A Bitter Cup of Coffee: How MLB & The Players Association Threw 874 Retirees A Curve

Why does former San Diego Padres infielder Lance Zawadzki, a native of Framingham who appeared in 20 games in 2010, get an MLB pension but former Oakland Athletic and Texas Ranger Jimmy Driscoll does not?

The 32- year-old Zawadzki, who attended St. John's High School in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, went seven for 35 during his big league career, collecting two doubles and scoring four runs.

Why he is more deserving of a pension than Driscoll, a Medford, Massachusetts native who now resides in North Conway, New Hampshire, who receives just more than $1,500 every year for his time in "The Show"?

Driscoll, who turns 73 on May 14th, was a reserve utility infielder who debuted with the Oakland Athletics in June 1970. He also played for the Texas Rangers in 1972. In parts of two seasons, Driscoll got into 36 games and came up to the plate 70 times and collected 10 hits, including one homerun. He is a graduate of Arlington High School.

Driscoll and 800 other men do not get pensions because they didn’t accrue four years of service credit. That was what ballplayers who played between 1947 - 1980 needed to be eligible for the pension plan.

Instead, they all receive nonqualified life annuities based on a complicated formula that had to have been calculated by an actuary.

In brief, for every quarter of service a man had accrued, he’d get $625. Four quarters (one year) totaled $2,500. Sixteen quarters (four years) amounts to the maximum, $10,000. And that payment is before taxes were taken out.

When the player dies, the payment is not permitted to be passed on to a designated beneficiary, like a spouse or other loved one. And the player is not covered under the MLB's health care umbrella coverage plan, either.

By contrast, a player who played AFTER 1980 is eligible for health coverage after one game day. And he's eligible for a pension after 43 game days. And the payment can be passed on to a loved one or designated recipient.

The maximum allowable under the IRS is $210,000. Meanwhile, for his 3 1/2 years of service credit, Hinton receives a gross check of $8,750. After taxes are taken out, his net check is $6,262.

Through no fault of their own, these men are all being penalized for playing in the majors at the wrong time. Driscoll has privately confided that he feels disgusted by MLB's treatment of the entire group. "We're the lost boys of baseball," he said.

Story, photos submitted to Patch by Douglas J. Gladstone, author of A Bitter Cup of Coffee; How MLB & The Players Association Threw 874 Retirees A Curve."