A FORMER professional baseball player who was born in Warrington is one of around 500 former players who is losing out on a proper pension in the United States.
Keith Lampard’s family emigrated when he was only three – but Keith was playing baseball from the age of eight.
He played 62 major league games for Houston Astros in 1969-70 and spent several years coaching after his playing days ended.
Now he is almost 72 – but because Major League Baseball only introduced pensions for players in 1980, he and around 500 others don’t get one.
All they get is a non-qualified annuity of $625 a quarter or a maximum payment of $10,000 compared with up to $210,000 received by more recent retirees.
A campaign has started to win pensions for the men, but according to the campaigners neither the league nor the players’ union are interested in helping them.
To make matters worse, taxes are taken from the annuity the players receive and, in the event of the player dying, the payment dies with them.
It would not be passed on to Keith’s wife, Sandi.
A graduate of Madison High School, Portland, Oregon, and also of the University of Oregon, 6ft 2 inch Keith Lampard had a distinguished, if short, major league career, and also had a lengthy career as an amateur.
A spokesman for the campaigners said: “Neither the league nor the union want to retroactively restore these men into pension coverage.
“They are also not eligible to be covered under the league’s umbrella health insurance plan.”
Keith inherited his love of sport from his father, Gordon, who was born in Yorkshire where he played cricket and soccer before moving to Warrington. He served with the Royal Navy aboard an aircraft carrier in World War 2 before emigrating after the war. His mother was Lillian, nee Kenwright.
Ex-baseball star from Warrington in fight to win a pension
00 Comments
