“The Way it Is” by Bruce Hornsby and the Range

Happy Birthday to “The Rajah,” MLB Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby!

Apparently, some things DO change…

When he retired in 1938, Rogers earned roughly $470K over a 23-year playing/managing career. In 2012 dollars that works out to approximately $332K per year.

Likewise, his contemporary Babe Ruth- arguably the greatest baseball player of all-time (I argue otherwise)- earned just over $910K throughout the course of a 22-year career. In 2012 dollars that’s about $692K per year.

Comparatively, when his current contract expires, Albert Pujols- arguably the best player today- would have earned about $351M in salary. In the time of The Rajah & The Babe, that equates to an average of roughly $1M per year over a 21-year career.

This year the average MLB salary approaches $3.5M per year, in 1938 that would be about $215K- or just about half of what poor Rogers Hornsby (2-time Triple Crown and MVP winner) made in his entire career!

Ballplayers make too much money, and that’s the way it is…