Dick Wakefield - The First "bonus Baby"

The First "bonus Baby"

In the summer of 1941, Wakefield was a hot prospect who was invited for tryouts with Brooklyn, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Detroit. Wakefield later recalled that his "criterion" in choosing the right team was "the highest offer." A photograph of a smiling Wakefield holding multiple "big league offers" is available from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Legendary Tigers scout, Wish Egan, persuaded Detroit owner, Walter O. Briggs, Sr. to give Wakefield an unprecedented $52,000 signing ($821,647 today) bonus and a car. (Donald Honig, "Baseball Between the Lines" p. 81.)

Wakefield was the first of the "Bonus Babies," and his bonus was "more than the aggregate amount that the entire starting lineup for many major league teams earned in a season." (Nemec and Zeman, "The Baseball Rookies Encyclopedia" p. 179.) From the beginning, Wakefield felt that he was treated unfairly by sportswriters, many of whom he recalled made only $8,000 a year. "Most of the resentment came from the newspapers. Fifty-two thousand was a sockful of money in 1941 and the papers made a big deal of it. They were writing about me every day." (Donald Honig, "Baseball Between the Lines" pp. 80–81.)

Wakefield brought some of the negative publicity on himself, as he developed a reputation for flaunting his money and not working as hard as other players. After receiving his bonus, he walked into a car dealership and bought a new Lincoln Zephyr even though he did not know how to drive. (Donald Honig, "Baseball Between the Lines" p. 81.) When he was threatened with a $25 ($395 today) fine for walking with his spikes in the locker room, he "peeled off the money for the fine while still walking." (Patrick Harrigan, "The Detroit Tigers: Club and Community 1945-1955" (Wayne State Univ. Press 1997), p. 52.)

A 20-year-old Wakefield signed with the Tigers in June 1941 and played in his first major league game that same month, on June 26, 1941. Wakefield went 1-for-7 in a brief stint in the big leagues. He spent the 1942 season playing with the Beaumont Exporters, where he was named Most Valuable Player of the Texas League.