You love the Boston Red Sox, go to all the games you can and catch the others on television whenever you can. In your quest for knowledge about the Boston Red Sox, did you ever wonder about the weekly salary of the Boston Red Sox?
When the Boston Red Sox got their start in 1912, they played Fenway Park and continue to do so to the present day. There is no data available for the players' 1912 weekly salaries but in 1913 they averaged $67.00 a week with the exception of the player, Tris Speaker that averaged $302.00 per week according to the MLB Baseball Almanac.
Fast forward to the great stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression of the 1930's and into World War II the mid-1940's average weekly salaries of the Boston Red Sox propelled towards $960.00 per week for players like Ted Williams and the other team members averaged around $300.00 to $400.00 per week.
The 1950's really heralded in the golden age of baseball with most notably Ted Williams salary boosting to $2403.00 per week in the 1950 season and by the end of the 1950's the Boston Red Sox Weekly Salaries were still among one of the best paid teams in the league with their star players making around $2500 per week and other players making around the $500.00 per week range.
In the 1960's the salaries started to go up for the most well-known and promoted players while the "regular" weekly salary of the average Boston Red Sox player remained woefully lower in comparison to their star players.
In the present, it's not uncommon for professional athletes to command salaries in the millions upon signing with a team. The Boston Red Sox weekly salaries of today far surpass the humble beginnings of the original players around the turn of last century. Some of the highlights for the 2007 Boston Red Sox (that's the most current salary information available) is Manny Ramirez comes in as the highest paid player with a weekly salary topping around $327,000. The entertainingly named Coco Crisp is around $73,000 per week. As of the 2007 report, the lowest paid Boston Red Sox team member was Dustin Pedroia at $7300.00 per week. The
total 2007 team salary was $143,523,714.00.
The 2008 opening day totals are below.
Total Payroll: $133,440,037 (4th)
Average Salary: $4,765,716
Manny Ramirez $18,929,923
J.D. Drew 14,000,000
David Ortiz 13,000,000
Mike Lowell 12,500,000
Jason Varitek 10,442,031
Josh Beckett 10,166,667
Julio Lugo 9,250,000
Daisuke Matsuzaka 8,333,333
Curt Schilling 8,000,000
Coco Crisp 5,083,333
Tim Wakefield 4,000,000
Julian Tavarez 3,850,000
Mike Timlin 3,000,000
Kevin Youkilis 3,000,000
Alex Cora 2,000,000
Hideki Okajima 1,275,000
Javier Lopez 840,000
Kyle Snyder 835,000
Sean Casey 800,000
Jonathan Papelbon 775,000
Dustin Pedroia 457,000
Kevin Cash 450,000
Jon Lester 421,500
Manny Delcarmen 421,000
Jacoby Ellsbury 406,000
Bryan Corey 405,000
David Aardsma 403,250
Clay Buchholz 396,000
And that's a brief overview of how the salaries for Boston's favorite team has grown from its early start and continues to fill stadiums to this day.
