On this day, Healdsburg Tribune, 3 March 1927:
Quite a number of legislators were absent from session this morning, having gone to Vallejo to witness the raising of the main Carquinez bridge span, at the invitation of Assemblyman Robert B. McPherson of Vallejo and Senator Will R. Sharkey of Martinez.
SPORTS Babe’s Contract Prosperity Evidence
By HENRY L. FARRELL (United Press Staff Correspondent)
NEW YORK, March 3. — Babe Ruth, who earned $3000 a year when he joined the Boston Red Sox, will sign a contract tomorrow that will make him probably the highest salaried man in baseball.
In the brewery of Colonel Jake Ruppert, owner of the New York Yankees the home run hitter will sign up for three years at $70,000 a year. The president of the United States gets $75,000, but Ruth’s movie earnings would put him well above that figure. Ruth said he got $75,000 for his movie work this winter.
Ruth’s new salary was fixed at a conference with Ruppert yesterday. It was a compromise on his demand for a two-year contract at $100,000 a year.
Combined with the recent salary advances given Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Rogers Hornsby, Judge Landis and others, Ruth’s contract was further concrete evidence that baseball magnates see nothing but prosperity ahead of the game and are convinced that the recent scandals did no harm.
It also was evidenced that the shrewd Yankee management is banking on Babe Ruth continuing at the zenith of his remarkable career for at least three years.
Ed Barrow, business manager of the Yankees and formerly with the Boston Red Sox, in giving a thumbnail sketch of Ruth’s rise to affluence, said: “When I first had the Babe he was betting $3000 a year, then he was jumped to $4000, then to $6000, then to $10,000, then to $25,000, then to $52,000, and now he’s up to $70,000 for three years.”
John McGraw, as manager of the New York Giants, draws a salary of $35,000 a year, but he has stock in the club that means as much more to him; Commissioner Landis gets $65,000 a year for running organized baseball; Rogers Honrsby draws $40,000 with the Giants; Ty Cobb is reputed to be getting $75,000 for playing one year with the athletics, but the figure probably is exaggerated and Tris Speaker’s $50,000 a year from the Washington Senators is also subject to doubt.
After announcing that he had agreed to give the Babe $210,000 on a three-year contract, Ruppert said he figured that his star slugger had five years more of good baseball in him.
“What will he be worth at the end of three years?” the colonel was asked.
“We’ll have to wait for that,” Ruppert answered, and then added, “Babe has turned into a good business man.”
After the formalities of the contract signing are held Friday morning, the Babe will prepare to leave Saturday night for the St. Petersburg training camp.