Baseball Mavericks

If they were so good, why weren’t the Silk Sox players in the major leagues?

The answer? It’s complicated.

Some were good enough and did play major league ball. Others believed it wasn’t worth the sacrifice. Remember, this was a long time before Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge and their money-printing contracts.

Here’s an example why Silk Sox star players stayed home –

A 1920 Variety magazine article reported Silk Sox pitcher Jimmy Clinton was earning $16,000 a year playing semipro baseball and basketball, and from his job at a New York City insurance company (highlighted by Scott Simkus in Outsider Baseball). By comparison, Hall of Famer Walter Johnson – the best pitcher in organized baseball at the time – was taking in only $9,500 from the Washington Senators (as noted in a SABR article by Jacob Pomrenke).

While Johnson traveled the country, sleeping on trains and hotels many a night, Clinton snoozed in his own bed and remained with his family.

Otto Rettig

For many multi-earning semipro stars – like Silk Sox slugger Howard Lohr, a railroad accountant, and Doherty pitcher Otto Rettig, a Bureau of Internal Revenue employee – staying home and earning their day job salary – along with what Harry Doherty (the George Steinbrenner semipro owner of his day) paid them – was a hell of a lot easier than traveling to distant cities.

And more profitable to boot.

Check back often for more about this wild chapter in baseball history, told through the story of the Doherty Silk Sox