Sport: Pitching Pays

Thoughtfully shifting his cud of tobacco, John Sain wound up and fired in the first pitch. Big John, a boy from Arkansas, retired the first three Cleveland Indians in order. Whatever hopes the underdog Boston Braves had of winning the first World Series game were pinned on his strong right arm. At $35,000 a year, he was the National League's highest paid player.

Then Bob Feller, carrying no tobacco but more dough (the American League's highest paid player, at $87,000), strode stiff-legged to the mound. At 29, Fireball Bob, like Sain, was pitching his...

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