Caught in the Draft

A list of drafted players who eventually were elected to the Hall of Fame, in chronological order of their draft selection:

• Johnny Bench – Drafted by Reds in June 1965 with second-round pick

• Nolan Ryan – Drafted by the Mets in June 1965 with 12th-round pick

• Reggie Jackson – Drafted by the A’s in June 1966 with first-round pick (No. 2 overall)

• Carlton Fisk – Drafted by the Red Sox in Jan. 1967 with first-round pick (No. 4 overall)

• Ted Simmons – Drafted by the Cardinals in June 1967 with first-round pick (No. 10 overall)

• Bert Blyleven – Drafted by the Twins in June 1969 with third-round pick

• Goose Gossage – Drafted by the White Sox in June 1970 with ninth-round pick

• Jim Rice – Drafted by the Red Sox in June 1971 with first-round pick (No. 15 overall)

• George Brett – Drafted by the Royals in June 1971 with second-round pick (No. 29 overall)

• Mike Schmidt – Drafted by the Phillies in June 1971 with second-round pick (No. 30 overall)

• Dennis Eckersley – Drafted by the Indians in June 1972 with third-round pick (No. 50 overall)

• Gary Carter – Drafted by the Expos in June 1972 with third-round pick (No. 53 overall)

• Robin Yount – Drafted by the Brewers in June 1973 with first-round pick (No. 3 overall)

• Dave Winfield – Drafted by the Padres in June 1973 with first-round pick (No. 4 overall)

• Eddie Murray – Drafted by the Orioles in June 1973 with third-round pick

• Lee Smith – Drafted by the Cubs in June 1975 with second-round pick (No. 28 overall)

• Andre Dawson – Drafted by the Expos in June 1975 with 11th-round pick

• Alan Trammell – Drafted by the Tigers in June 1976 with second-round pick

• Rickey Henderson – Drafted by the A’s in June 1976 with fourth-round pick

• Jack Morris – Drafted by the Tigers in June 1976 with fifth-round pick

• Wade Boggs – Drafted by the Red Sox in June 1976 with seventh-round pick

• Harold Baines – Drafted by the White Sox in June 1977 with first-round pick (No. 1 overall)

• Paul Molitor – Drafted by the Brewers in June 1977 with first-round pick (No. 3 overall)

• Ozzie Smith – Drafted by the Padres in June 1977 with fourth-round pick

• Tim Raines – Drafted by the Expos in June 1977 with fifth-round pick

• Cal Ripken Jr. – Drafted by the Orioles in June 1978 with second-round pick

• Ryne Sandberg – Drafted by the Phillies in June 1978 with 20th-round pick

• Tony Gwynn – Drafted by the Padres in June 1981 with third-round pick

• Kirby Puckett – Drafted by the Twins in Jan. 1982 with first-round pick (No. 3 overall)

• Greg Maddux – Drafted by the Cubs in June 1984 with second-round pick (No. 31 overall)

• Tom Glavine – Drafted by the Braves in June 1984 with second-round pick (No. 47 overall)

• Barry Larkin – Drafted by the Reds in June 1985 with first-round pick (No. 4 overall)

Before the draft was implemented in 1965, the best amateur players annually offered themselves to the highest bidder in a pre-Andy Messersmith/Dave McNally version of free agency.

Of the four major professional sports in North America, baseball was the last to implement an amateur player draft behind football (1936), basketball (1947) and hockey (1963). Prior to the draft, high school and collegiate players could sign with any major league club that offered them a contract.

That free-flowing structure encouraged players to sign with teams that offered them the most money. The wealthiest clubs – most notably the Cardinals, Dodgers, Braves and Yankees – were able to claim the game’s best young talent more often than not.

“Kids wanted to sign with the Yankees, the most glamorous team in baseball at the time,” recalled then-Yankees president and future Hall of Famer Larry MacPhail. “If two or three teams were after them, and one was the Yankees, we generally had the inside track.”

While the Yankees claimed 10 American League pennants and seven World Series titles from 1949-1960, rival teams began offering higher and higher signing bonuses to prospects in order to compete. While several bonus rules were adopted in an attempt to control spending in the 1940s and 1950s, they did little to quell baseball’s rampant arms race.

“We’d pass a bonus rule, and by the time we got out of the room we already figured how to skin the cat,” said then-Detroit Tigers general manager Jim Campbell. “There was no way to really police it.”

The totals garnered by baseball’s “bonus babies” continued to escalate until they came to a breaking point in 1964. That’s when the California Angels offered Rick Reichardt, a talented but unproven outfielder and football star at the University of Wisconsin, a $205,000 signing bonus. While Reichardt was an impressive prospect who drew comparisons to Yankees star Mickey Mantle, his signing bonus equaled the total salary of many of the top major league players.

“Rick Reichardt was the best prospect I ever saw,” said Art Stewart, a longtime big league scout and the current Senior Advisor to the General Manager for the Kansas City Royals. “The bidding war for him during the summer of 1964 got so out of control that the owners created the Draft the next year. That’s how good Rick Reichardt was.”

Though kidney failure and night blindness would ultimately keep Reichardt from perhaps realizing his full potential, his record-high signing bonus helped many major league executives realize that a player draft was needed. In 1964 alone, teams paid more than $7 million to court amateur players – more than they spent on the salaries of major league players.

“We can’t go on like this,” an AL official admitted to the Sporting News. “Most of the clubs are mortgaging their future to meet the present competition.”

League owners ratified a draft proposal drawn up by Commissioner Ford Frick and National League President Warren Giles – two future Hall of Fame executives – at the 1964 Winter Meetings. Though the Yankees and Dodgers voiced their displeasure with the new system, scouts and executives from all 20 teams convened on June 8, 1965 at New York’s Commodore Hotel for the inaugural amateur draft.

“There was tremendous excitement,” former Baltimore Orioles farm director Lou Gorman recalled. “We’d all end up at Toots Shor’s bar or someplace the night before the draft. There would be all kinds of rumors flying around.”

The Kansas City Athletics selected Arizona State outfielder Rick Monday with the first overall pick as part of a first round that lasted just 28 minutes. The A’s $100,000 signing offer was a win for Monday, who had originally been offered a $20,000 bonus by the Dodgers after high school, but it signified an even bigger win for baseball owners. Monday’s bonus was approximately half of what the undrafted Reichardt had received the previous year, and no drafted player would surpass Reichardt’s total until Yankees draftee Todd Demeter in 1979.

Looking back, the draft’s biggest accomplishment may be in the way it has been able to disperse that kind of extraordinary talent across the major leagues. Five decades after baseball’s inaugural draft, every team now has the capability to rebuild itself quickly.

“It’s given teams that have a difficult time competing for free-agent talent a fair share, or even more than a fair share,” said Hall of Fame executive Lee MacPhail in the 1980s. “Close races in all divisions today goes back to the free agent draft. If you didn’t have it, it would be a disaster.”