[Shipping up to Boston]

Originally Posted by blueash

Mantle's highest salary, his contract in 1963 was for 100,000. That is less than one million in today's dollars. So no, before free agency the salaries are not even close. I read a book as a child about the Yankees which had a story that Mickey wanted more than 100,000 but was told that 100,000 was the salary Babe Ruth got and nobody was worth more than the Babe. (Actually Babe got 80,000 in 1930 80,000 in 1930 dollars translates to 142000 in 1963 dollars and 1,400,000 today.

For 1.4 million today you can pay a benchwarmer, maybe.

Just for reference...

Median price of a home in NY in 1930 was around 6K ...in 1963 was around 19K. 2024 is around 799K*

*Realtor.com