The Associated Press reports that the average salary in Major League Baseball has surpassed $3 million for the first time. Here’s a breakdown of the average salaries and minimum salaries in Major League Baseball going back to 1967. Two thoughts:
1) I remember back in the 80s when Sports Illustrated ran a story with all of the baseball players’ salaries listed from highest to lowest. On the cover was big-money-Mike Schmidt, topping the league with his $2 million and change salary. These days that’s below average.
2) For anyone who says that Marvin Miller isn’t a Hall of Famer, check out those 1967 salaries. The minimum was $6,000. Even in 1967, that meant that ballplayers with families often had to take winter jobs to make ends meet.
I’m not suggesting that Miller’s Hall of Fame case is based just on salaries, but ask yourself: how much better is the quality of play today, when ballplayers can spend their winters recovering, conditioning and getting ready for the next season, than back in the days when they had to sell cars or dig graves or whatever?
