The St. Louis Cardinals earned a $323,170 bonus for winning the 2011 World Series. In all, players from 10 different teams received postseason bonuses, including four teams that didn’t make the playoffs.
Who receives what is determined by the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Each playoff series has a separate group: the Division Series, the League Championship Series, and the World Series. The bonus fund is funded by 60 percent of the gate receipts for the first three games of the Division Series, the first four games of the League Championship Series and the first four games of the World Series.
During the season, players determine who will get full share, partial share, or no share. Typically, players who have been with the team all year receive full shares. There have been cases where players join the team just before the trade deadline to receive a full share. Athletic trainers, team managers, and clubhouse managers generally receive partial or no participation.
2011 was a good year for Arthur Rhodes. He will get a World Series and League Championship ring. Since he played for both the Texas Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals, he’ll get stock on both teams. It is the seventh time in World Series history that this has happened. Last year, Bengie Molina played for the Rangers and the Giants.
The pool intentionally limits itself to the minimum number of games needed to win the series to discourage any artificial extension of the series by greedy individuals (the 1919 Chicago White Sox).
The gate quantity is determined by the size of the stadium, the number of premium seats, luxury boxes and attendance. Since most stadiums hold the same number of fans and ticket prices are determined by Major League Baseball (MLB), the money in the pool is about the same no matter who plays.
The World Series champion earns 35 percent, the World Series loser earns 24 percent, and the four Division Series losers earn 3 percent. If you were starting to feel sorry for the four runner-up teams, the four second-place teams that don’t qualify for the playoffs get one percent.
The total player pool this year was $57,299,244.23, with the Cardinals taking $20,627,727.92 and Texas taking $13,751,818.61.
Here’s the breakdown of the other teams:
Championship Series runners-up
• Tigres – Total: $6,875,909.30, Total amount of individual shares: $126,901.50
• Brewers – Total: $6,875,909.30, Full Participation: $133,511.33
Division Series runners-up
• D-backs – Total: $1,718,977.33, Full Share: $26,674.74
• Yankees – Total: $1,718,977.33, Full Share: $26,238.86
• Phillies – Total: $1,718,977.33, Full Share: $30,400.62
• Rays – Total: 1,718,977.33, Full participation: $30,758.08
Second Place Finishers (Non-Wild Card Winners)
• Braves – Total: $572,992.44, Full Share: $11,088.51
• Indians – Total: $572,992.44, Full Participation: 10,366.06
• Angels – Total: $572,992.44, Full Share: $10,862.42
• Giants – Total: $572,992.44, Total Participation: $10,689.58
Angels, Braves, Indians, and Giants players are rewarded for NOT making the playoffs.
A full World Series start for the 2010 champion San Francisco Giants was worth $317,631.29. The number is less than the $365,000 that members of the New York Yankees earned in 2009.
The winners of the first World Series actually got smaller shares than the losers. The 1903 Boston Pilgrims earned $1,182 per man for defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates, whose losing share was $1,361.25. The reason was that the Pittsburgh players were given the gate share to the owners.
I don’t know if it was ever proven to be true; that during the 1913 World Series the players of the Philadelphia Athletics were told to lose Game 5 of the 1913 Series to the New York Giants. The A’s were leading three games to one, and the team had already sold out Game 6 tickets. So if they insured in five, they would have to pay the money back. Since the player pool only splits the receipts for the first four games, only the owners will get the receipts for the sixth game. Athletics owner Connie Mack told her team that if they won game five, she would give them game receipts. As it turned out, Philadelphia won game five, so we’ll never know if the rumors were true. Each A’s player earned $3,246.36.
The Cincinnati Reds won the infamous 1919 World Series by beating the Chicago White Sox, who conspired to fix the Series. Ironically, the Reds’ winning share ($5,207.08) was more than what the eight Black Sox players were offered to fix the series.
The 1918 Red Sox’s series-winning stock of $1,102.51 is the lowest in baseball history.
In 1923, the first World Series to raise more than $1,000,000 was the first to be played at Yankee Stadium. The New York Yankees winning share was $6,143.49 per man.
In 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, the New York Giants grossed $4,256.72 each. This was $1,886.77 less than what the ’23 Yankees made. Even in 1943, with World War II raging, the Yankees made $6,139.46 for beating the Cardinals. Twenty years later, they were still earning slightly less than the 1923 Yankees.
The 1954 New York Giants were the first team in baseball history to earn more than $10,000 for winning the World Series. They defeated the Cleveland Indians and earned $11,147.90 per man.
On top of all that, players also get a championship ring valued between $20,000 and $40,000 depending on how generous the team owner is. The Yankees’ 2000 World Series ring weighs over an ounce, has 22 diamonds and 34.5 grams of gold.
Shockingly, the most expensive ring to date went to the 2003 World Series champion Florida Marlins. After essentially buying out their title during the previous offseason, the team continued their extravagant ways after team owner, Jeff Luria, will design the ring himself. It’s huge, with enough space to place each player’s name, number, and position in his ring. It also featured the team’s season record, the results of all three postseason series, and an image of the World Series trophy on the side. It was made of 14 karat gold inlaid with 16 karats, 13 rubies, 229 diamonds and the Marlin logo eye was a rare teal diamond.
No matter how you look at it, Major League Baseball players have a good business.