TODAY IN BASEBALL TAKES US TO NEW YORK, MARCH 2, 1927. Babe Ruth became the highest paid player in the major leagues on this date. The New York Yankees announced that the 32-year old Bambino will earn $70,000 per season for the next three years.
Seventy-thousand dollars a year in 1927 translates to about $1,000,000 in today’s dollars. Not a huge amount compared to today’s salaries, but that was before free agency when a player was the property of a team till the end of his career. The only way he could put on another uniform was if he were traded or released.
Major League Baseball salary records compiled by economist Michael J. Haupert of the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse show Ruth was also the highest paid player of the 1930’s. He earned $80,000 in 1930 and 1931.
Below is Haupert’s list of the highest annual salaries per decade, as best he can determine. Haupert says records of the late 19th and early 20th centuries are “tenuous,” but illustrate how salaries have changed:
1870’s (Al Spaulding) $4,000
1880’s (Fred Dunlap, Buck Ewing) $5,000
1890’s (Hardy Richardson) $4,000
1900’s (Nap Lajoie) $9,000
1910’s (Ty Cobb) $20,000
1920’s (Babe Ruth) $70,000
1930’s (Babe Ruth) $80,000
1940’s (Joe DiMaggio) $100,000
1950’s (Joe DiMaggio) $100,000
1960’s (Willie Mays) $135,000
1970’s (Rod Carew) $800,000
1980’s (Orel Hershiser/Frank Viola) $2,766,667
1990’s (Gary Sheffield) $14,936,667
2000’s (Alex Rodriguez) $33,000,000
2010’s (Alex Rodriguez) $33,000,000
Contributing sources:
“MLB’s Annual Salary Leaders, 1874-2012,” by Michael Haupert
“Ruth gets 3-year contract; $210,000,” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 3, 1927
