A new book was just released by SABR entitled,
Scandal on the South Side: The 1919 Chicago White Sox.
One of the interesting things in it is research into the salaries of players of the time. The Baseball Hall of Fame has a collection of cards which contain the basic contract details of players, and these have been used to determine what the actual salaries and payrolls of the American League clubs.
The result to quote from the book:
Quote:
Now that we have accurate salary information for all players in 1919, it’s hard to make the case that the Chicago White Sox were underpaid. There were many reasons that the eight Black Sox might have agreed to fix the World Series, but it wasn’t because they were
being paid so much less than other major leaguers of equal or lesser talent.
Eliot Asinof, along with many writers before and after him, long insisted that the White Sox had the best talent and the worst payroll. But that claim just doesn’t stand up to modern scrutiny. With few exceptions,
owner Charles Comiskey — long portrayed as a greedy miser and a villain in the Black Sox story — paid salaries that were comparable, and in many cases even favorable, to the rest of the league. The numbers
bear that out.
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Below are the 1919 opening day payrolls for the eight AL clubs.
Boston Red Sox: $93,475
New York Yankees: $91,330
Chicago White Sox: $88,461
Detroit Tigers: $81,433
Cleveland Indians: $78,913
St. Louis Browns: $63,000
Washington Senators: $63,000
Philadelphia A’s: $42,000