Former Detroit Tigers hurler Les Cain is a Man of Principle
- Douglas J. Gladstone
- 2 hours ago
- 4 min read
Cain pitched for the Tigers for 3 1/2 seasons, a half-season short of getting a pension
Guest Commentary by Douglas J. Gladstone
Photo Credit: Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group-Les Cain, 72, a left-handed pitcher for the Detroit Tigers back in the early 70s, shares memories at his home in Richmond, Calif., on Wednesday, May 3, 2023. Cain was 20 years old when he made it to the major leagues, but he hurt his arm and was out of the game days before he qualified for full pension.
For more than four decades, the 77-year-old Cain has waged a private war against both Major League Baseball (MLB) and the union representing its players, the Major League Baseball Players’ Association (MLBPA), both of which he claims are refusing to give him a pension.
If he succeeds in his fight, Cain estimates he is owed retroactive money totaling more than $1.5 million.
Now a resident of Richmond, California, Cain, who works as a driver for a shuttle bus company, has lost much in his life, including both his late wife and daughter. He made a promise to his late wife that he would never stop trying to remedy this situation, and, by his own account, he’s not going down without a fight.
Cain has kept meticulous records to prove he is owed the money. In summary, Cain’s service credit records at the National Baseball Hall of Fame (HOF) credit him with 448 days of service for the years 1968, 1970, 1971, and 1972. However, the Hall doesn’t include the 179 days of service that the Major League Players Pension Plan acknowledges he accrued for 1969.
Ironically, while the Plan itself credits him with a combined three years and 31 days for the 1968, 1969, 1970, and 1971 seasons, it fails to account for the 93 games Cain played in 1972 that the Hall recognizes as service time.
Depending on which figures you use — either the HOF’s records or the MLBPA’s pension plan — Cain could be either 21 days shy of a pension or 38 days short of the four years of eligibility a player needed to get a pension before 1980.
Since then, all you’ve needed for a pension is 43 days of MLB service on an active MLB roster.
At the root of this dispute is the workers’ compensation case Cain won against the Tigers that, after the team’s appeal, was affirmed in 1979 by the Michigan Workers’ Compensation Board. The decision awarded him $111 per week ($5,400 per year) retroactive to May 1973. The last payment was made in 1985.
Because he was being paid roughly $65,000 in retroactive salary by the Tigers, Cain argues that the back pay also includes 12 years of service credit.
Those 12 years would easily exceed the four-year threshold needed to receive a pension.
Cain is a proud African American man who has applied for his pension on three occasions. Each time, he struck out.
He still maintains that he is in the right.
As if this indignity wasn’t enough, because the MLBPA believed he wasn’t eligible for a pension, they sent him yearly stipends of $6,262, according to a 2011 agreement the league and union negotiated for those men who hadn’t accrued four years of service.
Though Cain refused to cash any of those checks, the MLBPA still reported the money they sent him to the Internal Revenue Service as income. And while the former Tigers pitcher wasn’t charged with tax fraud, the IRS investigated him, nonetheless.
Cain’s situation is reminiscent of David versus Goliath, with Cain as David facing the Goliath that is the MLBPA and the league. What’s worse, the man who could help Cain, former Detroit Tigers first baseman Tony Clark, hasn't lifted a finger to assist him, even though Clark is now the executive director of the players’ union and has received the coveted Jackie Robinson Award for Social Justice from the Negro Leagues Museum.
But even if Clark continues to ignore Cain, Ilitch Holdings, the company that owns the Tigers, can easily take action by placing him on the active roster for 35 game days, as a pitching coach or whatever position manager A.J. Hinch considers him suited for. If the team does that, Les will be able to receive his retroactive payments as well as a monthly benefit.
There is precedent for this: In 1969, the Atlanta Braves put future HOFer Satchell Paige on its roster so he could qualify for an MLB pension. The same occurred with Al Cicotte, who formally retired from baseball with the Houston Colt 45s in 1962. Needing eight days of service credit to get his pension, Cicotte was spotted in the dugout in 1977 wearing a Tigers uniform just so he could qualify for that benefit.
Cain is not getting any younger, but he remains resolute that justice will be served. Though he never met the late United States Representative John Lewis, Cain admires something the social justice warrior once wrote: “When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something.”
When Clark accepted the Robinson Award, he quoted the late Muhammad Ali. “Success is what you achieve,” said Clark. “Your significance is what you leave.”
I hope Mr. Clark believes what he says. If he acts on this situation, he would be leaving Les Cain something of great significance.
Douglas J. Gladstone (@GLADSTONEWRITER) is the author of “A Bitter Cup of Coffee: How MLB & the Players’ Association Threw 874 Retirees a Curve.”