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Koufax/Drysdale “Gold Dust Twins” Photo Gallery
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I usually try to avoid “baseball economics” at all costs (talk about something that can take the joy out of the game!), but today Paul Doyle shares with us some interesting information about Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale’s holdout in 1966, and also information about the increases in salaries over the past 50 years. I’m calling it:

SANDY KOUFAX and DON DRYSDALE: BASEBAll’S VERSION OF THE GOLD DUST TWINS!

Fifty-three years ago this month, major league ballplayers headed to spring training to begin the 1966 season. Those rookies and other marginal players hoping to catch on with the big league club would be making a magnanimous $6,000 salary. The average of all ballplayers going into that season was just a little over $15,000. Willie Mays led all players, taking home $105,000 the previous three seasons.

Ballplayers had nowhere to go in leveraging for more money. An isolated player holdout usually resulted in either the ballclub or the player blinking first: a slight raise or the player ending his snit by reporting late. Sometimes each party would meet in the middle.

The 1965 season ended with the Los Angeles Dodgers beating the Minnesota Twins in an exciting seven game series. Game Seven was a classic with Sandy Koufax pitching a gritty 2-0 shutout. As the players arrived for spring training, Marvin Miller was introduced as the first Executive Director of the Major League Baseball Players Association in early March. That and 15 cents would get you a cup of coffee in those days. The reserve clause still ruled; and Miller – or no Miller – the owners held the ace card.

Both Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale were seeking salary raises. The great Dodger tandem were coming off stellar seasons, winning 50 games between them. Negotiations stalled over the winter and both players in effect started the “collective bargaining” approach, even though that phrase was still years away from acceptance in baseball. Neither player showed up for the beginning of spring training. They announced to Buzzie Bavasi, then the Dodgers General Manager, that they were seeking a three-year $1M contract for both players to split between them. And, to add to the stipulation, neither player would sign unless the other player was satisfied. 

The Dodgers were famous for offering one year contracts and that extended to management. Walter Alston signed annual contracts for his entire tenure with the club. The spring hold-out commenced and dragged on as both parties held their ground. Bavasi and owner Walter O’Malley publicly treated it as no big deal. The games continued; and as the month of March neared its end, there was still no settlement in sight.

It turned out that both sides were playing poker with no aces up their collective sleeves. As March headed into that last week, Bavasi called Drysdale to ask what it would take to end the standoff. They arranged a meeting for the next day in a Los Angeles bistro. Drysdale threw out a proposal of $110,000 for him and $125,000 for Koufax. Bavasi immediately approved, pending O’Malley’s sign off. Bingo. A news conference was held the next day to announce the end of  the holdout.

In retrospect, both sides were holding their breaths. But it set the stage for other labor-related events that would come a couple of years down the road. In 1968, the first collective bargaining agreement was signed. This lead to the beginning of the pendulum swinging to the side of the players after over 100 years of the reserve clause giving the owners the upper hand in contract negotiations. Miller soon came to be recognized as the shrewdest negotiator in sports labor history.

We’ve come a long way since that fateful 1966 spring and the first, albeit unofficial, “collective bargaining.” And to graphically illustrate just how far we’ve come, here’s the annual salaries of the highest paid player since Koufax and Drysdale became the “gold dust twins.” It’s hard to believe, but from a $15,000 average salary in 1966, today’s average salary at the end of 2018 was $4.47 million!

 

1966	$130,000	Sandy Koufax (LA NL)
1967	$125,000	Willie Mays (SF NL)
1968	$125,000	Willie Mays (SF NL)
1969	$135,000	Willie Mays (SF NL)
1970	$135,000	Willie Mays (SF NL)
1971	$167,000	Carl Yastrzemski (Bos AL)
1972	$167,000	Carl Yastrzemski (Bos AL)
1973	$200,000	Dick Allen (Chi AL)
1974	$250,000	Dick Allen (Chi AL)
1975	$240,000	Hank Aaron (Mil AL)
1976	$240,000	Hank Aaron (Mil AL)
1977	$560,000	Mike Schmidt (Ph NL)
1978	$560,000	Mike Schmidt (Ph NL)
1979	$800,000	Rod Carew (Cal AL)
1980	$1,000,000	Nolan Ryan (Hou NL)
1981	$1,400,000	Dave Winfield (NY AL)
1982	$1,500,000	Mike Schmidt (Ph NL)
1983	$1,652,333	Mike Schmidt (Ph NL)
1984	$1,989,875	Mike Schmidt (Ph NL)
1985	$2,096,967	Mike Schmidt (Ph NL)
1986	$1,964,423	Jim Rice (Bos AL)
1987	$2,412,500	Jim Rice (Bos AL)
1988	$2,340,000	Ozzie Smith (StL NL)
1989	$2,766,667	Orel Hershiser (LA NL)
		Frank Viola (Min/NY AL/NL)
1990	$3,200,000	Robin Yount (Mil AL)
1991	$3,800,000	Darryl Stawberry (LA NL)
1992	$6,100,000	Bobby Bonilla (NY NL)
1993	$6,200,000	Bobby Bonilla (NY NL)
1994	$6,300,000	Bobby Bonilla (NY NL)
1995	$9,237,500	Cecil Fielder (Det AL)
1996	$9,237,500	Cecil Fielder (Det AL)
1997	$10,000,000	Albert Belle (Chi AL)
1998	$14,936,667	Gary Sheffield (Fla/LA NL)
1999	$11,949,794	Albert Belle (Bal AL)
2000	$15,714,286	Kevin Brown (LA NL)
2001	$22,000,000	Alex Rodriguez (Tex AL)
2002	$22,000,000	Alex Rodriguez (Tex AL)
2003	$22,000,000	Alex Rodriguez (Tex AL)
2004	$21,726,881	Alex Rodriguez (NY AL)
2005	$26,000,000	Alex Rodriguez (NY AL)
2006	$21,680,727	Alex Rodriguez (NY AL)
2007	$23,428,571	Jason Giambi (NY AL)
2008	$28,000,000	Alex Rodriguez (NY AL)
2009	$33,000,000	Alex Rodriguez (NY AL)
2010	$33,000,000	Alex Rodriguez (NY AL)
2011	$32,000,000	Alex Rodriguez (NY AL)
2012	$30,000,000	Alex Rodriguez (NY AL)
2013	$29,000,000	Alex Rodriguez (NY AL)
2014	$28,000,000	Zack Greinke (LA NL)
2015	$31,000,000	Clayton Kershaw (LA NL)
2016	$33,000,000	Clayton Kershaw (LA NL)
2017	$33,000,000	Clayton Kershaw (LA NL)
2018	$34,083,333	Mike Trout (LA AL)

 

Paul Doyle

Information: LA Times website; SI Vault; SABR website (payroll figures from Michael Haubert; Professor of Economics- Univ. of Wisconsin/LaCrosse; lifelong Cubs Fan!).

Photo Credits: All from Google search