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Show CEW would ever have thought, a few years ago, that the time would come when pro golfers would head the pack at the pay-check window. But this strange event has taken place. Byron Nelson finished 1945 beyond the $60,000 mark while Ho-gan, Ho-gan, McSpaden and Snead were somewhere In the neighborhood of $25,000 and $30,000. I doubt there was any $25,000 ball player last season. Hank Greenberg Byron Nelson came back at his old salary around $55,000. but Hank only played half the campaign. DiMag-gio, DiMag-gio, another high-priced high-priced star, didn't get in at all. Such stars as Marty Marion Ma-rion and the Cooper Brothers were in the $13,000 class. I don't know how much Hal Newhous-er Newhous-er and Dizzy Trout pulled in, but I doubt that it was over $25,000, if that much. But there was no ball player who made anything like the amount Byron By-ron Nelson made from competition, and this doesn't include his income from other sources. Few professional football players draw as much as $5,000 a season. Before the new league barged in anything from $250 to $300 a game was good pay for all except such outstanding stars as Sammy Baugh, Sid Luckman and Don Hutson. Players Will Profit It will, of course, be different with the new All-America Conference league shopping in the market. The arrival of the new league will be tough on the bank accounts of club owners In both circuits, but it will be a big financial harvest to the football players for a while, anyway. For example, I know of two or three stars now under contract to the new league who in addition to healthy bonuses are to get $10,000 a year. And Paul Brown, the ex-Ohio State coach now with Cleveland, has a long-time contract at $25,000 a year. But Paul is a coach, not a competitor. There will be no pro football player making one-fourth of what Byron Nelson gets. In the two major baseball leagues the average pay is from $7,000 to $8,000. So far as the stars go there will be a big jump next spring when Greenberg, DiMaggio, Gordon, Dickey, Dick-ey, Wakefield and a few others will get from $20,000 to $55,000. Big league payrolls will be far different in 1946 than they were in 1945 where all attendance records were broken with rather cheap casts. The Big Fight There will be one major exception as far as pay checks go. This takes in Joe Louis and Billy Conn. Louis knocks over 37V4 per cent of something some-thing better than a' million dollar gate, including all the side lines. The Louis share will pass the $500,000 mark but when the keen, eager and alert tax collectors get after him, this amount will drop to less than $50,000. Conn is supposed to get 12V4 per cent of this all-time record gate, but ' he will do better than all right. Conn will at least move up into the $200,-000 $200,-000 bracket. If the returns from motion mo-tion pictures and television reach the figure many think they will, these amounts will be heavily increased. But what good will that do when one collides with an 80 or possibly 90 per cent tax assessment? Louis is supposed to owe the government $117,000 for back taxes, not including includ-ing a substantial amount he also owes Mike Jacobs. Joe will be lucky if he ever gets even again. Conn also owes quite a chunk, and will also be struggling to get even and square with the world. So don't waste too much envy on Louis and Conn. Some Jockeys Get Rich When it comes down to the big money-makers we still have to figure fig-ure in jockeys such as Eddie Ar-caro Ar-caro and Ted Atkinson, to mention only a pair. Both must have passed the $75,000 mark this year. There are others who are beyond the $40,-000 $40,-000 mark with their 10 per cent from big stakes. And what about Arnold Kirkland, the contract rider for the Maine Chance stable with more than $550,000 piled up in purses? They'll tell you the baseball player play-er lasts longest in professional sport but when I think of Ken Strong, Arnold Ar-nold Herber and Mel Hein with their total of 57 years in football or Sammy Sam-my Baugh and Don Hutson and others oth-ers who have been doing well enough after 10 or 12 years, I begin to wonder. Sarazen Lasted 20 Years Pop Anson, Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb, Larry Lajoie and a few old-time old-time stars lasted from 20 to 24 years. But these are the exceptions, i Gene Sarazen has carried on as a winning golfer for over 20 years. Gene is also an exception. There 'nave been few to match Hagen and Sarazen. Maybe Byron Nelson and une or two others will. But in the meanwhile. Nelson, taking down from $50,000 to $60,000 a year, doesn't need all that extra time. |