Customer Reviews

Baseball's Biggest Blunder

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Complaints that large-market baseball teams were signing all the best players didn't begin during the free agent era. From 1953 to 1957, MLB tried to solve this problem by requiring any team which paid a player a bonus of more than $4,000 to keep him on the major league roster for at least two years before he could be sent to the minors. Some of these "bonus babies," such as future Hall of Famers Harmon Killebrew and Sandy Koufax, overcame the disadvantage of rotting on the end of the bench, while many other equally touted prospects saw their skills wither due to the forced inactivity.

Brent Kelley's book contains everything you'd ever want to know about the bonus rule. The text describes its rise and fall, featuring numerous interviews with former bonus babies, while detailed appendices sort the bonus babies by year; by bonus; by performance; and in many other ways. This small-press book is quite pricey and quite narrowly focused, but does an excellent job of covering its material.

The Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) has become identified with complex statistical analysis of baseball, but that is only part of what its members do. Some, like Mr. Kelly are historical/sociological researchers. This book is an excellent introduction to the first wave of ownership's throwing huge amounts of money at untried prospects, with, in most cases, terrible results. The best-selling "Moneyball" is really the story of how this (finding the best players for the least $) was done in more recent times. But in order to place Moneyball in historical context, you need to know about the Bonus Baby era. Mr. Kelly has given future researchers the foundation for any future analysis.

He mentions, at the end of the book, that EVERY bonus was given to a white, English-speaking player, while future Hall of Famers, who happened to be Black or Latino, were being signed literally for cab fare. Using his book as a start, one could write a great book about these players.

Also, the basis of his research in found in a number of interviews he conducted for "Sports Collectors' Digest," a periodical devoted to baseball card and memorabilia collectors. While these periodicals are often rightly written off as trade journals rife with conflicts of interests, they often also include stories of lasting historical interest and significance. Mr. Kelly has parlayed his interviews into this most interesting book. I hope he finds time to write more.

I have yet to read the book about the blunder that helped to thawart my older brothers career. Salvador Herrera was 18 years old and was sent to the Milwaukee Braves. Yes, he should have been groomed in the minor leagues and brought up slowly. But, the bonus rule was in effect and had to sit the bench with the big club and that was the worst thing for Salvador. He was paid a small sum by todays standards, but he said, " is all I did was pick up splinters with the big club." He did trade off with Bruton and with Aaron, but he was eager to play the full nine innings. The rule did him in and was the worst thing for baseball. I will purchase the book and get the details and talk to my brother. Signed, Manuel A. Herrera