Honus Wagner has been dead and buried for more than half a century but still has a sizeable fan club in the Pittsburgh area. It was roughly 100 years ago that a tobacco company printed these cards for distribution as a sales promotion. Honus refused to sign-off on it and accept their money even though professional ballplayers were poorly paid in his day. His reasoning was that smoking was a bad habit, especially for kids to take up, and he wanted no part of encouraging it.
Earlier this year, I attended a personal appearance for Vernon Law, Cy Young Award winner of the 1960 Pirates. Even back in his day (more than a half century after Honus), he told us that just about every MLB player had an off-season job to make ends meet. He did deliveries for a dairy. ElRoy Face was a carpenter and everyone else on that great team had similar working class jobs. No wonder the fans related so much better to them back in the day!
No wonder the fans related so much better to them back in the day! When I lived in Baltimore, I heard many stories of how the great Orioles and Colts would live in city neighborhoods and were "regular joes" even during the season. And I'm not talking about scrubs. I'm talking Brooksie and Johnny U.
Earlier this year, I attended a personal appearance for Vernon Law, Cy Young Award winner of the 1960 Pirates. Even back in his day (more than a half century after Honus), he told us that just about every MLB player had an off-season job to make ends meet.I remember reading that the Dodgers top pitcher in the '60s, Sandy Koufax, made around $25,000 per year.