Paying Ted Williams

The game’s greatest hitter, Boston’s favorite ballplayer and its most avid fisherman lands the biggest financial catch of his baseball career 66 years ago today as All-Star left fielder Ted Williams agrees to a one-year contract with the Red Sox for $150,000.

Some report the contract is valued at $135,000.

No matter. Either figure makes the contract at that point the largest in major league history.

Adjusting for inflation, today that same $150,000 contract is worth approximately $1.6 million – almost $21 million less than what the Red Sox this season will pay this season for the services of oft-injured middle infielder Trevor Story, whose lifetime .265 batting average is a staggering 79 points lower than what Williams averages during his Hall of Fame career from 1939-60.

“Hitting is the most important part of the game,” Williams once says. “It is where the big money is, where much of the status is, and the fan interest.”