Under the Table Contract

An early and somewhat crooked player contract will go up for auction. The document belongs to the grandson of Andrew Leonard:

It was signed at a time when there was a societal rift over whether baseball should pay its top players or remain amateur. Written on U.S. Treasury Department letterhead and signed by the acting Treasury secretary, the 40-word contract promises Leonard $720 for one year to be a department messenger.

“That contract sheds light on what’s long been believed but not proven, which was that there were professional baseball players posing as amateurs who were getting paid under the table for no-show jobs, and this is tangible evidence that the government was involved,” Ivy said.

The $720 was about twice what a government messenger made annually in the 1870s.

“Andy didn’t do a lick of work for the Treasury,” McCarty said.

Your tax dollars at work! The contract would be worth about $14,000 today, which is a nice example of how owners and players grew the game in a century and a half.

from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/1PJr4jF