Haggling over contracts is nothing new in professional
baseball. For years, players and management have gone back and forth over
getting the perceived upper hand when it comes to determining worth. In the
days before free agency and player representation, teams could more or less
dictate the terms, which could lead to some pretty unhappy exchanges and counter
proposals. Perhaps none were as bizarre as hard-drinking catcher Larry McLean,
who tried to negotiate
the payment of 25 cents for every drink he refused during the 1911 season with
the Cincinnati Reds.
McLean was a towering (6’5”, 230-pound catcher), who broke
into the majors with the Boston Americans in 1901. He eventually gained a
reputation as a good-hitting and fielding receiver with a penchant for the
bottle. To say he had a taste for the drink and trouble would be an
understatement. He was involved in saloon
brawls during his playing career and was eventually killed
in one in 1921 at the age of 39, when he and a friend mixed it up with a
bartender who happened to have a gun with him behind the counter at his near
beer joint.
Despite his troubles, McLean’s talent kept him in the game
for 13 years. His career came to an end following the 1915 season with the New
York Giants after he got into a violent
free-for-all at the team hotel with manager John McGraw
and a dozen other participants. The donnybrook only ended after Dick Kinsella,
a Giants scout, broke a chair over McLean’s head.
“I am done with Larry McLean,” McGraw said the following
day. “He will never play with New York again.” He was true to his word, and the
burly receiver never played another professional game. But anyways, back to the
story at hand.
1910 was the best season of McLean’s career. He appeared in
a career-high 127 games, batting .298 with 71 RBIs, which were good for ninth
in the National League. Justifiably, he felt that he was due a better contract than
the previous year’s, which had included a clause requiring him to pay the team
$25 for every drink he had during the season. Although the potential was there
for him to have been in steep debt by the end of the year, it’s unknown how
much, if any pay, he was docked for indulging in libations.
Based on his big year, the catcher decided to try and turn
the table on the Reds, telling reporters, “I will play for the Reds only under
the terms of the contract I have made out. Last year they made me sign a fool
contract after I had a little
trouble at Hot Springs (their spring training site). This year they will
sign my contracts or not at all. I want 25 cents for every drink I refuse.”
McLean wasn’t finished, “I’ll pay a man $50 a week just to be
with me all the time and keep a tab on how many drinks I refuse, and I’ll
forfeit all claims to any salary if I take one drink during the playing season.”
“I figure my salary would be about $25,000 (In 1911, the
top-paid players in the game, Ty Cobb
and Nap
Lajoie, only made $9,000) a year on this basis, and think I’m worth that to
the club. I’m tired of being dictated to, and will now do some dictating. Since
I have made the announcement of the only terms I will sign under, I would have
made $89, just by turning down offers to take a tumble off the aqua aeroplane,
but nix for me. I’m going to put my contract to Mr. [August]Herrmann (the team
owner) as soon as I can and see what he says.”
Not surprisingly, McLean wound up playing under the Reds’
terms once again during the 1911 season. He had another fine year, batting
.287, but finally wore out his welcome the next year, even getting to the point
where Cincinnati suspended
him before the end of the 1912 season and then had a hard time finding
a taker for him when they attempted to rid themselves of him that
offseason.
Unfortunately, McLean was a troubled soul who only stayed in
the game as long as he did because teams found his production on the field outweighed
the trouble he caused off it. While his proposed 1911 contract got quite a few
laughs, in the end it was emblematic of a man who could have probably
benefited from such a ridiculous clause.
********************************
You can check me out on Facebook or follow me on Twitter @historianandrew
No comments:
Post a Comment