St. Louis attorney, ex-pitcher throws brush-back suit at MLB

A St. Louis attorney who pitched six years in the minor leagues is throwing a class-action lawsuit the way of Major League Baseball.

Garrett Broshuis, a newly minted attorney out of Saint Louis University School of Law, alleges in the first-of-its-kind suit that MLB violates the Fair Labor Standards Acts by routinely paying under minimum wage in the minors and denying players overtime wages, according to the Riverfront Times.

After signing a $160,000 bonus to play in the San Francisco Giants farm system in 2004, Broshuis estimates he earned about $3 per hour in take-home pay his first year pitching. His math: $850 a month to work 10-hour days when factoring games, practices and requisite training/instruction, minus $120 for taxes and clubhouse laundry and meals, left him with $730 in cash for 60-hour workweeks.

He told the Riverfront Times without the six-figure signing bonus, he would have had to pay MLB to play the game.

"Since minor leaguers do not belong to a union, nothing has prevented [MLB] from artificially and illegally depressing minor-league wages," states the suit, which includes at least one player from all 30 major-league teams.

Read more from the Riverfront Times.