San Francisco Weekly March 28, 2012 : Page 10sfweekly.com coNtENts CONTENTS Challenge Our Ping Pong Robot! Lessons • Equipment Tournaments WWW.AMDTPINGPONG.COM lEttErs LETTERS | | 1968 Powell St. SF 415.391.0601 | Taking Good Care of You FrEE FREE city CITY sucka SUCKA Fast, Safe and Secure Emergency Lockout Service EMERGENCY 24/7 Dick Baney (left) and Gerry Janeski were both born in 1946, were both pitchers, and were both drafted by the Red Sox. Kenneth M. Ruggiano | Night+Day NIGHT+DAY CALL 415.751.2087 Always there when you need help from: Keys locked in your car? Locked out of your house? Crazy roommate move out? LOCKSMITH SERVICE The Lost Boys of Summer from p9 a food bank and as a courier. In better shape financially than most — he and his wife used his annuity to treat themselves to a cruise — Wright has worked feverishly for decades trying to get his fellow ballplayers pensions. “You get to the point where you don’t know how to fight,” he says dejectedly. “We’re dying.” Eat EAT Now Open SERVICES FOR FIRST BOOKING Music MUSIC 40% OFF Celebrity Stylists Luxury Treatments T SF Weekly WEEKLY 415.362.6403 Haute415.com 760 Market, suite 949 SF Get paid to shop. Retail/Dining establishments need undercover clients to judge quality/ customer service. UNDERCOVER SHOPPERS Earn up to $150 a day. Call (800)722-6351 10 he way Gerry Janeski of Hunting-ton Beach sees it, taking better care of the lost boys would prove baseball recognizes players from all eras having been important to the game. He has much in common with his pal Dick Baney. Janeski also hails from South-ern California (Pasadena), was born in the same year (1946), played the same position (pitcher), was drafted by the same team (Boston Red Sox), settled post-baseball in the same area (Orange County) and suc-ceeded in the same business (real estate). Janeski won a respectable 10 games for the Chicago White Sox in 1970 and, like Baney, he does not need a baseball pension. But he knows too many lost boys who do, and he cannot understand how one who left the game in 1980 is entitled to more retire-ment assistance than a player from 1979. “Of all the money being thrown around, in one day in time they are saying you are not one of us,” Janeski says. “It really is a shame.” But not all non-vested players are as angry as Baney and Janeski. Mike Colbern, a for-mer All-American catcher at Arizona State University, was touted as the next Johnny Bench before an undiagnosed broken wrist cut his career short after two seasons in 1979. He had batted .352 with 116 RBIs. The 57-year-old returned to Scottsdale, Ariz., after baseball and has suffered a va-riety of health and problems, undergoing 14 surgeries for everything from a carotid artery that was 90 percent blocked to a bum shoulder. He was prescribed 22 pills a day and diagnosed with bipolar disor-der. When he was between apartments recently, he spent two nights in his truck parked near a Circle K in Tempe, Ariz. Colbern’s annuity pays him $1,500 after taxes, and he’s happy to have it, consider-ing baseball did not legally have to pay him anything. One of the named plaintiffs in the lawsuit, he believes it was the right thing to do because it drew attention to the issue. Colbern credits Selig with personally returning every fax the former ballplayer sent to the commissioner. “I do not want to get down on baseball,” Colbern says. “At least they did something. But they also did some-thing wrong, and they don’t want to admit it.” “YOU G ET TO TH E POI NT WH E R E YOU DON’T KNOW HOW TO FIG HT. WE’R E DYI NG.” — K E N W R I G H T, F O R M E R P R O F E S S I O N A L B A L L P L AY E R The most upbeat of the non-vested retirees interviewed for this story was a plaintiff in the lawsuit: Ernie Fazio, who out of Santa Clara University in 1962 became a “Bonus Baby” — the first player signed by the Houston Colt 45s in the expansion draft. He spent most of his career in the minors, but he did play parts of two seasons in Houston before a 1966 stint with the then-Kansas City A’s was shortened by a life-threatening virus. He was only 24 — and one year shy of the four years of MLB experience that would have earned him a full pension. So why is the 70-year-old upbeat? “We hear that at the next Major League Baseball meeting, it will be discussed,” he says by phone from Alamo, Calif. “That’s all I know. It could get extended. I hope it does, so do a lot of other people.” His source for the pension scoop was Eddie Robinson, who did not return re-peated phone calls. The Major League Baseball Players Association also did not respond to repeated requests for com-ment via phone, fax, and e-mail. The Office of Commissioner of Baseball in New York referred a reporter to the one-page statement from April 21, 2011, which notes, “Payments beyond the initial period will be discussed in collective bargaining.” Dan Foster, chief executive officer of the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Asso-ciation, says, “I continue to have discussions with the powers that be on increasing bene-fits for all former players, and as I assume you are aware, we don’t comment until the results are finalized. I will be happy to provide de-tails when the information is available to the public.” Asked why Baney is the guy fielding all the phone calls from retirees, Gladstone answers, “Because he’s been very vocal. Dick is a guy who essentially personifies the issue on principle. Does Dick need this money? Probably not. Herb Washington? The same. Post-baseball, they have had fairly good ca-reers. David Clyde does not need the money. “But that’s beside the point,” Glad-stone continues. “It is the principle of the thing. They gave people — who didn’t have a contractual relationship employ-ment history in some cases — benefits that exceed the ones now for people who did have that employment history. They are hosing guys out there who really do need the money, like Mike Colbern.” For Baney, it’s simple: “We just want what everyone else is getting,” he says with a shrug. “I don’t want to sound like I hated my playing days. I loved every minute of it. I loved the opportunity. If I could do it all over again, I would. It’s just there are guys out there who need help.” E-mail Feedback@SFWeekly.com M arch ARCH 28-a 28-A pril PRIL 3, 2012 | | | FilM FILM | stagE STAGE | AMDT Ping Pong |
