Word: veeck
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With a baseball Barnum's flair for profitable hokum, Bill Veeck touched a match to Lou Boudreau's old contract, and grinned while the flames consumed it. Then 31-year-old Lou Boudreau signed a new, two-year contract as player-manager of the Cleveland Indians. Neither Boudreau nor the Indians' President Veeck was telling the exact salary, but they encouraged guesses of about $65,000 a year...
...salary was a big boost over Boudreau's 1948 pay of $52,000, and (according to Veeck) "by far the largest straight salary ever offered a player by the club."* But Lou had earned it with his spectacular triple performance-as the American League's best shortstop, its best hitter (.355) after Boston's Ted Williams, and manager of the league and world's champions. President Veeck threw in a handsome admission: "Sure, I tried to trade the guy off [in 1947]. But the fans wouldn't stand for it . . . So Boudreau made...
...biggest income. On a salary-bonus arrangement, Pitcher Bob Feller made $82,000 last year. Feller (who won 19, lost 15 in a disappointing 1948 season) was still dickering with Veeck over his 1949 contract...
...knows yet how he operated so successfully under Boss Bill Veeck, who last year tried to fire Boudreau until the fans stopped him. This season, while Boudreau was busy shaping a winning team, Veeck was filling his ball park (baseball's biggest, with a capacity...
Smart Promoter Veeck livened things up with fireworks, vaudeville acts, strolling minstrels, a playground for kids. This season, Cleveland set a new major-league attendance record: 2,260,627. And as fast as the money rolled in, Veeck peeled it out. His best buy: Satchel Paige, the ancient Negro pitching marvel...