The Morning Briefing: Uniform Madness

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Mark your calendars! The Fredericksburg Nationals announced yesterday that the Fredericksburg Nationals will host a regional college classic game between the Maryland Terps and the Virginia Cavaliers. This will mark the first time Virginia Credit Union Stadium will host a collegiate baseball game.

Here are the details

• 🏟️: Virginia Credit Union Stadium
• 📅: Tuesday, March 11, 2025
• ⏰: 5:35 p.m. EDT
• 🎟️: https://mlb.tickets.com/?agency=MILB_MPV&orgid=54934&pid=9478416#/event/9478416/seatmap/?selectBuyers=false&minPrice=10&maxPrice=68&quantity=2&sort=price_desc&ada=false&seatSelection=true&onlyCoupon=true&onlyVoucher=false

Good Morning, Washington Nationals Fans.

Here are the latest headlines and analysis around the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for today, Thursday, November 20, 2024.

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On the hill, Capitol Hill, actually. Yesterday, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) introduced legislation titled The Fair Ball Act, which is "to shore up labor protections for Minor League Baseball players." [Read the full bill here for the policy wonks out there]

From Senator Durbin's press release: "the Fair Ball Act, which would roll back the current broad exemption from federal wage and hour laws for Minor League Baseball players provided by the inaptly named Save America’s Pastime Act (SAPA) and replace it with a narrowly tailored exemption that would only apply if the players are being compensated pursuant to the terms of a collective bargaining agreement (CBA). If the players are not covered by a CBA, then they would have the same federal wage protections as all other workers."

Last year, Durbin and a group of Senators pressed MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred on its lobbying for a broad wage and hour exemption while negotiating its CBA with MLBPA.  This follows Durbin leading a letter to Advocates for Minor Leaguers, asking about the impact of MLB’s antitrust exemption on competition in the labor market for Minor League players.

Yesterday, Major League Baseball Players Association Executive Director Tony Clark voiced the union’s full support for the Fair Ball Act, which would reform the Save America’s Pastime Act (SAPA) so that its federal minimum wage exception for Minor League Players applies only when Players are receiving alternate protection through the collective bargaining process.

In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard J. Durbin (D-IL), Clark wrote: “The Fair Ball Act appropriately narrows SAPA so that Minor League ballplayers will be exempted from federal wage and hour laws if and only if their compensation has been determined via good faith collective bargaining. This is a win for Minor Leaguers, for baseball, and indeed for workers and collective bargaining as a whole.” [For the policy wonks out there reading, here is a link to the full letter that MLBA Executive Director Tony Clark wrote to Senator Durbin.]

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Nats Stat of the Day:

Here is today's Nats Stats for Thursday, November 20, 2024.

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