Players, Owners, and Money
Winning Was More Important to Players in the 1950s
Today's older fans enjoy telling young fans how much the old players cared, but that is simplistic. Players cared about winning, but primarily because of money.
In 1951, a dollar was more than enough money for a kid to go to a baseball game, buy a lot of food, and still come home with some change. In 2008, a 1951 dollar is worth about 12 cents. A box seat at Yankee Stadium is priced as high as $400, and a cup of beer costs in excess of $7, but the best part for the owners is that baseball revenues promise to be the best ever in 2008.
Money is the Primary Goal
Modern baseball is a cartel -- an association in which producers of a similar or identical product try to obtain a monopoly over the sale of the product. The primary goal is to make as much money as possible, for the owners and for the players. Now, that was always true, but it was not as obvious to most fans in the 1950s as it is to fans in 2008.
The "People's Team"
The Brooklyn Dodgers were the "people's team." Their players, like all players, were vastly underpaid, which helped fans identify with them. Players' salaries were only two or three times greater than the yearly incomes of most fans. During the off season, many players sold cars or worked in clothing stores to supplement their baseball earnings.
Free Autographs
No one ever heard of an autograph show. Before a home game at Ebbets Field, kids would park themselves at the entrance of the Franklin Avenue IRT subway station, awaiting the exit of the ballplayers in order to get autographs. Ebbets Field was a small ball park and the seats were close to the field, which made the fans feel they were a part of the game. The players knew the regular fans and even some visiting team players knew which Brooklyn fans would give them a hard time.
The Top Four Teams Shared the Money
Winning was more important in those days because it meant more money for the players. Each league had eight teams, and the top finishers in each league shared in the World Series money. An extra $3,000 was huge to a player making $10,000, and even the few hundred dollars for finishing fourth was important. The Yankees won five consecutive World Championships from 1949-1953, and during contract negotiations, general manager George Weiss told players that their salary really was a few thousand dollars higher than his offer because there would be a World Series check in October.
Winning Meant Money
Today's older fans enjoy telling young fans how much the old players cared about their team, but that is simplistic. Players cared about winning, but primarily because it meant more money. Of course there was more team loyalty, but that was due in part to the fact that players were tied to a team by the reserve clause. The team could trade the player, but the player either played for his team or didn't play. Free agency allows great player movement, which decreases player loyalty, but it also provides players to be set financially for life. The financial benefits of winning the World Series are minimal for most players. The $300,000 means a lot to a rookie, but not to a veteran making $12 million a season.
The American Way
Fans in the 1950s cared more about their team than today's fans, but that is due in part to the fact that older fans really believed that "their" players would run through a brick wall if it helped win a game. Some players, such as Pete Reiser, did just that. Hank Bauer used to discipline young Yankees by telling them that they had better hustle and not cost him his World Series share. But just as today, the players were interested in money first, which is much more obvious to today's fans than it was to fans in the old days. It's simply the American way.
References:
When the Ballpark Cost a Nickel
