-spending clubs. With an average age of 79 and zero death benefits available to surviving families, resolving this pension disparity represents an urgently diminishing window of opportunity for @mlb and @mpbpa #postseason

ALT Chicago White Sox lead the Bitter Cup list with the most pre-1980 non-vested players with 44. Cubs and Cardinals are right behind them at 41. Expansion clubs like the Blue Jays and Mariners have the fewest. These men helped build the modern game and union but got left behind when vesting dropped to 43 days in 1980. The last 9 Major League Collective Bargaining Agreements (80, 85, 90, 96/97, 02, 06, 11, 16, 22) still do not treat these men on equal terms. Same union. Same dues. Different outcome. #postseason

ALT @mlb @mlbpa #postseason

ALT @mlb @mlbpa #postseason September 12, 1977. A 27-year-old first baseman from Elmhurst makes his Giants debut against Atlanta. Skip James goes 0-for-1. Days later he delivers a game-winning two-run single against the Dodgers. He had already spent years in the Pacific Coast League. California League MVP in 1972. .308 with a .499 slugging percentage for Phoenix in 1977. Fifty-one games with San Francisco. .167. Six hits. Six RBI. In 1980 he goes to Japan and hits .269 with 21 home runs for the Yokohama Taiyo Whales. Two inside-the-park home runs, a single-season NPB record. His first Japanese home run comes off Suguru Egawa. They start calling him the Egawa killer. The majors got the pinch-hitter. Japan got the power.

ALT July 31, 1968. A 21-year-old left-hander from Passaic makes his debut for the Oakland Athletics. Warren Bogle throws two-thirds of an inning. One hit. One strikeout. No runs. He is the first player from the University of Miami to reach the major leagues. At Miami he had struck out 242 batters in 191 innings. On this roster he is the same age as Rollie Fingers and a year younger than Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson, and Rick Monday. Sixteen games. Twenty-three innings. Twenty-six strikeouts. Zero decisions. The Hurricane who got there first. The rest of the program followed. No pension or benefits. #Athletics #TheU #MLBHistory #postseason @mlb @mlbpa

ALT April 9, 1963. A 19-year-old outfielder from Oakland makes his debut for the Houston Colt .45s. Brock Davis goes 0-for-1. Two months later he hits the only home run of his career, off Jack Sanford of the Giants. On September 27 he is in the starting lineup when Houston fields nine rookies. Then the years disappear. Thirty-three at-bats across the rest of the decade. In 1971 he becomes the Cubs’ regular center fielder, playing next to Billy Williams under Leo Durocher. The next winter the Cubs trade him to Milwaukee for José Cardenal. In 1972 he hits .318 in a utility role. Knee injury ends it the following spring. One home run. One .318 season. Thirteen years from debut to last game. #Astros #Cubs #Brewers #MLBHistory @mlb @mlbpa #postseason