From 1950 to now, Vin Scully has seen a number of changes

ByDarren Rovell ESPN logo
Sunday, October 2, 2016





Vin Scully's storied career comes to an end this weekend in San Francisco as the Dodgers visit the Giants. He has been in the game since 1950, a year so far removed that it's often hard to put that into perspective. These numbers give us an idea of how much things have changed over Scully's time in the business.



1 cent: Price to obtain a Jackie Robinson Topps card in 1952. That card in the best condition this year sold for $90,000.



25 cents: Cost of a hot dog at Shibe Park, where the Brooklyn Dodgers played the Philadelphia Phillies in Scully's first broadcast on April 18, 1950. That was also the cost of a large Coca-Cola. A popcorn and a megaphone (they came together) also cost a quarter.



$1.75: Price of front row seat down the third-base line at Ebbetts Field in 1950. That's half the price that seat is today ($37), after factoring for inflation. Comparatively, that's a good value.



$430,239: Payroll for Dodgers in year Scully started with team. That's $4.3 million in today's dollars. The current Dodgers payroll this year is more than 60 times that.



Six times: When Scully started with the Dodgers, the average player made ($13,228), about six times what the average American worker made. Compared to today, the average MLB player makes 100 times, $4.4 million, what the average American worker, $44,000, does.



$100,000: When Scully first signed on, the highest-paid player in the league was Joe DiMaggio at $100,000. This year Clayton Kershaw makes $32 million, which, factoring for inflation, is 32 times what DiMaggio made.



$200: What Vin Scully was paid when he got his first big break, the 1953 World Series. Gillette actually owned the radio rights and it was Red Barber who had done play by play for years. But Barber is said to have wanted more than Gillette was paying him. Scully took the job for $200 for the entire series.



$4.2 million: Value of the Dodgers in the fall of 1950, confirmed by the fact that Walter O'Malley had purchased Branch Rickey's 25 percent share of the team that October for a little more than $1 million. Today, the team is worth $2.5 billion, according to Forbes.

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