1975 Payroll of Boston Red Sox

Baseball Almanac ^

[SamAdams76]

1975 Boston Red Sox Salaries

Carl Yastrzemski $175,000.00
Rick Wise $90,000.00
Carlton Fisk $80,000.00
Tim McCarver $65,000.00
Fred Lynn $38,000.00
Bob Heise $27,500.00
Jim Rice $27,000.00
Steve Barr $16,000.00
Tim Blackwell $16,000.00
Rick Burleson $16,000.00
Dick Pole $16,000.00
Kim Andrew $15,000.00
Jim Burton $15,000.00
Steve Dillard $15,000.00
Butch Hobson $15,000.00
Rick Kreuger $15,000.00
Andy Merchant $15,000.00

[SamAdams76]

1975 was the year of Jaws - in which a mechanical shark that mostly malfunctioned scared millions of beach-goers out of the water.

It was also the year that the Boston Red Sox won the pennant and went on to lose to the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series.

The above are the salaries of select players from that team. The minimum MLB salary was $15,000 - or $288 a week. Should mention that the average American made $8,630 that year - or $165 a week. I can still remember my father around that time showing me what $100 looked like. It was his take-home pay that week. Seemed like all the money in the world.

Here in 2014, the average American makes $47,441 - or $912 a week. The MINIMUM MLB salary is $500,000 - or $9,615 a week.

So while in 1975 the minimum MLB salary was about twice that of the average American, today it is 10x that of the average American. Note that the minimum MLB salary quickly escalates as the AVERAGE MLB salary is $3.39 million.

Back in 1975, Carl Yastrzemski was the highest paid Red Sox at $175,000 (he got a $10,000 bonus for spelling his name correctly when signing his checks).

So why mention all this? No particular reason except it is 82 degrees in my backyard and I'm hanging out on my picnic table waiting to grill some hamburgers and pork chops.

I do remember going to Fenway park during the mid 1970s. I was just a teenager and had a paper route. I made about $20 a week plus another $20-25 in tips. Pretty decent money back then for a kid barely in high school.

I was able to afford to go to as many Red Sox games as I wanted with that money. That's because it cost $1.25 to get a ticket for the bleachers. For another 50 cents, you could get what was called a "grandstand pass" in which you got standing room in the grandstand. What that actually meant however was that in the later innings, as businessmen started taking their exits, you could sneak down into the more expensive "box seats." An aggressive 14-year-old could end up sitting directly behind the Red Sox dugout by the 8th inning - especially if the game was a blowout in any direction.

I remember one game that went into extra innings scoreless and in the bottom of the 10th, Carlton Fisk hit a solo homerun to win the game. I was so close to the dugout that I could almost reach out and touch him as he sprinted victoriously into the dugout after that homer and then came out to tip his cap.

Back in those days, hot dogs cost thirty-five cents and for ninety cents, you could get a plastic cup of 3.2 beer. They did NOT check IDs in those days.

[Dilbert San Diego]

Yep adjusted for inflation, no question that salaries and ticket prices have skyrocketed. Are we better off in a situation in which the middle class can’t afford to attend as many games? Are there eniuh yuppies and corporations to keep buying all the tickets to support the industry of sports?

[minnesota_bound]

Today you would remove that dot near the end for today’s salary. You are paying for it thru higher cable bills.

Minnesota Twins tickets range from $17 to $84

[TwelveOfTwenty]

Are we better off in a situation in which the middle class can’t afford to attend as many games?

Are we worse off if we don't attend as many games?

[minnesota_bound]

$30 to $118 if the Twins play the Yankees......
http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/ticketing/singlegame.jsp?c_id=min#filter_by=club&filter_on=381863

Does not include the price of hotdogs.
Izzy’s Hand Scooped Ice Cream is $7! Better be a big scoop!
http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/min/ballpark/information/index.jsp?content=concessions

[Dilbert San Diego]

Well, we are not worse off attending fewer games. But they are blunting the growth of the fan base of younger fans, who will not have the experience of going to the ball game with their dads. The current situation is one in which major professional sports have priced themselves out of what average people can realistically pay for a day at the ballpark. So people just don’t go to the game anymore. Its a sad trend in my opinion. Not as serious as other issues facing society, but a reminder that sports have priced themselves out of reach for the mass audience.

[Gay State Conservative]

I worked for 20 years for some of the most skilled physicians and surgeons on earth.People would literally fly in from all over the world to be treated at our hospital.And these physicians (and surgeons),most of whom trained for at least a decade before they could even hang out a shingle,would,if they were lucky,make $500K a year for 48 or 49 weeks of 60-70 hours of work.And some guy who can throw a ball makes 10 million (or more) a year.

I find that so disgusting that I'm lost for words.

[Mears]

“An aggressive 14-year-old could end up sitting directly behind the Red Sox dugout by the 8th inning - especially if the game was a blowout in any direction. “

—

My boys are roughly the same age as you,and did what you did—paper route and all.

Opening Day was always a huge skip school day-—in high school.

.

[MUDDOG]

Carl Yastrzemski ... he got a $10,000 bonus for spelling his name correctly when signing his checks

Y-a-s-t-r-z-e-m-s-k-i, eleven letters.

Todd Hollandsworth, thirteen letters.

I think there's a guy now even longer.

[The Cajun]

Back in 75 if you were pulling in $1000 - $1500 a month, you had money to burn!

[TwelveOfTwenty]

But they are blunting the growth of the fan base of younger fans, who will not have the experience of going to the ball game with their dads.

That may not be a bad thing, if that time is spent participating in sports such as martial arts (for example) themselves, rather than sitting in the stands and making someone else rich.

[ifinnegan]

Your comment sounds like a liberal left comment.

[riverrunner]

I worked at a factory and made $1.85 and hour starting wage.

The top guys were making 5 dollars an I thought they had it made.

[Gay State Conservative]

Your comment sounds like a liberal left comment.

So when the day comes when you need a rare,delicate life saving heart operation will you go to the Mayo Clinic or Lambeau Field?

[Joe 6-pack]

Wow...Yaz, while certainly one of the all time greats, was making more than 2X Fisk, who also had a pretty stellar career.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Lambeau Field.

[ifinnegan]

That doesn’t make sense.

[SamAdams76]

Just a lazy summer day and thought this would be interesting. In 1978, I got my first real job (not a paper route) and made $2.65 an hour. I worked 25-30 hours a week and took home over $50. I still have paystubs from those first years of working. Back then, if a teenager had more than $25 in his pocket, he was suspected of being a drug dealer!

During the 1975-79 period, I used to take in about 40 Red Sox games a year. And a good amount of Bruins games as well. (I never liked basketball and the Patriots played in Foxboro even then.)

There was no way my sons, when they were teenagers, could just ride the T into town and take in a Red Sox game. Just too expensive.

I still go to a good amount of games today but through tickets purchased through my company (Fenway and Yankee stadium). Our company spends hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on game tickets. Usually we take clients but once in a while, clients back out and I get to call the sons to get in on the action.

For better or worse, professional sports are mostly in the corporate domain these days. Your average Joe is simply not going to be able to afford it. I remember purchasing tickets a few years back when family came out to visit us. I spent over $1,000 that night taking six people to the game.

[Castlebar]

The more things change the more they stay the same.

1975 New York Yankees Salaries

Catfish Hunter $640,000.00

Thurman Munson $100,000.00

Pat Dobson $79,000.00

Alex Johnson $65,000.00

Bob Oliver $55,000.00

Sandy Alomar $50,000.00

Ed Herrmann $50,000.00

Elliott Maddox $50,000.00

Rudy May $42,500.00

Eddie Leon $29,000.00

Walt Williams $28,000.00

Tippy Martinez $16,000.00

Larry Murray $16,000.00

Dave Pagan $16,000.00

Otto Velez $16,000.00

Mike Wallace $16,000.00

Terry Whitfield $16,000.00

Dave Bergman $15,000.00

Kerry Dineen $15,000.00

Ron Guidry $15,000.00

Rick Sawyer $10,200.00

[Red Steel]

Baseball salaries were about to explode after 75 season. The next year, Bowie Kuhn nixed the Rollie Finger and Joe Rudi deal to the Red Sox for a million each 'in the interest of baseball'...uhuh.

I remember the A's reliever Paul Lindblad got $600,000 contract in 1976.

I was able to afford to go to as many Red Sox games as I wanted with that money. That's because it cost $1.25 to get a ticket for the bleachers. For another 50 cents, you could get what was called a "grandstand pass" in which you got standing room in the grandstand.

Sox also made deals for bleacher seats for only .50 cents to military ID holders.