Tom Seaver with the NY Mets
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In 1969 Tom Seaver made $40,000/year with the World Champion NY Mets.
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In 1969 Tom Seaver made $40,000/year with the World Champion NY Mets.
At the time a very good income in New York City was $10,000/year, so Seaver, perhaps the best pitcher in baseball, earned about 4X what a slightly above average annual NYC wage was...a wage about equivalent to $100,000/year, or so, in NYC today.
Today top pitchers earn upwards of $30 million/year. Compared to those $100,000/year workers that's about 300X what those NYC workers earn today.
Quite a difference.
In 1974, the New York Mets signed Seaver to a one-year deal worth $172,500, a record for a pitcher at the time. The most Tom Seaver ever earned as a player was $1,136,256/year in 1985 at age 41. He retired the following year after pitching the year after agreeing to a $3,610/year pay cut. (http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=seaveto01)
It wasn't until 1980 when baseball salaries skyrocketed. Nolan Ryan became the first MLB player to earn $1 million/year.
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