This event, has always been an epic moment in History. An era when pay cuts were forthcoming, for Players who did not replicate the stats of their previous season and contract. Who can ever forget this. courtesy of the NY Times: March 12, 1960
I will continue to Post several more stories of The Mick,within the next week; especially those from 1961, with Maris in tow, and some of the Mick's greatest moments, ie "The Triple Crown" article, the Young Mick's early years of glory, et al. I'm getting these articles from:
And after his 1960 season where his numbers went to 40/94/275 he was put back to $70,000 per After his huge 61 season 54/128/317 he was pushed to $90,000 for the 1962 season. In his injured year of 1963 he was raised to $100,000 where he remained for the rest of his career (1968) NOTE: sadly 1964 was his last productive season 35/111/303 He's an amazing number for you. For his entire 18 year career (1951-1968) he earned a grand total of $1,128,000
...doesn't seem quite fair, does it? ...It's amazing how wacky and grotesque our "system" has become...people who play sports, actors, etc., make millions, yet we refuse to pay our teachers and cops what they're worth...the world is in a sad state.
crazy....amazing how MLB ever got this way, with Multi-Millions being thrown around like its Monopoly Money. I always like to ask myself, (but rarely answer back), What would Mantle, Ford, Mays, Koufax, Gibson or Marichal, Clemente, Aaron be worth today on the FA market....? I won't even bother to ask what Gehrig or Ruth, DiMaggio would be worth, all those guys were not humans, they were all born on the Planet Krypton....
I got a few more NY Times stories on Mick, I haven't heard about, or heard little on, I will post over the course of this week. (its gonna' be another hectic one); yet, "Post It, and They Will Come"....?
Per Billy Martn in his book "Number One" Weiss could be a real doozy. As a then 11 year old kid in the '57 season the Mick (per local news) was seeking a 40 K salary big bucks then. Weiss threatened to ship him out of New Yor to the Cleveland Indians. Seemed that the news was good, almost no Yankee in the 50's wanted off that team. Eventually the Mick and the Yankees hit compromise but I was not able to get the low down of what really happened. I guess Mickey was pretty popular with the chicks and he was strapping everything he could find. The Yankee Front Office had some interesting photos of MM and some chickies which they threatened to show to Merlyn Mantle and that was the compromise piece. I would imagine that if one were a fly on the wall in the Micks Rooms one would have seen some stuff.
