Douglas J. Gladstone is going to bat for baseball players he considers heroes.

“I believe these men who played prior to 1980 are being woefully taken advantage of,” said Gladstone, sitting in the living room of his home.

Gladstone, a writer based in Wilton, is highlighting a problem with Major League Baseball’s pension plan. He says about 500 retirees are not getting the benefits they deserve.

“The men we’re talking about went out on picket lines, they endured labor stoppages, they went without paychecks to usher in free agency,” said Gladstone.

In 1980, the league and Major League Baseball Players Association agreed every player would quality for a pension after 43 games and health insurance after just one game.

“The problem is the union didn’t insist on retroactivity,” said Gladstone.

That means players with fewer than four years of service to the league do not receive a pension or health insurance. Gladstone wrote a book about the problem, “A Bitter Cup of Coffee,” along with a number of articles. He says recently he’s been contacted by a dozen attorneys looking to represent players.

“This is a matter of equity,” Gladstone says.

Former Tigers and Blue Jays pitcher Steve Grilli owns a restaurant in Syracuse. He doesn’t qualify for a pension. Grilli’s son Jason is an MLB pitcher, most recently with the Toronto Blue Jays and Texas Rangers.

“There’s over 800 players that have that have been without a pension, and if you forget about the time you put in the minor leagues, time you put in the major leagues, and to walk away from something that you put 12, 13, 14 years into and walk away with nothing seems to be totally unfair,” said Grilli.

In 2011, the league, players association and alumni association approved a plan to pay pre-1980 players up to $10,000 for two years.

“MLB might consider it a pension. I don’t,” Gladstone said.

Players post-1980, he says, earn a minimum pension of $34,000 annually. Gladstone believes the players association and the league have plenty of money and could easily resolve this issue.

“This is not a question of they want the money, many of these men need the money,” said Gladstone.

Spectrum News reached out to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred's office, as the MLBPA and the players alumni association. They did not immediately respond to our request for comment.