Viral tweet exposes hidden MLB truth

A photo of a baseball team’s post-match meal went viral on Twitter, and has fans wondering if Fyre Festival caterers were involved.

Baseball's answer to Fyre Festival.

Major League Baseball (MLB) is known for its extravagant meals dished out in the various stadiums across America.

But take a step beneath the major leagues, and you begin to see the dark side of baseball.

For starters, the average salary of a minor league rookie is $AUD26,838 according to a report from the Associated Press.

The highest level of minor league baseball, Triple-A, sees the players pocket a salary of $AUD46,973.

Compare that to the riches we see in MLB of players earning upwards of $AUD50 million a year, and you can start to see the worrying disparities throughout the multiple levels of baseball.

Given that the salaries in the minor leagues are not exactly eye-watering, you’d expect that perhaps their meals offer a little more substance.

However, wrong you’d be.

A tweet emerged showing the foods given to the Oakland Athletics’ minor league side — the franchise at the centre of the Moneyball film.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that these foods were from the infamous Fyre Festival as opposed to an actual sporting organisation.

Players in the Oakland A’s organization shared these photos of their recent post-game meals.

No employer would serve these meals to employees they care about. Why are the A’s serving them to their future Major Leaguers? pic.twitter.com/cIFqiPg6iX

— Advocates for Minor Leaguers (@MiLBAdvocates) June 1, 2021

Advocates for Minor Leaguers executive director Harry Marino elaborated on the culinary debacle.

In a statement to ESPN, Marino said: “Unfortunately, this is far from an isolated incident in Minor League baseball.”

“Each and every day, I hear directly from players about the myriad ways in which they are being mistreated.

“While players are too scared to speak publicly, for fear of retaliation, their stories need to be heard.

“I would welcome the opportunity to work collaboratively with Mr. Kaval (Oakland Athletics president) or another other MLB representative who would like to hear these stories and work together to better the game of baseball for players at all levels.”

The Oakland team’s president Dave Kaval tweeted a response to the viral photo, stating that it was “totally unacceptable.”

This was totally unacceptable. When we found out several weeks ago we terminated the third party vendor. We apologize to our players, staff, and coaches. We will redouble our efforts to provide the best options for our team at every level. https://t.co/yPzVWiCx1D

— Dave Kaval (@DaveKaval) June 2, 2021

The famous seventh-inning tune of “Take me out to the ball game” implies being taken to the ballpark and “buying some peanuts and crackerjack”.

One might wonder whether that’s now an actual, legitimate request from various minor league players across the United States and not just a throwaway lyric in a baseball classic.

Originally published as Viral tweet exposes hidden MLB truth