LITTLE ROCK — The late Johnny Sain used to be quoted occasionally to the effect that nothing much changes in baseball except the financial figures.
In 1948, the Boston Braves gave a $65,000 signing bonus to Johnny Antonelli, a left-handed pitcher just out of high school. It caused quite a stir among big-league veterans in general, but especially on the Braves roster, where the top salary was about $25,000.
“I didn’t begrudge Antonelli what he got,” said Sain, who led the majors with 24 victories, 28 complete games and 315 innings during the 1948 season. “I was only concerned about my situation.”
An Arkansas native who eventually retired in a Chicago suburb, Sain had reached the Braves in 1942 after six struggling years in the minors. Following three years of military service, he won 20 games for the Braves in 1946, and 21 in 1947.
“I pitched for $4,200 in 1942 - I mean, for the whole season,” Sain said in a 1997 interview for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “I signed for $4,200 again in 1946, but I told them I wanted $6,500 if I made the final cut, which in those days took place in May. I got off to a good start. I pitched a game where only one man reached first base, and that was because a pop fly fell in among three fielders. I got the $6,500 salary plus $500 under the table.”
In 1947, he negotiated an $18,000 contract. For 1948, he held out in spring training for $30,000 and finally signed for $21,500.
“You see, I was already 30 years old,” Sain said. “I had a lot of time invested in baseball, and not much time left to make any money.”
By the 1948 All-Star Game break, Sain had 11 victories and the Braves had a chance to win their first National League pennant in 34 years. It was at that point that Sain told Manager Billy Southworth, General Manager John Quinn and team majority owner Lou Perini that if his salary wasn’t upgraded to $30,000, he would go home in midseason and stay.
And he convinced them he was deadly serious.
“I was taking a gamble, but I knew baseball was a business,” Sain said of his ultimatum. “I felt pretty sure that when they studied all the options they’d see it my way.
“I told Mr. Perini I’d sign for two years at $30,000 a year so he wouldn’t have to do it again. He agreed and said they’d give me an extra $1,000 for every game above 20 I won that season. Including the World Series opener [a 1-0 shutout against Bob Feller’s Cleveland Indians], I won 25, but I had to remind the front office the next spring to collect.”
Sain said that when he did baseball card shows and such with former pitching partner Warren Spahn, fans marveled at how much money they could have made in free agency.
“Sure, we’d make a lot more, everybody would, but they wouldn’t have let me do all the things now I was doing then,” Sain said. “I pitched relief between starts. I started sometimes with two days’ rest. They don’t use pitchers that way anymore, but I thrived on it.”
Sain served as a useful starter reliever for Casey Stengel’s New York Yankees pennant winners in the early 1950s. Later he was a controversial (but successful} pitching coach for the Kansas City A’s, Yankees, Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox and Atlanta Braves. Pitchers tended to swear by him; some managers swore at him.
Pitcher Jim Bouton, a Sain pupil with the Yankees who shook baseball’s establishment with his Ball Four memoir in 1970, said Sain advised unhappy athletes to go straight to the top and complain. The exact quote he attributed to Sain was, “Don’t be afraid to climb those golden stairs.”
They all know their way up the golden stairs now, even the amateur free agent draft picks.
Sports, Pages 18 on 05/29/2012