5-G WAKEFIELD SPLITS BONUS PLAYERS
Phils, Still Undeterred, Shell Out
"On the same day the Philadelphia Phillies endowed a young Texan with $50,000 for signing a baseball contract, there was news of another bonus baby, the most famed of them all. Dick Wakefield's silver spoon has tarnished.
Wakefield commanded the sum of $52,000 and shiny new Cadillacs for himself and his Mom before he consented to sign with the Detroit Tigers back in 1941, when the value of the dollar had an honest ring. However, Owner C.A. Laws of the Oakland Pacific Coast League club has devalued Wakefield sharply.
In 1951, Wakefield will work for a $5,000 salary or he won't work with Oakland, Laws stated. Obviously he was not pleased with the performance of Wakefield last season, after the outfielder was waived out of the majors. He is offering Wakefield a wage that is the legal minimum for a major leaguer.
Thus Wakefield could tell young Ben Tompkins, the Phils' latest bonus baby, to get the dough in while the getting is good. It is nice to be born into the majors with money in the bank, because club owners can become disenchanted with bonus babes. A year ago, General Manager Billy Evans of Detroit declared his team was out of the bonus market.
It is no coincidence that the Phillies are the club which grabbed off young Tompkins despite the price tag. The Phillies are unimpressed by the Detroit's withdrawal from the bonus bidding, and with good reason. They built a pennant winner out of bonus babies last season.
The Phillies have had more luck with the bonus kids than all the other teams combined, perhaps because they go in more for that kind of talent-hunt, perhaps because their scouts are smarter operatives. But no fewer than five of Eddie Sawyer's pennant winning team- Pitchers Curt Simmons, Robin Roberts and Bob Miller, Outfielder Richie Ashburn and Catcher Stan Lopata- were bonus kids.
In the case of Tompkins, though, the Phillies were a brave outfit. They were undeterred by the fact the rugged twenty-year-old University of Texas junior is 1-A in the draft and the next uniform he will wear will be Uncle Sam's. Apparently they are willing to wait for something that resembles world peace, and take their chances.
Tompkins has one distinction, though. He's a shortstop-third baseman, one of the few young infielders to command any kind of a rich bonus figure. Usually, the big league teams are more willing to invest in pitchers.
The Tigers can flourish as much wealth, in fact more, under the responsive noses of the bonus kids than the Phillies, but if they are bonus-shy now it is understandable. Wakefield didn't pan out, and two years ago the Tigers gave a kid catcher named Frank House $75,000 for signing a contract.
They brought House up from the minors last year under the rule a bonus player can be farmed out for only one season, and it was early discerned he wasn't ready to catch in the big leagues. Manager Rolfe griped all season he was handicapped by being compelled to keep House on the roster when he preferred to make room for more helpful talent.
When the Tigers began to develop pennant possibilities last season, Rolfe declared flatly that 'House won't catch an inning as long as we are in the race.' Only when the Tigers dropped out of it, did he see action. It was a wasted year on the Detroit bench for the boy who should have been soaking up some more baseball in the minor leagues. The owners had that case in mind last December when they abrogated the rule limiting bonus kids to only one year in the minor leagues.
Wakefield's flop was a surprising one. The Tigers had come up with a rare piece of talent when they signed the fellow out of the University of Michigan ten years ago, every club that scouted him agreed. Even Clark Griffith was so impressed he telegraphed Wakefield a Washington offer of $45,000 as a bonus for signing.
Wakefield came along at a time when the Boston Red Sox, with their Ted Williams, were the envy of every other team. The facial and physical resemblance of Wakefield and Williams was startling, and the teams tumbled over themselves in the bidding before the Tigers landed the boy. He had speed, power, and everything to make good except the firm resolve to make good.
What happened is that Wakefield messed it up for himself. Whether it was his new and sudden affluence, or simply a built-in, don't'-care approach to the business of playing baseball, he never did capitalize on his natural talent. It took the Tigers nine years to give up on him, however. Because they couldn't kiss off their big investment right away, Wakefield was blessed with a nine-year tryout, one that left the Tigers weary of bonus babes."
-Shirley Povich, condensed from the Washington Post (Baseball Digest, April 1951)
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