McCoy to McGillicuddy

Three weeks ago, when Baseball Tsar Kenesaw Mountain Landis freed 91 players from Detroit (TIME, Jan. 29), rival major-league club owners let 90 of these uncaged Tiger cubs amble back to cover, but put out hell-for-leather after the gist: 22-year-old Benny McCoy.

Benny was scarcely three months old in the major leagues, but his batting average (.302) in the 55 games he had played with the Tigers convinced most observers that he was the McCoy himself. Within 24 hours of his freedom, Rookie McCoy had bids from ten major-league clubs. Washington offered him a bonus of $20,000 to become a Senator. The Giants hiked it to $25,000, the Dodgers to $35,000, the Pirates and Reds to $40,000.

Last week, much-sought-after Benny McCoy (who got $15 for his first season in organized baseball and thought his $5,000 last year was big money) proved he could count. He accepted the Philadelphia Athletics' offer: a $45,000 bonus, a two-year contract at $10,000 a year, an assured job at second base under the tutorial eye of old Cornelius McGillicuddy (Connie Mack). His was not only the biggest bonus in baseball history ($20,000 more than the previous top, given Rick Ferrell by the Browns in 1929), but it made Rookie McCoy the highest-paid baseballer of the year. His 1940 income of $55,000 will be more than the salary of Joe Di Maggio, Jimmy Foxx or Hank Greenberg.

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