Baseball now hands out $300 million contracts to players who might change a franchise. In 1945, the Brooklyn Dodgers offered Jackie Robinson a $3,500 signing bonus to help change the entire sport.
That same year, Brooklyn outfielder Dixie Walker earned $20,000. Two years later, Walker would help organize a petition to keep Robinson off the Dodgers. Baseball, it turns out, had no trouble rewarding established talent. Recognizing Black talent was another matter entirely.
On October 23, 1945, Robinson signed with the Montreal Royals, Brooklyn’s top minor-league affiliate. His deal included a $600 monthly salary for the 1946 season.
The $3,500 was a signing bonus, not an annual salary, so it doesn’t directly compare to Walker’s paycheck. But the larger financial picture is that when Robinson finally reached Brooklyn in 1947, his first major-league contract paid $5,000.
For that sum, the Dodgers were getting an exceptional athlete, a future Hall of Famer and a Black man expected to endure the full weight of baseball’s institutionalized racism without fighting back.
Apparently, hazard pay wasn’t part of the negotiations.
Related: Nick Saban Has a Point About College Football’s $345 Million Playoff Expansion
One Dodgers Star Had a Different Idea About Integration
Robinson wasn’t some undiscovered prospect. He had been a four-sport athlete at UCLA, served as an Army officer, and played for the Negro Leagues’ Kansas City Monarchs.
Dodgers executive Branch Rickey recognized Robinson’s talent but also understood the resistance Robinson would face in the Major Leagues. During their first meeting, Rickey famously acted out racist confrontations, testing whether Robinson could withstand abuse without retaliating.
Imagine interviewing for a job and discovering that part of the description involves absorbing America’s worst behavior while being told you can’t clap back.
And some of the people rooting against you would be your own coworkers.
During spring training in 1947, Walker helped lead a group of Dodgers players who circulated a petition opposing Robinson’s addition to the team. According to the Jackie Robinson Museum, the opposition also included Hugh Casey, Bobby Bragan, and Carl Furillo.
Walker wasn’t some anonymous benchwarmer, either. He was one of Brooklyn’s most popular players, nicknamed “The People’s Choice,” and had won the National League batting title in 1944.
The $20,000 salary listed in Baseball Almanac’s historical records was his 1945 compensation, not necessarily what he earned when the petition circulated two years later. Still, the contrast between his established place in Brooklyn and Robinson’s uncertain welcome is difficult to ignore.
The petition ultimately went nowhere. Dodgers manager Leo Durocher backed Robinson’s right to compete for a roster spot, while Rickey made clear that players unwilling to accept him could be traded.
Walker subsequently asked Rickey for a trade rather than continue playing alongside Robinson.
Related: Shohei Ohtani Has a $700 Million Contract, But It’s Not Where He Makes Most of His Money
Jackie Robinson Had the Last Word on the Field
While Brooklyn’s clubhouse debated whether a Black player belonged, Robinson made his case with his bat.
He hit .349 for Montreal in 1946, stole 40 bases and won the International League batting title. During exhibition games against Brooklyn the following spring, Robinson continued demonstrating that he could compete with major-league talent.
Apparently, the objection wasn’t his batting average.
On April 15, 1947, Robinson made his major-league debut at Ebbets Field at age 28, breaking the color barrier in the modern major leagues.
He won Rookie of the Year that season, earned the National League MVP in 1949, and helped the Dodgers win their first World Series championship in 1955. He finished his career with a .313 batting average and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.
In 1997, MLB retired his No. 42 league-wide.
Robinson’s salary eventually caught up with his accomplishments. After winning the 1949 MVP award, his pay increased from $17,000 to $35,000 for the 1950 season, according to the Los Angeles Times.
But money was only one measure of a much larger contradiction.
Generations of Black players had already demonstrated their greatness in the Negro Leagues. Robinson didn’t suddenly make Black athletes worthy of the major leagues. His arrival exposed how long the sport had refused to acknowledge their worth.
Perhaps nothing illustrates that contradiction more than the circumstances surrounding his arrival in Brooklyn: An established star could earn $20,000, help organize a petition against a future Hall of Famer, and still be treated as a clubhouse favorite.
Robinson, meanwhile, had to prove he belonged before anyone would even let him in.
