ALEX RODRIGUEZ: Comparing His Yankee Benjamins to Lou Gehrig’s Green
April 8, 2011 · Scott Murphy · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
If you look and listen closely, baseball stats are always swirling, smiling and singing out to be studied. I call myself a baseball “webnaut” as I explore uncharted stat planets late at night. On one of my recent travels, I focused on Lou Gehrig because my fantasy team is called the “Iron Horses.” Gehrig played all or parts of 17 Major League seasons. I started scanning today’s players and noticed Alex Rodriguez has played 17 Major League seasons.
Delicious.
The stat cosmos were serving me up some ice cream to add to my apple pie. I know, I shouldn’t compare baseball eras, but Gehrig and A-Rod? It’s a modern day “Ginger vs. Mary Ann.” It’s the type of thing that can waste away entire days and get you in trouble at home for neglecting the dishwasher.
When I start one of these sojourns, I always think, “What would Ken Burns google?” I also think back to Broadcast Journalism 101 at Mizzou where my acclaimed instructor, Mackie Morris, would say over and over that a golden rule in journalism is, “Follow the money trail.” Money is always a sexy topic. We all know A-Rod commands more benjamins than some entire countries, but what about The Iron Horse? Before luxury boxes, free agency and TV contracts, what kind of green did Gehrig garner? How does it compare to today’s numbers?
DIRTY SEXY MONEY
According to baseball-reference.com, the highest salary Gehrig ever earned was $39,000 in 1938. I’m betting A-Rod has watches that cost that much. In 1925, Gehrig’s first full season in the majors, he earned just $3,750. Sure, gas was just 20 cents per gallon, but $3,750 for The Iron Horse? I’m sure A-Rod buys Cameron Diaz (or insert his latest girlfriend’s name here) lunches that cost that much. In addition, Gehrig made a total of just $18,250 for his first three full years in the Majors. During that time of 1925-1927, Gehrig amassed 83 home runs, 355 RBIs and 526 hits. But, what does that mean?
According to dollartimes.com, $1 in 1927 had the same buying power as $12.20 in 2010. That means the $8,000 Gehrig earned in 1927 is the equivalent to making $97,600 for the 2010 season. According to answers.com, the minimum major league salary for 2010 was $400,000. Gehrig had 175 RBIs in 1927. It’s a nice large number guaranteed to give us momentum. Using his 2010 adjusted salary of $97,600 as our base, Gehrig got paid nearly $558 per RBI in 1927. How does that compare to A-Rod?
NO WONDER CAMERON DIAZ LIKES A-ROD
Alex Rodriguez was baseball’s highest-paid player for the 2010 season, earning $33 million. He drove in 125 runs. That means he got paid $264,000 per RBI. No wonder Cammie Diaz was feeding him popcorn at the Super Bowl. How about more cost-per-RBI fun? The 2010 AL MVP, Josh Hamilton, earned a relatively small $3,250,000 while driving in 100 runs. That’s $32,500 per RBI. The NL MVP, Joey Votto, is even more economical. He earned $525,000 for his 2010 season of 113 RBIs. That’s $4,646 per RBI. What have we learned so far? It’s good to be Josh Hamilton or Joey Votto’s agent right now.
Over 17 major league seasons, Lou Gehrig earned a total of $360,250. That’s less than A-Rod gets paid for 2 RBIs. Adjusting Gehrig’s green for 2010 dollars, he earned $4,395,050 in his career. That’s 16.65 RBIs in A-Rod’s world. To date, A-Rod has earned $264.42 million for his career. That’s $260 million more than Gehrig, even in adjusted dollars. Coupling his mad skills with the can’t-miss Madison Avenue moniker “The Iron Horse,” you have to wonder what might have been for Gehrig in today’s economy.
OK, I know you baseball cranks want the pure numbers. Gehrig had 493 dingers, 1,995 RBIs and batted .340 for his career. That included 2,721 hits in 8,001 official at bats. His 162 game averages were 204 hits, 37 homers and 149 RBIs.
Meanwhile, A-Rod has 613 home runs, 1,831 RBIs and a career batting average of .303. He has 2,672 hits in 8,826 career at bats. His 162 game averages are 188 hits, 43 homers and 129 RBIs. I couldn’t find stats listed anywhere for the number of pop stars, models and actresses in A-Rod’s cell phone.
FINAL THOUGHTS
One final note on Gehrig’s earnings, he got paid $25,000 in 1931. That year, he had 46 homers, 184 RBIs, a .341 batting average and 410 total bases. He finished second in the MVP voting to Lefty Grove. Second? Grove was 31-4 on the mound with a 2.06 ERA. Hey, what if we compared Lefty Grove to Roy Halladay? I better not, that dishwasher is getting pretty lonely.
R. Scott Murphy is an award-winning writer, sports producer and marketing executive. You can enjoy more of Murphy’s baseball stories in his latest book, “Ducks on the Pond.” Follow Murphy @MentalKickball on Twitter for daily Home Run Alphabet entries.
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