Famous First Salary Levels

Baseball players have always been able to pay the bills. A typical Major League ballplayer has an average salary ten times greater than the average working person. Here are a few players that were the first to reach various landmark salaries.

Note: Salary is defined for this section as the amount paid to a player from a team for a single season of play. Amounts below often exceed the level listed and attempts to be specific have been made where possible (George Foster made $2.04 million), but the player is the first to break the two-million dollar threshold.

Famous First Salary Levels In Chronological Order
Date	Salary	Player	Team	Lg
03-05-1922	$50,000	Babe Ruth	New York	AL
01-18-1947	$100,000	Hank Greenberg	Pittsburgh	NL
01-11-1977	$500,000	Mike Schmidt	Philadelphia	NL
11-19-1979	$1,000,000	Nolan Ryan	Houston	NL
02-07-1982	$2,040,000	George Foster	New York	NL
11-22-1989	$3,000,000	Kirby Puckett	Minnesota	AL
06-27-1990	$4,700,000	Jose Canseco	Oakland	AL
02-08-1991	$5,380,250	Roger Clemens	Boston	AL
03-02-1992	$7,100,000	Ryne Sandberg	Chicago	NL
01-31-1996	$8,500,000	Ken Griffey, Jr.	Seattle	AL
11-19-1996	$11,000,000	Albert Belle	Chicago	AL
12-12-1997	$12,500,000	Pedro Martinez	Boston	AL
10-26-1998	$13,000,000	Mike Piazza	New York	NL
12-12-1998	$15,000,000	Kevin Brown	Los Angeles	NL
10-20-2000	$17,000,000	Carlos Delgado	Toronto	AL
12-11-2000	$20,000,000	Manny Ramirez	Boston	AL
12-11-2000	$21,000,000	Alex Rodriguez	Texas	AL
	$25,000,000
	$27,000,000
Date	Salary	Player	Team	Lg
Famous First Baseball Salary Levels