Payday for the Babe

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK - Babe Ruth became the highest paid player in major league history on this date in 1927. The New York Yankees announced that the 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 (more later).

Ruth wasn't the highest paid for long. Ty Cobb was being paid more per year than Ruth before the end of the 1920's. Here are the highest salaries per decade as compiled by economist Michael J. Haupert of the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse:

1890's (King Kelly) $12,500
1900's (Honus Wagner) $10,000
1910's (Frank Chance) $20,000
1920's (Ty Cobb) $80,000
1930's (Babe Ruth) $84,000
1940's (Joe DiMaggio) $100,000
1950's (Ted Williams) $125,000
1960's (Curt Flood) $111,000
1970's (Mike Schmidt) $561,500
1980's (Orel Hershiser/Frank Viola) $2,766,666
1990's (Albert Belle) $11,949,794
2000's (Alex Rodriguez) $22,000,000

Contributing sources:
The Economic History of Major League Baseball by Michael J. Haupert

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