Baseball America has announced an end to one of the most anachronistic and coercive parts of the baseball economy, professionalizing the role of "clubbie," while relieving players (in the majors and the minors) of the burden of paying the clubhouse managers out of pocket through a "dues" system, traditionally a killer expense for minor leaguers who are already bobbing on the poverty line and having to stretch their dollars just to get their calories.
A concession of any sort to minor league players is a big deal, especially as the industry is hemorrhaging jobs, so hopefully this means that rumors and feints at organizing has led to players starting to get a little juice.
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