Big Money.

Baseball fans nationwide were stunned when in 1949 Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox became the first major leaguer to earn $125,000 for a season. During the 1950s three players would join, him in topping the $100,000 mark: Stan Musial of Saint Louis and two Yankees, Joe DiMaggio and Micky Mantle. Although a 1957 survey revealed that 75 percent of major-league ballplayers earned between $10,000 and $25,000, the decade witnessed the dawning of the big-money era in baseball. Many of the ,prewar players had reached retirement, and team owners scrambling to snatch up young talent often gave fat signing bonuses as an incentive. Braves $15,000-a-year pitching great Johnny Sain looked on with dismay as his team shelled out a $75,000 bonus to benchwarmer Johnny Antonelli. Sportswriters worried in their columns that all the money would turn the new generation of major leaguers soft. Dodgers star Duke Snider shocked...