[chucksabr]

Baseballer’s Wage Suit.

The first case testing the Baseball League’s reduced wages scheme will be taken up in court in Liverpool. William Hunt, the fine batting short stop for the Everton club who has been on the £9 maximum wage for several seasons, and who signed on for same during the Signing Period for the 1931 season, has refused to accept the amended contract offered by the club for the reduced maximum of £6. Hunt had led several meetings with the players as well as serving as the president of the deputation appointed to meet with the League to persuade them to reconsider their wage reduction action, for the good of not only the players, but also of the Everton Club, the Baseball League, and the supporters, the “fans”, as well.

Hunt will likely contend the Everton Baseball Club and the Baseball League acted in bad faith by tearing up the existing contracts, signed on by players in good faith during the Signing Period following the close of the 1930 season, and enacting across the board wage reductions without consulting the players or their duly elected union representatives. The club will likely counter with a defence of the action as good business practice, given the precipitous decline in gate revenue and turnover as provided to the League in their meeting this past November, as reported exclusively in the Times.

The suit was filed with the Liverpool County Court.