1973: The Year White Sox Player Dick Allen Leapfrogged Hank Aaron To Break Babe Ruth's Record

An interesting article from the New York Times archives dated March 4, 1973:









N.Y. Times ARCHIVES | 1973



Allen Scales Ruth's Pay Plateau

MARCH 4, 1973





While the baseball world has had its eyes focused on Henry Aaron's pursuit of Babe Ruth's home run record, Dick Allen has sneaked in and broken Babe Ruth's record before Aaron could.



Not in homers, but in dollars.



Sort of, that is.



Last week, Allen signed a three‐year contract with the Chicago White Sox for a reported $225,000 a year.



Babe Ruth was paid $80,000 a year by the New York Yankees in 1930 and 1931, a fantastic sum that had as much to do with making Ruth an international legend as the home runs that he hit.



The 1931 dollar, with the Depression gaining full momentum, was worth $2.71 in terms of today's purchasing power.



That means Ruth's salary, translated into 1973 dollars, was $216,800.



Therefore, in pure arithmetic, Allen has become the first baseball player to exceed Ruth's pay record. Aaron is on the second year of a three‐year pact worth $200,000 a year.


In reality, of course, Allen remains far behind Ruth when taxes are taken into consideration.



In 1931 the Federal income tax on Ruth's income was something less than 15 per cent.  Under today's regulations earned income cannot be taxed at more than 50 per cent by the Federal Government, but there are also state and local income taxes.



Ignoring such things as number of dependents and deductions, Ruth kept $68,000 of his salary— $184,280 today.



Assuming that with various legal tax manipulations a player today could retain approximately 60 per cent of his salary, to take home an amount equivalent to Ruth's he would have to be paid $307,130 a year.



Allen and Aaron haven't reached that yet. But Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and other pro basketball players have. So have some hockey players and some world‐class soccer stars.



Among salaried athletes, therefore, baseball and football players are now trailing the field.



However, some perspective should be kept on this kind of comparison. With all his money, Babe Ruth could not buy a television set, drive a car with automatic transmission, fly in a jet, get a shot of penicillin, or sleep in an air‐conditioned hotel room in St. Louis in the hot summer of 1931.



Another comparison is interesting. Ruth's $80,000 exceeded the $75,000 salary then paid to the President of the United States, Herbert Hoover. One of Ruth's famous remarks came in answer to someone's observation that he was making more than the President.

“Hell, I had a better year than he did,” Ruth said.



(Added Note:  In 1973, Richard Nixon was being paid the then standard Presidential salary of $200,000 a year, the exact amount Aaron also made that year, but $25,000 less than Allen.)







www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/allendi01.shtml









www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/aaronha01.shtml





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