Across 18 seasons in professional baseball John Matias Sr. had an uncanny ability to find the gaps in opposing defenses.

Over more than 5,000 plate appearances on a couple of continents in the 1960s and ’70s, Matias fashioned a career .283 batting average.

But Matias, still a legendary figure in Hawaii baseball lore, also knows something about “falling through the cracks.”

Major League Baseball’s pension program, the richest and longest-running in pro sports, is the envy of the industry — and many others beside — as it celebrates its 70th anniversary today.

Meanwhile, the 72-year-old Matias is among more than 800 major league veterans who are on the flip side of the largess. Because they played prior to 1981, their service has largely been discounted even as the $10 billion-a-year business counts record revenue levels.

Modern day players qualify for lifetime health care after even one day on a major league roster and are assured a minimum $34,000-a-year pension with 43 days on the active roster, whether they appear in all the games or not.

Even career minor league players who have appeared since 1989 qualify for modified pensions after five years of professional service.

But Matias, who appeared in 58 games for the Chicago White Sox in 1970 and another 1,244 minor-league games between 1963 and 1980, including stints with the Hawaii Islanders, receives no health coverage through MLB and is not vested in the pension plan. He receives a non-qualified $2,500 annually, before taxes, that would not carry over to his beneficiaries.

Doug Gladstone, who authored “A Bitter Cup of Coffee: How MLB and the Players Association Threw 874 Retirees a Curve” and has championed pension reform, cites Matias as an example of an era of players who deserved better.

Until the 1980s, players had to have four years of MLB service to qualify for the pension plan. After the 1981 collective bargaining agreement that changed. But benefits were not made retroactive for players from the previous eras on that or even last December’s agreement. Nor did they get $10,000 annual payments that Negro League veterans were awarded.

“I guess we just fell through the cracks,” Matias said.

They are neither represented by the MLBPA nor properly looked out for by MLB despite their contributions to the game.

In his day Matias’ annual salary didn’t total a year’s meal money stipend today’s journeyman players receive. His career earnings for playing nearly year-round were light years from the $4.4 million average player’s salary of today.

When his major and minor leagues seasons ended, Matias often played in Venezuela or Mexico or worked construction back home just as his contemporaries found employment in hardware or sporting goods stores.

Matias’ attitude, one that comes across without bitterness, is also a throwback to a different era. “It would be nice if we got something more for the time we put in,” Matias said. “I just accepted what was given to us.”

Though some players are filled with rancor and have sought redress, losing a 2003 lawsuit, it is something Matias has never pursued, according to his son John Jr., a former University of Hawaii player and now a successful businessman. “He believes it was a privilege and an honor to have played the game (professionally). He is from a time when the players were happy to have been given the opportunity and played mostly for the love of the game.”

In Hawaii, Matias Sr. is best known for hitting a record four home runs for Farrington in one 1962 State Championship semifinal game at Honolulu Stadium. Matias, a junior who was the Govs’ leadoff hitter, had hit just three all season to that point.

The feat, unmatched in the 40-year history of the iconic stadium, is well-remembered to this day. “It is amazing how many people say they were at that game,” his son said.

Too bad MLB and the MLBPA don’t have memories as good.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.