I’m old enough to remember when major league players DID have to get second jobs in the offseason. Perhaps most famously for the Pirates, Richie Hebner dug graves in Massachusetts, IIRC. In the winter.

Bouton writes extensively in “Ball Four” about his haggles with the Yankees over a couple thousand dollars, trying, like, to get a raise from $17,000 to $24,000 after he won 20 games, and how they fought him like hell for it.

Then there’s this, from the Bill James Historical Abstract:

“Don Drysdale was paid a reported $35,000 in 1962, when he went 25-9 and pitched 314 inings. In court proceedings, resulting from an appeal on a tax evaluation of Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers reported a profit for the season of $4,347,177.

“In 1965, Drysdale went 23-12 and doubled as one of the team’s top pinch hitters, hitting .300 with seven home runs. His teammate Sandy Koufax went 26-8, striking out 382 batters, forming one of the greatest pitching one-two punches in baseball history.

“The next spring the two men engaged in a joint holdout … The pitchers were asking for a three-year, $1.05 million contract to be divided between the two of them, making $175,000 per pitcher per season. Koufax eventually settled for $125,000, Drysdale for $110,000.”

Not exactly second-job wages, especially in the 1960s, but still, the Dodgers, who were raking in money in Chavez Ravine stuck it to maybe the greatest lefty in history for $50,000.

And that’s why Marvin MIller belongs in the Hall of Fame.