How MLB, MLBPA came together for 'life-changing' minor league CBA

DESCRIBING LIFE IN the minor leagues can sound like a twisted Mad Lib. The names and locations and adjectives may change, but for generations, the details of the climb to Major League Baseball have remained mortifying. The poverty. The working conditions. The food. The third-class nature of the entire operation. Now, after decades of mistreatment, of being told they were mere apprentices, the people who had given their young lives to the game were in a position to tell those running it who they were and why they mattered.

In January, at the MLB Players Association's offices high atop the New York City skyline, Matthew Peguero told MLB officials his version of the story. He was from the…