Baseball is replete with change and baseball history, like all history, is always evolving, sometimes in a good way, sometimes not, but some aspects of the game have remained unchanged for well over a half-century and others have disappeared, which has been a good thing.
Over time the basic rules of the game have, for the most part, remained unaltered; the development of essential skills, however, continues to involve an investment of time and personnel by ball clubs, and fans have always flocked to see money players and exciting teams.
Birth of Free Agency
In 1976, Major League Baseball (MLB) changed forever with the birth of free agency. Since its inception, the owners had held power over the players of their team, this was the dreaded reserve clause (for more information on this click here). They could trade anyone at any time and control, with relative ease, what individuals are paid. Great players, like Babe Ruth, usually commanded solid salaries, but with free agency, players were able to negotiate their contracts and go to a team willing to pay their price.
Still, as it had always been, players required the skills a team needed to get their price. The one major difference was that players were now able to sign guaranteed contracts, which stated that they would be paid their salary no matter how they performed and even if they are on the DL (Disabled List).
Seventy-three years before free agency, professional baseball underwent a change that would influence how the Majors conducted business and found players. In 1903 the National Association of Professional Base Ball Leagues, better known as the Minor Leagues, was formed to create some order in which Major League teams acquired players from small-market clubs. In the 1930s the great Branch Rickey (someone who forever changed baseball history) developed the structure for what we know today as the “Minor Leagues.” Rickey’s formalization of the “Minors,” which became dedicated to developing players who could perform in the Majors, was jokingly called the “farm system” because small-town clubs were raising young players “like corn” down on the farm.
Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey
Creation of the Farm System
Since the 1930s, MLB has relied upon affiliate farm teams to develop players for the big leagues to supply promising prospects for trades, or simply provide adequate replacements when necessary. Today, the Minor League system is highly developed, bringing players up through A, AA, and AAA ball. When a team is looking to make a trade for a solid Major Leaguer, one way they can sweeten the deal is by including prospects from the minors. Additionally, one way for owners to keep costs down is to bring up players from the “farm team” when they’re ready. By doing this an MLB team can save millions of dollars.
Bringing up an adequate second baseman from the minors and paying him the minimum for the season can prove to have more value than paying a veteran infielder millions of dollars. Using a certain number of non-veterans allows a team to spend more money on other positions, especially pitching, which is always at a premium and comes at a high price.
Team Salary Payrolls
The Minor Leagues has always been a cost-saving venture for clubs, but with today’s exorbitant salaries, the strength of the players union, and some clubs carrying payrolls of under one hundred million dollars, the strategic use of Minor League players can make the difference in both turning a profit and winning the World Series (as of writing this 8 clubs currently have a total payroll under $100mil, Kansas City, Arizona Tampa Bay, Miami Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Oakland and Baltimore (data from Spotrac)).
Using players from the farm club gives owners more power since those team members who have been brought up are not eligible for salary arbitration until they have three years in the Majors and cannot become free agents until they’ve accumulated six or more years in the big leagues. Today, for a brief part of a player’s career, National and American League owners have the power they used to possess over every player before 1976.
Black Sox Scandal
Teams looking to win a championship and attract as much revenue as possible have often invested money in key players. Throughout the 146 years of baseball history, there have been owners willing to pay more than others. In 1919, some of the Chicago White Sox, which was owned by Charles Comiskey, decided to throw the World Series to their National League counterparts, the Cincinnati Reds.
The White Sox players felt they were both underpaid and under-appreciated by their boss and figured if they bet on the underdog Reds and insured that the National Leaguers would win, they’d make a tidy profit. They did just that, but they also got caught. It became known as the Black Sox Scandal of 1919, and it’s a constant reminder to owners of how a man like Comiskey, who had a whole lot of money, could be penny-wise and pound-foolish.
Black Sox scandal headlines from the New York Time on September 29th, 1920.
Five of the eight players involved in the scandal, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Arnold “Chick” Gandil, Eddie Cicotte, Oscar “Happy” Felsch, Fred McMullin, Charles “Swede” Risberg, George “Buck” Weaver, and Claude “Lefty” Williams
Yankees Money Pit
Of course, spending a lot of money does not always ensure a team will win the World Series or even the League Championship. Since the New York Yankees payroll exceeded one hundred million dollars some years ago, they’ve been unable to win it all. For years Steinbrenner and company had been handing over two hundred million in team pay. In 2005, the Chicago White Sox paid out a little over seventy-five million to their players. It was ironic because they had not won the Series since 1917, before the big scandal.
The basic idea at work regarding salary before free agency is that a happy player – one who feels he’s being treated and paid fairly – can equal a happy owner with a winning team. After free agency, the thought became, that to be competitive a team had to pay a player what the market dictated and owners, to a degree, could, in theory, control that market. These are, in essence, two sides of the same coin.
Still Recognisable Today
If we could resurrect Cy Young, Shoeless Joe Jackson, and Home Run Baker and bring them out to the ballpark, they would certainly still understand the game, even though it has changed. There has been much development since their time, including the introduction of speciality pitchers, the creation of artificial turf, and the addition of the designated hitter in the American League. The mound, strike zone, and scoreboards are all different too.
Cy Young
Shoeless Joe Jackson
Frank “Home Run” Baker
Player skills are still fundamentally the same, except more advanced. They would get the idea that a better player should command more money than a player with less skill. But the overall economics of the game would probably baffle those great players. That has added a new type of off-field strategy that owners who want to win must master. Since the turn of the 19th century, it’s been the greatest change MLB has seen.