January 18, 2018 By Chris Varney
When was the last time you heard about a professional sports athlete take a pay cut?
Anyone?
Bueller, Bueller.
On this day in history in 1950, Van Meter, IA native Bob Feller took a pay cut of $20,000 to an annual salary of $45,000 and it was his suggestion. That’s right, Feller asked for the pay cut! Feller was tied in to the Cleveland Indians as part of the reserve clause back then. There was no such thing as free agency. Feller had the choice to play for the Indians and no one else. Baseball players in general were bitter about the reserve clause and several times some players tried revolting, even starting a new league but to no success. It was St. Louis Cardinals OF Curt Flood who changed all that in the 1960s but that is a different story.
In 1949, Feller went 15-14 with a 3.75 ERA. Those numbers were way down for Feller who won 26, 20 and 19 games in the previous three seasons after returning from World War II. It sounds like Feller actually took pride in his work and did not feel like his performance was equaling his pay. So he took a cut and he was the one to suggest it to then Indians GM Hank Greenberg.
Now to be fair, there are some players in recent years who have taken less money — LeBron James comes to mind when he signed with the Miami Heat. James actually could have signed for more money with a different team. But James signed with Miami to win a championship and play with his friends Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosch. There have been other examples of players signing free agent contracts with their current teams instead of taking the highest offer — Joe Mauer with the Minnesota Twins comes to mind.
But they were for different reasons than Feller. A pitcher of Feller’s caliber today would be making between $15 to $20 million a year on the open market and if he were playing today, there is no doubt that Feller would try to get that kind of money. Baseball players represented by agent Scott Boras typically wait until the last minute to sign the best possible deal for the most money. Current free agent J.D. Martinez, a Boras client, has said that he will hold out into spring training if he has to in order to get the best deal. Baseball is not alone, football, basketball all sports that have free agents are the same — let’s get the best deal possible for the most money.
Its good to know that at one time work ethic and pride meant something in sports. Its just too bad it happened 68 years ago.
By the way, in 1950 Feller went a solid 16-11 but in ’51, he rebounded for a 22-8 record and got a raise back to $40,000. That would be the last hurrah for Rapid Robert, his final 20 game win season.