Baseball Reference is really a fantastic place for, well, baseball reference. (The only thing I would change is to have it updated daily.) Anyway, They have section on player salaries. They only have data back to 1985, but some of the names on that list are rather surprising. To put in perspective how much things have changed, Dave Winfield was the highest paid AL player in 1985, earning not-quite 1.8 million. A-Rod will make 22 million this year. The most interesting year though, was 1989, when Frank Viola of the Twins was the highest paid player in the AL at $2,766,666. That was second highest in the whole league, as Orel Hershiser was paid $2,766,667.
Another useless, but still interesting, section listed the oldest player in the league for each year. Plenty of players have made it into their late 40's, though it's difficult to know how often they played. Julio Franco (46) is currently the oldest. Phil Neikro (48) was the oldest legitimate Major League contributor in our era. The oddest entry however (aside from the 1980 Minnie Minoso stunt) was Nick Altrock. Altrock was the oldest player in the league 5 times, but never in consecutive years. In fact, it was spread over 14 years. In 1919 he was the oldest at 42; in 1933 he was 56. He did it as a pinch hitter and a pitcher, but mostly just one at bat or one inning. Twice he went 1 for 1 in his only at bat of the year.
I also took a look at the active leaders for various offensive categories and was amazed to find Steve Finley consistently in the top 10 of several categories. he was present in games, at bats, runs, hits, triples (#1), total bases, and stolen bases. I had no idea.
Roger Clemens is now tied for 12th on the wins list at 324. He's tied with Nolan Ryan and Don Sutton. Reaching 330 would move him up 3 more spots to 9th. If he comes back another year and can win 15 or so, he'll get one more spot, but the top 7 are all over 360 so it's unlikely he'll reach that territory.
Rafael Palmeiro's streak of 35+ homers and 100+ RBI's appears to be over. Greg Maddux's streak of consecutive 15+ win seasons is very much intact. He has 13 wins right now, leaving him 2 short of 17 straight years of 15 or more. Cy Young did it 15 straight years.
Posted by chefchuddy at September 3, 2004 09:22 AM