Letters to the Editor
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You're using the wrong standard for inflation
I couldn't find salary information for him, but let's guess that in 1965, Juan Marichal was probably making about $50,000 a year. That might be high, actually. Using the assumption, however, a $1750 fine was thus about 3.5% of his salary. Today, a pitcher like Marichal would probably make about $6 million (he came up in 1960, so 1965 was his sixth season and he'd be subject to arbitration but not yet a free agent, but then again he was Juan Marichal). Thus, in today's baseball dollars, his fine would have been more like $210,000. Which, while not a huge sum if you're making $6 million, is a lot larger than $11,000.

