Baseball Talk in January?!

It might be the beginning of January, but baseball is never far from my mind. After the Braves' dismal year last season, I'm beginning to feel like I did when I was a kid and first began to follow the Braves and experienced their loss to the Mets in the first-ever league playoff series. But, like the Cubs fans said for decades, there's always next year.

But what turned my attention back to baseball this time was two events on this date in history: Stan Musial's contract in 1952 and Curt Flood's lawsuit against baseball nearly two decades later.

St. Louis Cardinals great Stan Musial

On this date in 1952, Stan the Man, St. Louis Cardinals superstar, signed a contract with that club for $85,000 a year, a phenomenal sum at the time. In fact, to show how phenomenal that amount was, consider the fact that, according to Census Bureau statistics, the median income then for all American workers was merely $2,300 a year. That means Stan the Man was making for less than a year's work39 times what the average worker was making.

I suspect that some people griped about that disparity. How could a grown man playing a game be worth more than a man (or woman) doing productive labor? But is it any less of a disparity today?

The highest paid major league player today is Juan Soto of the Mets, who is making $61.88 million a year in a 15-year, $765 million contract. (Lest you die-hard baseball followers argue that it's Shohei Ohtani who is the highest paid, one must know that although he has a contract worth $70 million, most of that amount is deferred, making his actual annual salary much lower.)

Juan Soto of the NY Mets

"According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), American workers made a median wage of $1,194 per week in the first quarter of 2025, which would add up to $62,088 per year." Soto's salary, then, is 996 times what the average worker makes. And who pays his salary? That average worker, who attends his games and cheers him on to greater achievements--and higher contract amounts.

Talk about disparity!

But contrast that with the salaries of teachers. According to the South Carolina Department of Education, the minimum starting salaries for teachers in Greenville County are as follow: with a bachelor's degree, $51,854; with a master's degree, $56,188; and with a doctorate, $63,907.

Further contrast it with the salary of a typical Christian school teacher today. According to ZipRecruiter, the average annual salary of a Christian school teacher in Greenville County is $48,990 but runs as low as $21,627. (I seriously doubt that those figures are that high.)

But having been such a teacher myself, I contrast those amounts with what my wife and I made when we were teaching in the Seventies through the Nineties. The first year out of college, we made less than $10,000 each, and I was making a whopping $10 a month more than my wife because I had a master's degree! The second year, I made $12,000. In the years thereafter, I never remember breaking even the $20,000 mark.

Yes, I know that that was then, and this is now. But the laborer is worthy of his hire, as the Bible says (1 Tim. 5:18). What the disparity is saying is that any teacher, especially a Christian school teacher, is worth far less than a baseball player. Really? Teachers are the very reason people in all other professions can even have jobs!

I'm not complaining. In all my years of teaching, I never complained about the salary I had voluntarily agreed to. I never compared my salary with that of any other teachers. I wasn't teaching for the money; I was teaching because that was my calling. And God always supplied for our needs. Not always our wants, but always our needs. "I'm just sayin'."

Who has made the greatest impact in your life, a teacher or a baseball player?

The second baseball-related event on this day was Curt Flood's filing of a lawsuit against Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn and Major League Baseball over the reserve clause, which prohibited players from refusing their trade to a different team.

Curt Flood of the Cardinals, the man who dared challenge the reserve clause

Flood wasn't just any other player. He was a good one, possibly even Hall of Fame material, and his career statistics prove it.

At bats 6,357

Hits 1,861

Homeruns 85

Batting average .293

Runs scored 851

Runs batted in 636

Stolen bases 88

On-base pctg. .342

Slugging avg. .389

In 15 years in the major leagues, most of them with the Cardinals, he won seven consecutive Gold Glove awards, was an All Star three times, led the National League in putouts four times and in fielding percentage three times. He retired with the third most games in center field in National League history, surpassed only by the Giants' great Willie Mays and the Philly's Richie Ashburn. And he played in 226 consecutive errorless games, a record for National League outfielders.

In 1964, Flood led the league with 211 hits and a batting average of .311. In 1967, he hit for the highest average of his career, .335. The following year, he was team co-captain with catcher Tim McCarver.

The Cardinals traded Flood to the Philadelphia Phillies in 1969, and the Phils offered him a $100,000 contract. But Flood didn't want to be traded. He appealed to Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, stating his case: "After twelve years in the major leagues, I do not feel I am a piece of property to be bought and sold irrespective of my wishes." Kuhn rejected his appeal, and Flood filed suit.

In the trial, testimony was given on his behalf by none other than Jackie Robinson, the player who broke the color barrier, and the Detroit Tigers' great Hank Greenberg. Other players who were vocal in supporting his suit included Dick Allen of the Phillies, Lou Brock of the Cardinals, and Sandy Koufax of the Dodgers, all outstanding players in their own right.

The case was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on March 20, 1972, by Flood's attorney, former Supreme Court justice Arthur Goldberg. The Court ruled 5-3 in favor of Major League Baseball. (Justice Lewis Powell recused himself because he owned stock in Anheuser-Busch, owner of the Cardinals.) Flood was thereafter blackballed from baseball.

However, the Phillies had in 1970 traded Flood to the Washington Senators, where he was paid $110,000 but played only 13 games before retiring. In 1978, he became a broadcaster for the Oakland Athletics. But, like Pete Rose, he was not admitted to the Hall of Fame.

Was justice done? You and history must be the judge. For what it's worth, I think he got a raw deal. But I'm just a former poorly paid Christian school teacher, so my opinion isn't worth much. Or so the salaries seem to indicate.

On this day, we should honor two great men and great baseball players: Stan Musial and Curt Flood.