Back in the 1960s, Major League Baseball developed the Professional Baseball Scholarship Plan. The goal of “The Plan” was to help players entering professional baseball to further their education, since many players had yet to start college or complete it. That’s still the way it is today.

According to an article in the New York Times in 2009, from 1962 to 1999, a total of 69.2 percent of baseball players returned to the classroom under the Plan, said Pat Courtney, a spokesman for Major League Baseball.

Perhaps the important factor in the Plan is that the player must negotiate this into his first professional minor league contract.

That contract is typically divided up into three parts: The signing bonus, the Professional Baseball Scholarship Plan (PBSP) and the Incentive Bonus (optional).

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