Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Inflation

There has been some debate about whether Roger Clemens' contract makes him the highest-paid baseball player.

The Yankees are paying him $18-plus million for a partial season, which prorates to about $28 million annually. That, in turn, works out to more than Alex Rodriguez is paid. And considering what his salary is adding to the Yankees' "luxury tax" payment, Clemens is costing the team more than $1 million per start. That's if the 44-going-on-45-year-old pitcher stays healthy.

When Clemens was a mere toddler, a salary dispute arose between the Los Angeles Dodgers and two of their pitchers, both former Cy Young Award winners and future Hall of Famers.

On March 30, 1966, just before the start of the season, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale ended their joint holdout. The tandem accounted for 49 victories the season before, and it was safe to assume that without them, the Dodgers and their relatively anemic offense would have finished toward the bottom of the National League standings, instead of winning the World Series.

A Los Angeles Herald-Examiner article said the pitchers "wrote a happy ending to their cliff-hanger 32-day holdout" by signing for a combined $230,000. Koufax was to receive $120,000 and Drysdale $110,000.

Let's see ... using Koufax's salary as a barometer against Clemens' prorated figure, that works out to an inflation rate of something like 23,333 percent in the past 41 years. I know inflation was steep in the '70s, but I don't remember it being anything like that.

At any rate, Koufax went on the win 27 games and his third unanimous Cy Young Award (back when there was only one for both leagues) for his 120 grand. And that's all the Dodgers had to pay him, because his arm hurt so bad he couldn't pitch anymore after that.

Too bad Tommy John surgery didn't come along for another decade.


Trivia question 29: Sandy Koufax's last appearance was in the 1966 World Series, in a loss to the Orioles. Which Dodger outfielder made three errors in one inning of that game?

2 comments:

Zoooma said...

How could anyone hate Clemens? As a Mets fan, I hate the Braves but that's understandable. But hating a living legend who could've been elected to the HOF years ago?

Harry Funk said...

I didn't mind him when he was pitching for Houston ...

Truth be told, I didn't like him breaking Steve Carlton's record for most Cy Young Awards! But even if he's a Yankee, I still have to respect him as one of the all-time greats.