Money talks, Koufax and Drysdale walk
Don Drysdale, left, and Sandy Koufax
After a 1965 season in which they combine to win 49 games and lead the Los Angeles Dodgers over the Minnesota Twins in the World Series, pitchers Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale look for pay raises.
Understandable, given the 30-year-old Koufax unquestionably is the game’s best pitcher, coming off a 26-win season with 382 strikeouts, 27 complete games and a second Cy Young Award in three seasons.
Across the board, no pitcher in the majors has better numbers than Koufax.
For this, Koufax in 1965 receives $85,000.
The 29-year-old Drysdale, easily baseball’s Robin to Koufax’s Batman, is trying to better his salary of $80,000 after winning 23 games in 1965 with a 2.77 ERA, 20 complete games and seven shutouts to go along with Koufax’s eight.
The game’s Dynamic Duo points all out this out to Dodgers management, which initially does not seem to care much for their demands.
Seems the Dodgers are content to offer new contracts of $100,000 to Koufax and $85,000 to Drysdale.
So, the two hold out at the start of spring training in 1966.
And they stay out.
So much so that they talk about retirement and agree to appear in the upcoming movie Warning Shot, starring David Janssen of Fugitive fame.
In the movie, Koufax would play the role of a detective, Drysdale the role of a TV commentator.
They even join Janssen on March 17, 1966 for a publicity shot at Paramount Studio. As a detective and TV commentator, though, the two still look like pitchers.
In Hollywood with David Janssen in March 1966
Finally, with the 1966 season opener just 13 days away, everybody plays nice 58 years ago today and the holdout ends.
In the end, Koufax receives a $40,000 raise, taking his contract to $125,000, while Drysdale gets a $30,000 bump to $110,000.
No players in the game make more in 1966 than Koufax and Drysdale.
In today’s money, the two still would be woefully underpaid as Koufax’s $125,000 would be worth $1.2 million in 2024 dollars, with Drysdale’s $110,000 coming in today at $1.05 million.
The results after the new contracts in 1966 are split even though the Dodgers reach the World Series for a second straight season.
Koufax, in what turns out to be his final season, earns his $125,000 salary and then some with a career-high 27 victories, a career-low 1.73 earned-run average and another Cy Young Award.
Drysdale? Not so great as baseball’s second-highest player stumbles from 23 victories in 1965 to only 13 in 1966, while his ERA jumps from 2.77 in 1965 to 3.42 in ’66.
Fans, as Koufax later says, side with the Dodgers’ management, not their star pitchers.
“It was astonishing to me,” Koufax says, “to learn that there were a remarkably large number of American citizens who truly did not believe we had the moral right to quit rather than work at a salary we felt — rightly or wrongly — to be less than we deserved, (saying) just take what the nice man wants to give you, get into your uniform, and go (run) a fast 25 laps around the field.”