Mar. 9, 1964 - General manager Ralph Houk of the Yankees revealed a side today quite foreign to his usual smiling, affable self. The Major, on occasion, can get tough. And he got real tough as he made it clear that his patience had about run out with regard to his holdout pitcher, Jim Bouton. Houk said that he had served Bouton with an ultimatum which, if Bouton persisted in ignoring, could cost the young 21-game winner of last season $3,000 by opening day.
“I talked to Bouton at his home in Ridgewood, N.J.,” said Houk. “I told him my last offer was absolutely as high as I would go. And when he turned me down again, I told him I was giving him until this Wednesday to accept. If he fails to come to terms by then, I told him I would reduce that offer $100 for each day he remains absent and unsigned. Since the training season has a month to go after Wednesday, this would cost him $3,000 by opening day.”
Houk said the club’s offer to Bouton represented an 80% increase over his 1963 salary. Bouton, said Houk, is demanding a 100% raise. Although Houk declined to disclose the actual figures, it is understood Bouton received $11,000 last year and wants this doubled. The club’s top offer is believed to be $18,000.
“Our difference isn’t much,” Houk continued, “and I’m surprised he’s taken such a stand. As I frequently said, we certainly appreciate all he did for us last year. However, he never had had much of a year before that. He is still young and, as I tried to explain to him, it simply wouldn’t be fair to the other players were I to give in to his demand.
The Associated Press reported Bouton as having said: “I’ll probably have to give in, but I’m going to check thoroughly to see if I have any recourse. I think this is grossly unfair. I probably won’t decide before the deadline.”
Serious holdouts and fines have been rare in Yankee history. Joe DiMaggio, now in Fort Lauderdale as a special batting and fielding coach, was one.
“I was always a bit of a holdout in my early days,” said the Yankee Clipper today. “The general manager then was Ed Barrow, and he was a tough one.”
In 1938, Joe held out for about 10 days after the start of the season and, as he recalls it, “Barrow docked me two weeks’ pay. It could have cost me more because Barrow insisted he wouldn’t start the salary until I was in shape to play. Well, I got in shape in three days. But it cost me $1,500, which just took a cool thousand away from the $2,500 raise he gave me for hitting 46 home runs in 1937.”
DiMaggio’s salary for 1938 was $25,000. Four years later, he had another stiff salary joust with Barrow.
“Actually, it wasn’t until Dan Topping took over that I finally hit the big money,” said DiMaggio. “But that was only for my last four years. Topping’s first raise was $32,000 for a salary of $75,000. Then came the three years at $100,000.”
