When his pitching career with the Montreal Expos was cut short in 1976 because of back and shoulder injuries, Chip Lang knew he had not played in Major League Baseball long enough to qualify for a pension. He accepted that, and moved on with his life.
“I understood at that time that you needed four years of service time to qualify for a pension and I didn’t qualify,” he said. “So really, there was no question in my mind as to whether I should or shouldn’t. I didn’t.”
That changed in April 2011 when Major League Baseball and the players union — the Major League Baseball Players Association — announced that non-vested players who left the league before 1980 would each receive up to $10,000 in annual non-qualified retirement payments for having played the game they love.